World Bank programme assists Hanang
By Arusha Times Correspondent
Livestock keepers in Hanang district, Manyara region will benefit from the
second phase of the World Bank-supported Participatory Agricultural Development
and Empowerment Programme which has just taken off.
The District Agricultural and Livestock Development Officer Dr. Isaac Khama has
said water dams will be constructed in the villages in the drought-prone
district under PADEP phase two.
Implementation of various projects will cost over Sh. 700 million and will cover
a total of 25 villages. The district has 61 registered villages, five of which
benefitted from PADEP first phase where some Sh. 560 million was spent.
Dr. Khama said in an interview in Arusha that 16 of the villages, out of 25
earmarked, have already submittedtheir write-ups to the programme's headquarters
in Dar es Salaam for appraisal.
Under PADEP's phase two, water dams will be rehabilitated in ten villages while
six others willhave crop marketing, soilconservation and irrigation projects
launched, two for each villages.
An estimated Sh. 35 million will be spent in each village for implementation of
the water and other development projects whose main stake is community
involvement.
PADEP is a World Bank- supported programme, which is being implemented in 28
districts in the Mainland, including Hanang after a successfulpilot phase
carried out in Hai and Morogoro districts in Kilimanjaro and Morogoro regions
respectively.
Dr. Khama saidHanang qualified for the second phase, which extends up to
2007,after a successful implementation of projects during the first phase (2003
- 2005) focusing mainly on crop farming and marketing.
The second phase will mainly benefit livestock keepers through the construction
of water dams to overcome the pressing need of water for domestic supply and
large herds of livestock and train people on oxen farming.
Hanang district has one of the largest concentration of livestock in the
country. With 388,000 herd of cattle, 157,000 goats and sheep and 9,000
donkeys,domestic animal population is nearly three times the human population.
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