PM MAJALIWA GRACES THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE IN IRINGA

The Iringa Regional Commissioner Amina Masenza ( in red veil) listens to the Acting Director Forensic Science and Human DNA Services David Elias when she visited the pavilion of Government Chemist Laboratory Authority (GCLA) yesterday in Iringa during the international day against drug abuse exhibition. (Photo by Friday Simbaya)

Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Iringa Amina Masenza (watatu kushoto) akipata maelezo kutoka kwa Ofisa wa mamlaka ya khdhibiti na kupambana na dawa za kulevya (DCCEA) alipotembelea banda la Maonesho jana wakati wa uzinduzi wa maadhimisho ya Sikh ya kupambana na dawa za kulevya duniani yatayofanyika Kitaifa mkoani hapa. (Picha na Friday Simbaya).

THE Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa is expected to be the guest of honour during the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking falls on June 26 each year. 

The day is set to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society. This day is supported by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world. 

Speaking yesterday during inauguration of International Day Against Drug Abuse celebrations which will be held at national level in Iringa, Iringa Regional Commissioner Amina Masenza said the community should come together and fight against the drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking. 

She said that the war against drug abuse and illicit trafficking should be a collective responsibility and appealed to parents and guardians to be responsible about the parental care. 

RC Masenza said parents should make sure they give parental care to their children by providing necessary needs to them and make they were growing up with good parental care. 

“The parents and guardians should be responsible of their children grownups and make sure they teach them good moral,” she said. 

She also praised the sober houses that are centers for restoring people affected by illicit drugs by offering treatment to people with excessive drugs and alcohol and providing vocational training and general education. 

She appealed to religious leaders and teachers to come together identify their worshippers and students who are using illicit drugs respectively. 

However, RC Masenza has also appealed the police not arrest people found sleeping in the streets due to drug abuse but instead they should take them to the hospitals of sober houses because by putting those in the police customs will only overpopulate police cells. 

Adding that sober living homes are group homes for people who are recovering from addiction issues by trying to stop them from drinking or using drugs. 

Tanzania's Drugs Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) Commissioner General Rodgers Sianga said the situation in Tanzania is still not good and people have to join forces if the war against drugs has to be won. 

He said fighting drugs was proving hard because very influential people were behind the drugs syndicate. 

Sianga said drug traffickers were now investing in clandestine industries to produce new psychotropic substances as an alternative means to the missing cocaine and heroin in the market. 

The long-serving police officer Rogers William Sianga said the government is now giving a free methadone pills to everyone with drug addictions. 

He said methadone pills are used to prevent withdrawal symptoms in patients who were addicted to opiate drugs and are enrolled in treatment programs in order to stop taking or continue not taking the drugs. 

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is celebrated each year on June 26th, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime uses the commemorative day to highlight the dangers of drug use and their illegal trade and provides educational material to teachers and public officials all over the world. 

The day is also used to spread the message about the extreme cultural and economic harm the trade in drugs is still doing across the globe one hundred years after the war on drugs was initially launched in Shanghai around the start of the 20th Century. By Friday Simbaya, Iringa

ONE ACRE FUND SMALLHOLDER FARMERS UPS MAIZE PRODUCTION IN IRINGA

Small holder farmers at Muwindi Village in Lumuli Ward of Iringa District in Iringa region has hailed the One Acre Fund for farmers in cultivating maize which made farmers in the village to increase production. 

They said that the coming one acre fund initiative most of the smallholder farmers in the village have increased their harvest, as they were producing fewer bags of maize as per acre. 

The farmers made the revelation yesterday during the harvesting day celebrations held at Muwindi Village in iringa district, iringa organized by one acre fund and the same event One Acre Fund signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iringa District Council. 

This agreement between two parties expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. 

Plasidia Zavery Utenga is a smallholder farmer at Muwindi Village confessed that since she started receiving support from one acre fund she has improved her farming practice from traditional to modern. 

She said that since she started farming with One acre Fund four years ago things has changed, whereby she used have fewer harvest one acre farm but the support from program has increased harvest. 

Utenga said that she used to harvest three to eight bags of maize but now she is able harvest 17 to 20 bags of maize from one acre, adding the production has increased by acreage. 

She said that One Acre Fund support smallholder famers with farming implements including inputs and seeds and are made to pay after the harvest. 

She testified that the program has held her taking her children to secondary school and living in decent modern house powered by solar energy. 

However, Lumuli Ward Council, Charles Lutego said most of the smallholder farmers face the challenge of reliable ready market and urged the government to support farmers in terms of markets. 

He said that One Acre Fund has improved farming practice in the area by providing farming implements and extension services in collaboration with the government but main challenge is the market. 

Lutego said a lot of famers were failing to grow maize at large scale due to lack of market and asking the government and other stakeholders to link then with markets. 

Sector Coordination, Economic and Productive sectors in President’s office, Regional Administration and local, Leo Mavika has assured farmers of the market in Comoro. 

He said that government through TANTRADE is working tirelessly to make sure things were going smoothly including linking famers to the markets. 

Mavika urged farmers to be time conscious by making sure that they plant on time and make put records of all farming activities during farming season. 

He said that it important to keep records of all farming activities so the they measure what has was produced and what cost of production was so they should know the loss and profit for previous farming season. 

Jennifer Lindgren, Tanzania Country Director at One Acre Fund said One Acre Fund started working in Tanzania 2012. We currently support farmers cultivating maize over one long growing season per year in Iringa and Mbeya regions. 

According to the Government Relations Specialist One Acre Fund | Tanzania, Michael Machera, One Acre Fund supplies smallholder farmers with the tools and financing they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty. We only serve farmers and we always put Farmers First. 

He said that One Acre Fund is a non-governmental organization that works with smallholders in Eastern Africa. In Tanzania began in 2012 in two wards of the Iringa Council, Kalenga and Magulilwa for serving more than 1,500 farmers. 

Machera noted that the organization expanded its scope and served 9,000 farmers for two district councils Iringa and Kilolo. 

The organization currently works with 39,000 farmers in four regions of Iringa, Mbeya, Songwe and Njombe. 

The organization also offers modern agricultural training and educates farmers how best to store their crops and sell them on time and market grows. 

He said that it also provides maize storage bags without placing drugs and for this season, 2017/2018, the One Acre Fund issued a total of 1,061 tons of planting fertilizer including DAP and CAN, and 106 tones seeds worth Tshs. 2,775,346,346 for the 9,259 farmers of 18 wards. 

Iringa District, namely, Ifunda, Luhota, Lyamgungwe, Magulilwa, Mgama, Mseke, Ifunda, Kalenga, Kaning’ombe, Kihanga, Kiwere, Lumuli, Maboga, Mseke, Nzihi, Ulanda, Wande and Wasa. The organization is currently in the farming exercise for next season, 2018/2019. By Friday Simbaya, Iringa