Dar es Salaam. In an effort to mitigate, adapt to, and build resilience to the effects of climate change in the country, the government has devised various strategies, including increasing the use of technology and conducting environmental and social impact assessments of the phenomenon.
These strategies are the implementation of the Climate Change Resilience Plan and the National Environmental Strategy in agriculture, which have been implemented in various parts of the country in line with the Climate Change Resilient Agriculture Guidelines prepared by the government in collaboration with stakeholders from 2014 to 2017.
The Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, told Parliament yesterday when reading the Ministry’s Budget Estimates, Revenue and Expenditure for the 2024/25 financial year, adding that the situation has contributed to improved food production in the country.
“To enhance agricultural resilience to climate change challenges, the Ministry planned to revive the Climate Change Resilience Plan in the Agriculture Sector and implement the National Environmental Strategy where various areas have been implemented,” Bashe said.
He also said that an environmental and social impact assessment was conducted on the resilient food systems project and the large-scale collective farms of Jenga Kesho Bora (BBT) and the Bihawana Farmer Training Center.
“The farms that were assessed include Ikang’asi, Mapogoro, Ndogowe, Chinangali and the Bihawana Center, where four (4) environmental and social impact assessment certificates for these farms have been obtained,” he said.
He also said that the ministry is implementing Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) in 23 irrigation schemes to enable environmental conservation.
Bashe also said that they provided education on climate-smart agriculture, markets, environmental management and irrigation infrastructure to 57 young people in the Jenga Kesho Bora (BBT) program.
He also said that a monitoring exercise was carried out on the integration of environmental and climate-smart agriculture issues into the budgets and plans of the Itigi, Iramba, Manyoni and Ikungi District Councils, where it was found that these issues were being considered.
He said that through the resilient food systems project, the Ministry established environmental and social management desks at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), the Agricultural Seeds Agency (ASA) and the Seed Quality Control Institute (TOSCI) as well as a grievance redress mechanism from the community level to the Ministry.
He said the ministry is preparing an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and an Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP) for the project to enable access to agricultural inputs in Tanzania to ensure that the project is implemented with due consideration for environmental conservation.
He said that through the project, the ministry has provided training on environmental management to environmental and agricultural officers in the 56 districts implementing the project, while through the National Irrigation Commission, the ministry has completed an environmental and social impact assessment on 29 projects for the purpose of starting construction of irrigation schemes and dams.