14
3.2.2.
Agricultural inputs, assets, facilities and infrastructures
Seeds and other agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticide and tools are key assets for
small scale self-sufficient farmers. The effects of the heavy rain occurred in the assessed
regions led to the loss of stored crop seeds ranging between 25 percent in Shinyanga to 88
percent in Dodoma with an average of 57 percent among all regions visited.
Up to 50 percent of the fertilizer (mainly animal manure) was lost in Dodoma region,
whereas the other regions experienced losses by 35 percent with exception of Mara where no
losses were reported.
Tools losses range from 2 percent in Mara up to 44 percent in Morogoro region, with an
overall losses average of 12 percent. These losses of assets have led to the failure of crop
production and the impossibility of resuming farmers’ activities, which will have an
implication on the livelihood of the population affected.
In addition, but to a much smaller extent, some farm machineries and equipment, as well as
farm storage facilities were also reported lost or damaged with higher rates in Dodoma and
Arusha regions and almost none in the remaining regions – as less households owned such
type of assets.
Figure 7: Main agricultural inputs, assets and facilities destroyed or damaged
Access to irrigation is very limited among all assessed communities. Despite this, in
Shinyanga, Arusha and Mwanza regions, access to traditional gravity irrigation schemes were
reported by 55 percent, 33 percent and 1 percent of the population respectively. Most of the
irrigation schemes were reported to be damaged by the floods (channels blocked due to
deposition of mud and silk, collapse of channels’ edges and pipe broken or blocked). This
will require some reparation, including substitution of parts, together with additional
maintenance.
Last but not least, also damages to roads connecting to markets and rural communities, as
well as railways and bridges were also observed during the fieldwork mission, especially in
the more remote areas across all regions visited.
15
3.2.3.
Livestock, fishery and aquaculture
In general, animals are considered to be important productive assets across all six regions
assessed. Bigger livestock such as cattle are used as draught animals, especially for land
preparation and transport of food commodities. Furthermore, they are also considered
important source of savings together with goat, sheep and pigs, since they can be sold at any
time when cash is needed; whereas, chicken are mainly used for production of eggs and meat.
Animal products (milk, eggs, wool, skins and meat) are also an important source of food or
income.
Almost all the households in the visited regions own some animals. Therefore it is not
surprising that livestock and their products are the second source of income for 60% of them.
Whereas, for 10 percent and 30 percent of the households, animals constitute the first and
third source of income respectively.
The results of the FGDs and field observation indicates that the occurred floods caused the
death of different animals across all regions assessed, especially poultry, as indicated in
Table
7
. In Dodoma region, households have the lowest rate of ruminants compared to most of the
other regions but they have the highest rate of chicken; whereas, in Arusha, Mara and
Shinyanga they have the lowest rate of poultry. Pigs were mainly reported in Dodoma and
Shinyanga, while they are almost absent in the other regions.
Table 7: Overall frequency of animal holding, rate lost and sick
Type of
animals
Household
with animals
(%)
Animals
lost (%)
Animals
sick (%)
Chicken
35.1
35.3
0.7
Ducks
11.5
14.7
0.0
Goat
19.0
5.0
2.7
Pigs
5.9
2.7
0.0
Sheep
12.1
1.7
0.5
Cattle
34.5
0.1
0.2
The highest rate of animals lost was recorded for chicken ranging from 74 percent in Dodoma
to 17 percent in Mara and around 23 percent in Arusha and Mwanza. The second highest loss
was reported in Dodoma and Arusha for ducks, followed by goats and to an almost negligible
extent for pigs in Dodoma. Sheep losses were mentioned in Dodoma and Mwanza. Cattle
losses were reported on a negligible amount in Arusha and Mwanza (see Annex c, Table 16).
Higher losses attributed to smaller animals are due to the fact that bigger livestock were
moved to safe areas in time.
The actual percentages of sick animals directly linked to the floods are quite low, but this
could still increase together with disease outbreak. In fact, some areas are still flooded and
the prevalence of water borne diseases (endo-parasites) might escalate as well since the
stagnant water is the breeding ground for the vectors (insects) of other animal diseases.