New science building ushers IITA’s agricultural research-for-development into the 21st century; Researchers, development workers, and policymakers discuss new initiatives to “grow” Africa

More than ever, the world relies on technology for everyday activities in the work place. Technology brings us a host of efficiencies – saving us time, resources, and providing real-time response capabilities. Within the realm of global health, programs in the field are finding ways to use new technology for monitoring and evaluation, rapid exchanges of critical data and information, and general logistical purposes. Such efficiencies can equate to lives saved and reduced morbidity, drastically increasing the impact programs have on populations in need.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:13 PM

Author: Kizito Makoye

SINGIDA, Tanzania (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In the remote village of Misigiri, every farmer has a story to tell about the worsening drought that has pushed them to the edge of disaster this season.

Read the full article on AlertNet.

Maize is the main staple crop in Tanzania. Rice and beans are also very important, the latter constituting the main source of protein for most low- and middle-income households. Dar es Salaam is the main consumer market in the country. Arusha is another important market and is linked with Kenya in the north. Dodoma represents the central region of the country, a semi-arid, deficit area. Mtwara sits in a south coastal deficit area while Songea and Mbeya represent the southern highlands. Tanga is also a coastal town in the north, with trade connections with Kenya.

Programs designed to enhance smallholder productivity must go beyond a focus on technical agricultural issues to address the underlying gender-related norms, priorities and constraints that may prevent women farmers from reaching their full potential. This technical brief highlights promising approaches in reaching women based on the experiences of two projects working with farmers in Mbeya, Tanzania: TechnoServe's Coffee Initiative and Faida Mali's Soil Health Project.

DAR ES SALAAM, April 2 (Reuters) - Mudslides after torrential rains have killed 13 people at a quarry in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Read the full story

The smallholder farmers of Oitera Village in the Arusha District of Tanzania have a system of small irrigation canals and receive irrigation water once a week from the government.

But in the heat of the Tanzanian growing season, this schedule put their young crops through a weekly flood and drought cycle, resulting in weak plants and low yields.

“For a long time, water was a constant problem in our village, and we women definitely felt the impact,” explains 29-year-old Maria from Kingolwira, a small village in the mountainous region of eastern Tanzania. “Especially during the dry season we had to walk for eight hours to reach the river [in the Uluguru Mountains], which was contaminated. You could get diarrhea and a stomach ache if you drank it. Children were dying and there was a lot of conflict in our community, because everyone was trying to secure enough water to take care of the household.”

by Crystal Wells, Communications Officer, Concern Worldwide US

Dora Joseph, 31, is raising four children in a tin-roofed, two-room house nestled in the remote green hills of northwestern Tanzania. Her eyes are tired and dampened with worry.

Already this year a neighbor’s four-year-old child died from malaria. She says at least once a month someone in her family has to go to the hospital to be treated for malaria, a burden that keeps her and her husband from tending to their crops and their children from going to school.