Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (June 17, 2015) — The European Union (EU) awarded Heifer Nederland and Heifer International Tanzania a grant of euro 1,600,000 to fund the Igunga Eco village Project in Tanzania, which will help the vulnerable community to cope with the impact of climate change.
This grant is one of the 5 grant contracts under the second phase of the EU global Climate Change alliance in Tanzania, which were signed During the EU Climate Diplomacy Day – celebrating EU’s work of Climate change Mitigation and adaptation towards a climate resilient world and economy. The Global Climate Change alliance provides a platform for dialogue and financial support to adopt to adverse effects of climate change and works through Eco village integrated approach.
In the Igunga Eco Village; Heifer Nederland, Heifer Tanzania, Aqua for All , the Igunga District Council, and ICIPE will work together with local communities in nine villages to increase their resilience towards adverse effects of climate change and will target 6,000 direct families, 6,000 indirect families which in total is 72,000 beneficiaries in the communities.
During the grant signing a, the Heifer Tanzania Country Director Dr. Henry Njakoi said “We will work with communities to support natural resource management, strengthen socio economic situations and increase the agricultural productivity in the villages. Heifer will also work with the Igunga district council to build the capacity of their technical departments. “The capacity building will enable the Igunga district council to access, plan and implement climate change practices within their policies and programs and share lessons learnt and experiences with others “added Dr. Njakoi.
The Eco village approach in phase one covered three eco village areas; the semi-arid Eco village which was the Chololo semi-arid area in Dodoma; Ocean -Eco village through the Replicable solutions to climate change project in Pemba and Mountains Eco village in the Uluguru Mountains. Phase two will scale up the successful innovations of the eco village approach to a tune of 8 million euros (Tanzania shillings 18 billion) in the second phase compared to the 2.2 million euros in phase one.
Climate change is affecting the eco system by climate induced and more frequent droughts, increased numbers of forest degradation, deforestation, water scarcity and reduced crop yields.
According to Dr. Gharib Bilal ; the Vice president of Tanzania ; the world average temperature of 0.85 degrees centigrade will lead to catastrophic consequences in Africa. The decrease in Temperature has triggered big impacts in agriculture. Sub shara Africa may see a decrease of 90% in Maize yields, 68% in beans yields and a decrease in coffee yields by 18% for southern Africa and 22 % across all sub Saharan Africa. : Africa braces losing more than 300 million US dollars in the regional economy from agriculture. With Disease induced by extreme flooding is likely to impact a good number of African countries by 2020 alluded Dr. Bilal.
The project in Igunga aims at increasing the adaptation of climate change strategies and increasing the yield of farmers by 40 % through the introduction of climate smart technologies. Farmer field school approach will be used, where the farmers will be trained on a wide range of proven climate adaptation technologies including integrated pest control, tree planting and renewable energy sources. Innovative techniques to Recharge, Retain and Re- use water will be tested and scaled up to make efficient use of available water sources. Heifer will distribute and train the beneficiaries on passing on the Gift where Chicken, Fish , Push Pull technology knowledge and seeds will be passed on to members of the community.
Speaking during the EU Climate Diplomacy day celebrations held only 200 days before COP21 Climate change conference in Paris, Her Excellency Ambassador Malika Berak – Ambassador of France to Tanzania called for all countries in the world to preserve the climate c for the global good and urged participation of the Tanzania Government, Civil Society organizations and private sector to attend the conference. “The COP21 Paris Conference is the beginning of Zero Carbon. Zero Poverty world “said Ambassador Malika Berak
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Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 30 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant. For information, visit www.heifer.org, read our blog, follow us on Facebook, on Twitter@Heifer or call 888.5HUNGER (888.548.6437).
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