Over 470 fishery projects worth 6.7bn/- have been implemented between 2005/2006 and 2012/2013 through Marine and Coastal Environmental Management Project (MACEMP), the House heard yesterday.
Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Mwigulu Nchemba told MPs here that projects were carried out in 16 councils in Tanzania Mainland and in 10 councils in Zanzibar.
He said statistics available indicated that about 8,078 people both in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar benefited from the programme. The minister was responding to Kangi Lugola (Mwibara CCM) who wanted to know how MACEMP was beneficial to Tanzanians living along the Coast.
He also wanted to know the government’s plan to introduce similar projects in Mwibara, Mara region and other parts along Lake Victoria. The minister noted that the six-year programme was introduced largely to ensure effective management of coastal resources and fight against illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean waters.
The programme pushed for effective coastal resources management in order to have enhanced revenue collection, reduce threats to the environment and improve livelihoods for participating coastal communities living in the coastal districts, he explained.
The programme was funded by World Bank and the Global Environment Facility He noted that implementation of MACEMP had positive significance on the fishing industry as there is a big number of communities along the coast that has greatly improved their activities.
He noted that the implementation of the programme has resulted among others into the establishment of Deep Sea Fishing Authority, setting up of Vessel Monitoring System and purchasing of 16 patrol boats.
There were also about 182 Beach Management Units introduced and some 47 groups in Mafia and Mtwara were provided with modern fishing gears, the minister asserted.
He noted that MACEMP implementation period has already expired, but however the government is now implementing the same programme in various parts of the country.
As of now, the minister asserted that the government has already started carrying out similar projects along Lake Victoria, including implementation of Fisheries Management Plan and Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project.
On the other hand, the Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment Charles Mwijage said that there was an Indian company fully set to start processing cashew in a bid to cut back exporting the crop in raw form.
He was responding to Kigoma Urban MP on ACT-Wazalendo ticket Zitto Kabwe, who wanted to know measures which the government was taking to process cashew before exportation.
Mr Zitto had claimed that despite bumper harvests recorded in previous years, cashew was insignificantly contributing to the nation’s income due to the fact that the country was still exporting unprocessed crops thus losing billions of shillings.
2015 Daily News | The National Newspaper