Revitalization of education for self-reliance in education for enhancing youth involvement in agriculture in Tanzania

Agriculture is the backbone of the Tanzania’s economy regardless of its low productivity. Several efforts have been put in place to improve the situation including introduction of Education for Self-Reliance (ESR) policy to guide Tanzania education system to produce graduates who are competent in agricultural production and other hands on activities necessary for  community development. Regardless of its contextual, theoretical and practical relevance, ESR policy overtime lost its position in the education circles. A Dialogue Conference was organised in Morogoro for exploring stakeholders’ views on the need for revitalization of ESR in education for enhancing youth involvement in Agriculture. Data were collected by voice recording and note taking while thematic method was used for data analysis. Majority of the participants perceived the relevance of  reconsidering ESR since it helps to inculcate positive attitude towards agriculture, equip students with hands-on skills, source of  self-employment, self-reliance and improve classroom learning.  Challenges of revitalization were also elicited, like teachers’ lack of knowledge and skills on planning and utilizing experience developed through the ESR, shortage of teachers and inadequate resources for implementation. Voices of stakeholders favour rethinking of ESR and therefore appropriate strategies should be considered in the process of revitalising ESR taking into consideration the highlighted challenges.Keywords: Revitalisation, Education for self-reliance, Agriculture, Education, Yout

A Spatial Analysis of Rift Valley Fever Virus Seropositivity in Domestic Ruminants in Tanzania

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an acute arthropod-borne viral zoonotic disease primarily occurring in Africa. Since RVF-like disease was reported in Tanzania in 1930, outbreaks of the disease have been reported mainly from the eastern ecosystem of the Great Rift Valley. This cross-sectional study was carried out to describe the variation in RVF virus (RVFV) seropositivity in domestic ruminants between selected villages in the eastern and western Rift Valley ecosystems in Tanzania, and identify potential risk factors. Three study villages were purposively selected from each of the two Rift Valley ecosystems. Serum samples from randomly selected domestic ruminants (n = 1,435) were tested for the presence of specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM), using RVF enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods. Mixed effects logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the association between potential risk factors and RVFV seropositivity. The overall RVFV seroprevalence (n = 1,435) in domestic ruminants was 25.8% and species specific seroprevalence was 29.7%, 27.7% and 22.0% in sheep (n = 148), cattle (n = 756) and goats (n = 531), respectively. The odds of seropositivity were significantly higher in animals sampled from the villages in the eastern than those in the western Rift Valley ecosystem (OR = 1.88, CI: 1.41, 2.51; p<0.001), in animals sampled from villages with soils of good than those with soils of poor water holding capacity (OR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.58, 3.02; p< 0.001), and in animals which had been introduced than in animals born within the herd (OR = 5.08, CI: 2.74, 9.44; p< 0.001). Compared with animals aged 1-2 years, those aged 3 and 4-5 years had 3.40 (CI: 2.49, 4.64; p< 0.001) and 3.31 (CI: 2.27, 4.82, p< 0.001) times the odds of seropositivity. The findings confirm exposure to RVFV in all the study villages, but with a higher prevalence in the study villages from the eastern Rift Valley ecosystem