By Abela Msikula
Tanzanians, particularly farmers, have been urged to effectively utilise weather information, as efforts to transform the country into an industrial economy.
It is because the transformation depends much on the agriculture sector, mostly for provision of raw materials, enough to feed all industries; the Deputy Director for Centre for Foreign Relations (CFR), Benard Achiula, said.
He was speaking on Tuesday during the winding up of Protocol and Public Relations short courses availed to Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) staff by his organisation.
CFR offered a five-day short course from 21 to 25 of April, with intention of increasing expertise in communication, given that TMA personnel communicate with the world. “The same effectiveness in communication means a lot for our farmers, as it will tell when to engage in farming activities.
The information also helps agriculture experts to direct how and which kinds of crops to grow in certain areas,” he said.
He added that apart from promoting industrialism, reliable weather information contributes to the national economic growth through the tourism sector, since it tells foreign tourists when to conduct tours in the country.
TMA Director General (DG), Dr Agnes Kijazi urged participants to effectively apply the knowledge; saying the organisation’s information was useful world-wide, not only to Tanzanians. She clarified that TMA exchanges weather information with other Agencies in the universe through the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), hence, the graduates should consider, precision, clarity and professionalism when communicating with the world.
“Weather information has lots of benefits, locally and internationally. For instance, when the information leads to the increase of agricultural products in Tanzania, the same information gives status of the climate world-wide.
This is where environmentalists get the start on how to tackle climate change, a serious challenge facing the universe,” she said. At the same time, the DG advised Tanzanians to effectively utilise the on-going rains for farm activities; insisting that as TMA announced earlier, the country will continue experiencing rains until the end of next month.
credit:allafrica.com
