FOREWORD
Buhigwe District Council was established in 2012 under the Government Notice No. 73 of 2nd march 2012. It is one of 7 councils of Kigoma Region, others districts includes; Kibondo, Kigoma, Kigoma/Ujiji Municipal, Uvinza, Kasulu and Kakonko. It is located in the Western part of Kigoma Region. In the west, it is bordered by Republic of Burundi, in the East and northern part is bordered by Kasulu District Council, in the south-eastern is bordered by Congo DRC, in the southern part is bordered by Kigoma District Council. It is located in the highlands found nearby Republic of Burundi. Buhigwe District Council is among seven Local Government Authorities in Kigoma Region. It has an area of 1,700.29 square Kilometers. Administratively, it is divided into 2 Divisions; 20 Wards, 44 Villages and 192 Sub-villages. The Council has a population of 254,342 people including 120,690 males and 133,652 females as per population and household census of 2012. Its natural geographical position is characterized by topography, soil fertility, favorable climatic conditions and reliable infrastructures and soon the District will be electrified by thermal power that will make Buhigwe best option for investors. The District council is proud of production in maize, beans, banana and cassava for food crops while coffee, oil palm and ginger is considered to be cash crop and opportunity of establishing sugar cane plantation along Malagarasi River. The topographical and favorable condition found in Buhigwe may attract tourism activities. The area is characterized by attractive landscapes such as gullies and a number of valleys. The Land Banking in the District is not yet in place but the District has a strong plan to identify areas suitable for investment purpose such as agricultural development, processing industries, manufacturing and tourism. The District is interconnected with accessible road networking within and outside. Buhigwe district has 574 km road net work out of which 48 km are tarmac road and 526 km are earth roads. Preparation of this Investment Profile has been a work done by cooperation with various stakeholders in and outside the District. These include Regional Administrative secretariat, Buhigwe planning department and Tanza Consult & Associates (TCA). Their support during the preparation of this profile is highly appreciated. Map 1: Buhigwe and Neighboring countries and districts.
MAIN ECONOMIC SECTORS
Agriculture
is the main income generating activity in the District. Over 85% of inhabitants
depend on crop and animal husbandry and the remaining percentages depend on
other sectors, especially, petty businesses. The main food crops are maize,
beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, and banana. The main cash crops include coffee,
oil palm and ginger. Industrial contribution to the GDP of Buhigwe District is
very minimal due to very little investment on this sector. Per capital income
is estimated to 154,000Tshs per annum.
AGRICULTURE
Total
arable land is 1,277.796 sq Km or 84.9% of the total District area. Out of
that, only 50% of the land is actually cultivated, therefore there is a wide
room for expansion.
The
major farming mechanism in Buhigwe District is based on
coffee-maize-bean-banana system in the highlands, maize-tobacco in the low
lands and sugar cane and paddy along the river and water streams. Cash crops
include Coffee, palm, Cotton, Tobacco, Ginger and Sugar cane while Maize,
Cassava, Beans, Banana, Paddy are food crops.
Coffee is the major source of income in the highlands and rolling hills
area while maize and tobacco are the major sources of income in the lowland
areas.
Farming
activities are being conducted by using traditional implements such as hand
hoes and it is family labor based which results into low yield per area thus a
need to invest in this sector.
CASH CROPS
COFFEE
Buhigwe
District has a great potential for coffee production, TACRI has played a
significant role to promote production of coffee in Buhigwe District through
village based training and promoting coffee production. However due to the
shortage of resources, this services have reached only 30% of the district
total population. Village based training and promotion of coffee production
services is still needed to cover the remained underserved population.
Over
the past few years Arabica coffee produced in highland of Buhigwe District
proven to be the best in international market, effort are made so as to improve
quality and increase production by establishing research centre at Mwayaya –
Substation aimed at promoting
sustainable good quality coffee by disseminating proved technologies to
farmers. The area allocated for Mwayaya – substation is 78.6Ha. The institute
has distributed more than 12,000 seedlings at Kitambuka, Mkatanga, Mwayaya and
Rusaba.
For
the FY 2012/2013 the District harvested only 1185.6 tones in an area of 988Ha
there are still more area for coffee production as compared to Kigoma District.
With a growing demand of coffee in the world market there is a potentiality in
increasing production especially in organic coffee that has the best price.
 |
|
Picture 1 Coffee inter cropped with banana
|
The
District has a plan to make sure this cash crop become major source of income
as compared to coffee, tobacco and other crops through a strategic plan &
investment strategies for sugarcane growing under Kilimo Kwanza Concept.
Also the District encourages farmers to form groups or cooperatives through
which they will be able to channel their produces to lucrative markets. The
district is making initiatives to look for partners in this area who are in the
position of assisting it in commercializing this crop through investment, advocacy,
service delivery and capacity building.
 |
| Ginger |
Ginger
is a new cash crop, which was introduced in the low lands areas especially in
Muzeze
.
Beans are sometimes intercropped with maize or banana and in most cases enjoy
double cropping in a year: Like maize, the demand for beans has increasing in
and outside the District.
BANANA
Banana is also important food crop in
Buhigwe District particularly in the highland zone where it is intercropped
with coffee. Banana has a market outside the District but transportation is the
major bottleneck. Currently the crop is used as a step food to Manyovu dweller.
CASSAVA
Cassava
is a drought resistant crop grown in intermediate land of Buhigwe District. It
also forms an important food crop with a substantial per capital consumption and
has been treated as a “life saver” during food shortage periods. The production
of cassava has increased from 0.5 to 4tonnage per Ha in year 2012.
Palm oil
Palm
is mainly produced in low land area having favourable condition for its
productionin the district. It found in various areas such as Janda ward,
Munzeze ward and Kinazi village located in Rusaba ward. Palm crop is used to produce palm oil.
IRRIGATION SCHEME
The district has 3,700 hac suitable for
irrigation agriculture. Out ofthis area only 2.7% is being used. This indicates
that irrigation agriculture has been not well articulated. Below is a table summarizing usage of areas suitable for irrigation in
the district.
District
|
Area
suitable for irrigation
|
Areas
in use (ha)
|
%
of usage
|
Buhigwe
|
3,700
|
100
|
2.7
|
Investment plan: Buhigwe District is looking for large and
medium investors and development partners who will establish demo irrigation
farms or plots and build smallholder irrigation capacity in general. As it is
seen, the area is still underdeveloped.
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
Livestock keeping practiced in Buhigwe
District is both traditional and commercial in nature. A large proportion of
cattle, goats and sheep are indigenous dominated by pastoralists and
agro-pastoralists. The District has about 29,665
cattle, 17,506 goats, 3,893 sheep, 852 pigs, 123,517
chicken and 9,220 ducks. The District is rich of cattle population due favorable whether condition as
compared to other District in Kigoma Region. The District is on serious planning in
controlling tsetse fly in cooperation with other stakeholder within and outside
the District.
However,
the number and quality of the livestock kept has remained low compared to the
high population growth of the District and demand.
NATURAL RESOURCES
FORESTRY
The
District has strategies to distribute tree seeds over 1,000,000 every year to
the district dwellers.
 |
|
Picture 3: Muharulo Hill at Manyovu
|
BEEKEEPING
With huge forestry reserve Buhigwe
District Council has potential for Bee-keeping, as there are many nectar
yielding tree species and flowery agricultural plants.
Generally the productivity of beekeeping
is not increasing the way it was supposed to be while the demand is very high
domestically and internationally. May be this is due to the reason of being a
newly formed district where more efforts of both development partners is needed
to boost beekeeping. The district has set initiatives to which needs to be
supported for implementation. This initiative includes providing training to
beekeeper on the use of modern beehives and honey production in general.
Beekeeping is carried out in small scale in
different areas where people process honeys for retailing business in the
market but still the demand is very high domestically and
internationally. Buhigwe District Council
would prefer partnering with large and medium
investors with an ability of educating local/small beekeepers on modern
beekeeping technologies.
MINING
This is an area with very little
information. There have been
insufficient geographical studies carried out in the district. However, there is a high belief for the
presence of minerals in the district.
Buhigwe District is also endowed with abundant
building minerals which includes; all forms of rocks, stones, gravel, sand,
clay and soil.
Investiment plan: Buhigwe District is looking for large and
medium investors with an ability of conducting geological surveys and conducts
some exploration and then upon getting good results invests and educates
local/small miners on good and safe mining technologies