12
Most of the flooded agricultural lands were found to be located in lowland areas which are
usually considered to be the most prone to flood disaster. The utmost common damages
reported in the crop sub-sector were caused by waterlogging, whereby the cultivated crop
could not survive over a long period of time (especially maize and cassava). In addition to
that, flash floods, expansion of riverbed, and debris deposition (silt, rocks, wood, etc.) caused
further destruction on the cultivated crops.
Picture 2: Flooded agricultural field with water still receding
The crop with the largest proportion of the cultivated area affected is rice, followed by maize,
cassava, sorghum, green gram, sweet-potatoes, beans, groundnuts, vegetables and bulrush
millet (Table 6).
Table 6 : Percentage of cultivated areas affected, destroyed, recovered and with reduced yield
Crop
Overall
impacted
area (%)
Area
destroyed
(%)
Area affected
with reduced
yield (%)
Area with
possibility of
recovery (%)
Reduction of
yield in affected
area (%)*
Rice
64.5
35.8
62.5
1.7
41.3
Maize
44.5
64.6
23.2
12.2
57.3
Cassava
28.8
76.7
13.3
10.0
30.0
Sorghum
24.3
77.1
9.3
13.6
58.0
Green gram
23.8
70.0
30.0
0.0
72.5
Sweet potatoes
20.0
100.0
0.0
0.0
N/A
Beans
17.3
100.0
0.0
0.0
N/A
Groundnuts
13.0
22.0
52.0
26.0
60.0
Vegetables
11.0
100.0
0.0
0.0
NA
Bulrush millet
7.5
7.5
7.5
85.0
37.5
*
reduction in yield concerns only the areas which have been affected but still will produce some harvest, therefore are
directly related to third column of this table.
Even when the overall cultivated areas of sweet potatoes, beans and vegetables were reported
to be less affected, these areas were entirely destroyed leading to 100% loss of the standing
crops. Whereas, areas cultivated with cassava, sorghum, rice and maize, reported losses of
standing crops at around 76%, 77%, 36%, and 65% respectively. Only groundnuts and
13
Mrs. Agness Ngassa, affected farmer
Mrs. Agnes, a farmer, 46 years old lives with her daughter
in Igembya village in Shinyanga DC (Shinyanga region).
On the 4th of January 2016 around 9 pm when she was
sitting with her daughter in the main house, heavy rain
started pouring accompanied with strong winds.
"We could hear a heavy sound then the roof of our three
bedroom’s house was swept away and bricks started falling
from the top of the house. My daughter Hadija was hit by a
brick on her arm then she fell and another brick fell on her
knee. It was dark but we could hear the house falling apart.
We ran outside the house crying loud to our neighbour just
to find that their house was also collapsing".
In the big house they had stored 6 bags of maize that was soaked and some fell out of the sack that was washed away.
Only few buckets were rescued. About 2 acres of maize were also destroyed and 6 chickens were swept away. Mrs.
Agnes does not have any money to buy more maize because that was the entire stock and now she rely on support
from other people from the village. Whenever she see clouds the fear for the worst comes again. Her daughter cannot
go to school as her arm still hurts and her uniform and other clothing was also swept away by heavy rain. They are
waiting for some external assistance (tents and food) in order to alleviate their desperate situation.
bulrush millet had lower levels of destructions corresponding to 22% and 8% respectively;
this is mainly due to the fact that they are mostly cultivated in sandy soil which can absorb
the water in excess quicker.
The remaining affected areas will either have a reduction in yield or to a lesser extent will be
able to recover until harvest time, especially in the case of bulrush millet and groundnuts. The
estimated yield reduction ranges from 30% up to 73%, depending on the crop as reported in
Table 6 and region specific data in (Annex c, Table 13). The main causes of yield reduction
are in decreasing order of importance: flooded areas / stagnant water, poor soil fertility, pest
or diseases outbreaks due to higher level of humidity and breading grounds for insects, debris
coverage and deposition (mud or silt) and landslides, see actual percentages in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Reasons for reduced yields in the overall affected cultivated areas (percentage of
respondents)
Additional discussions with the farmers helped to understand that on top of the above
mentioned reasons, reduction of crop production estimates were also based on the results of
some harvested crops in comparison to last year’s production, and visual observation, also
looking at the maturation stage of the crops affected still on the field.