FURTHER WORK
The recommendations items (1) through (18) above inclusive all involve further work by members of the TLMP Team, but the following in particular relate to my sphere of operation:
6 - Data translation of the data input into the Dar and Moshi systems October 1994 through February 1995.
11 - The checking and cleaning of the historical Arusha and Moshi data (as regards date of market).
12 - Locating and checking the raw data from the Texas A&M Tanzania Grading Study, to search for variation within each grade-sex combination of the ratio of edible weight to liveweight.
14 - Making an MIS for the monitoring of the railage of cattle, at both dispatch and arrival points.
16 - The capture or recapture of Dar Pugu historical cattle rail arrivals.
18 - Hardware and software installation and software training.
There is significant scope also within the MDB (Marketing Development Bureau) to replace the present spreadsheet macro system for Crops MIS with a proper database type system; this will (as per the Livestock MIS) result in a system which is easier to use and for which analysis between markets and over time will be simple.
One additional item in the Computer MIS System should be checked - the exchange rates for the Tanzanian Shilling against the US Dollar for the period October 1994 onwards have been 'guesstimated' by me in light of the trends up to that date. The actual projections by the Bank of Tanzania should be obtained (these are usually easily available as public domain information) and input into the system; this exercise should be done every year as the Bank of Tanzania publishes new projections, and of course should be checked also on a monthly basis for current values....