Nsimbo District
Nsimbo District is a district council in the Katavi Region of Tanzania's Southern Highlands established in 2012. The district lies in the middle of the region east of the city of Mpanda. It is a tropical environment of mostly forest reserves and agricultural economy.
History
Originally, Nsimbo was a part of both the Tabora Region and Mbeya Regions. In 1973, the Rukwa Regional Council was created from parts of those two regions, and in 1983 the Mpanda District Council was created within Rukwa. In 1990 the town of Mpanda split off from the district council to create a separate town council.In 2012, The Katavi Region split off from the Rukwa Region, with the 4 districts of Mpanda District, Mpanda Town, and a new district councils of Mlele District and Nsimbo District. In 2015 the Mpanda Town Council was promoted to a municipal council, and in 2016 the portions of Mlele to the south of Nsimbo would be split off to form the Mpimbwe District Council.
Geography
The Nsimbo District lies in the middle of the Katavi Region east of the city of Mpanda. The Katavi districts of Mpanda District and Mpanda Municipality lie to the west, Mlele District is to the east, and Mpimbwe District is south of Nsimbo. North is the Kaliua District of the Tabora Region, and south-west is the Nkasi District of the Rukwa Region.The district covers an area of. Most of the district is protected forest reserve with of protected forest. The elevation varies between to. Within the district is much of the Katavi National Park and Ugalla River Forest Reserve which overlaps with the Ugalla River National Park into the Tabora Region.
Climate
The districts climate is tropical savanna climate with the Aw Koppen-Geiger system classification. The average temperature is with an average rainfall of.Administrative divisions
Nsimbo has two division, 12 wards, and 59 villages and 272 hamlets.Wards
- Ibindi
- Itenka
- Kanoge
- Kapalala
- Katumba
- Litapunga
- Machimboni
- Mtapenda
- Nsimbo
- Sitalike
- Ugalla
- Urwila
Demographics
Economy
The economy is primarily agriculture. Food crops grown are cassava, maize, paddy, sweet potatoes, Potatoes, bananas, yams, and other fruits and vegetables. Crops grown for money are tobacco, peanuts, sunflowers, sesame, and sugarcane.There are no large or medium scale industries or mining operations in the district, but locals do small scale mining of gold, copper, silver, lead, tungsten, rose quarts, and nitre.