| MODERNISE FARMING TO ERADICVATE POVERTY | Send to a friend |
| Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:43 |
 As our country acquired independence, the leadership spelt out what was famously described as three cardinal enemies our anticipated development: poverty, ignorance and diseases.How successful have we been in overcoming these “enemies”, after 50 years of uhuru remains a big question. Thousands of Tanzanians continue to die from easily treatable diseases. School enrolment is hundreds of times higher but there are reports of Class 7 graduates who can neither r read nor write.UN figures put ours in the heap of the world’s 10 poorest countries! That, despite the fact that Tanzania is a resource-rich country wallowing in minerals, dreamy tourist attractions, rivers, lakes and a big portion of the Indian Ocean. So, in terms of potential, ours is one of the most blessed countries on earth, which begs the question should be: Why are so poor? There must b a weakness in our poverty eradication initiatives. For example, how do we expect to end poverty if we say farming as the backbone of our economy yet we are doing little to modernise it? A majority of our farmers continue to practice subsistence farming even where there is ample, arable land at their disposal.It is unlikely that we shall succeed in eradicating rural poverty when the majority of our peasants rely on rain-fed agriculture and rudimentary tools such as the hoe. Why aren’t we exploiting the many lakes and rivers the country is blessed with and make irrigation farming the norm? What has happened to the idea of having tractors for hire? Yet another question is: Have we exhausted the possibilities of using our many head of cattle and donkeys to pull ploughs in a bid to ease the peasant’s burden and put larger tracts of land under cultivation? Subsidising agricultural inputs should not be an issue for debate, unless it is a debate on how best to implement it. Short of empowering farmers who comprise over 80 per cent of the country’s productive force, talk of drive to rid the country of poverty will remain empty rhetoric. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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