By Songa wa Songa
The Citizen Correspondent
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will not make significant gains in its endeavours to eradicate poverty through increased agricultural productivity if the doors to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not opened.

The minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, said in the city yesterday that since the sector employs 40 million Tanzanians, equivalent to 77.5 per cent of the population, “it is very important not to close doors on anything”.

He was officiating at the opening of a workshop on sustainable intensification of cereal-based farming systems in eastern and southern Africa attended by international and local agriculture experts, policymakers and donors to discuss ways of increasing Tanzania’s food production capacity in the face of a changing climate, shrinking arable lands and environmental concerns.

The four-day meeting organised by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was expected to deliberate on and identify priority areas for a five-year research initiative funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to be implemented in the country.

The study which is expected to cost $3.2 million for the first year would focus on management practices that integrate better cereals, legumes, vegetables, livestock and trees in mixed-farming systems and allow for more efficient use of resources, enhanced food production and higher farm incomes. Prof Maghembe said the agriculture sector which grows at a sluggish 4.2 per cent annually provides 34 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and only 27 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“For 77.5 per cent of all the people to contribute only 27 per cent to the GDP means that a lot needs to be done to uplift agriculture. Otherwise, we risk leaving the bulk of the population in dire poverty as the economy grows and enriches a small section of the population” he said.

The minister said low productivity is associated with poor agronomic practices and limited use of improved seed, fertilisers as well as lack of sustainable control of pests and diseases.

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