EDITORIAL: Time HORTICULTURE got more commercialised

On May 22, 2019, the-then Agriculture deputy minister Innocent Bashungwa told key horticultural players that the government had strategised to boost Tanzanian horticulture by all means possible.

The occasion was a one-day forum in Dar es Salaam for stakeholders to deliberate on their role, and that of the private sector in general, in the second-phase of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP-II). Launched by President John Magufuli in June 2018, ASDP-II is a five-year, Sh13.8 trillion programme considered pivotal to successful implementation of Tanzania’s Vision-2025 envisaging a semi-industrialised, middle-income economy by 2025.

The overriding objective of ASDP-II – together with its components that include horticulture – is to effectuate functional reforms especially in small-scale farming, livestock-keeping and fisheries that would significantly increase productivity and incomes for players in the different sectors, as well as ensure sustainable food security.

As noted in The Citizen of May 24 this year, horticulture has been performing spectacularly in the business stakes, rising eleven-fold – to a $700 million-a-year industry last year, up from a relatively paltry $60 million in 2004. Indeed, while horticulture’s parent sector agriculture has been growing by a measly four per cent annually, horticulture is growing at a relatively vibrant 12 per cent – contributing 30 per cent of Tanzania’s overall agrarian exports.

All in all, horticulture’s potential for growth appears unlimited. Hence the need for the sub-sector to be groomed (so to speak) into becoming a stronghold for women and youth entrepreneurs – even as it transforms subsistence farming into semi-commercial farming. Generally, horticulture is much more than the mere science, art and practice of growing fruits, vegetables and flowers.

It also encompasses the cultivation, processing and marketing of fruits, nuts, vegetables and ornamental plants, as well as the provision of assorted additional services, including plant conservation, land restoration, soil management, landscape and garden design, construction and maintenance. Unlike agriculture, horticulture doesn’t include large-scale crop production or animal husbandry. But, these factors in no way detract from the sub-sector’s potential in boosting socio-economic development matter-of-factly.

Industrialise and commercialise the sub-sector

However, horticulture is not without challenges that throttle its rapid development. The challenges include crippling financial incapacitation and inadequate sector-relevant skills – ranging from farm/fieldwork to post-harvest handling and marketing.

As noted in The Citizen on Thursday, much of Tanzania’s fresh horticultural produce is exported to Holland where it is processed/refined, repackaged and re-exported to other markets in the West, earning some seven billion euros annually for the Dutch – compared with Tanzania’s paltry 653 million euros!

It’s nonetheless most gratifying that the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) and its development partners are already feverishly working on seeking to surmount the challenges and take Tanzanian horticultural industry to the next higher level.

But, we still need to do better than what we are already doing.

Perhaps now that Mr Bashungwa is Industry and Trade minister, he can continue from where he left off last May as deputy Agriculture minister and help firmly put Tanzanian horticulture on the Industrialization and Commercialization Development Bandwagon.