SADC SUMMIT 2019: Sadc to push value-addition for crops

Dar es Salaam. In its bid to make Tanzania an industrialised country through agricultural products, the government has said it is looking to dialogue with the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) member states to invest in industries that will enable valu-addition to its farm produce.

The agricultural industry makes a large contribution to Tanzania’s foreign exchange earnings, with more than $1 billion in earnings from cash crop exports which mainly include coffee, sisal, cashew nuts, tea, cotton and tobacco.

Agriculture is a major contributor to the country’s economy. Reports show that as of 2016, Tanzania had over 44 million hectares of arable land - only 33 per cent of which was cultivated as a matter of course.

Almost 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas, with most of them involved in farming.

Working through the ministry of Industry and Trade, the Tanzania government will host the 4th Sadc industrialisation week on August 5-to-9 this year.

Speaking to The Citizen, the minister for Agriculture, Mr Japhet Hasunga, said the Sadc meeting is expected to bring together representatives from assorted economic sectors of the Sadc states to dialogue on how to strengthen trade - especially in agriculture-related products.

He said the Sadc member countries also look forward to sharing modern farming experiences on such things as agro-inputs in order to increase productivity in agriculture and empower farmers.

“We want our farmers to increase productivity in agriculture through increased use of modern technology that would enable farmers to increase productivity,” he said.

He noted that there is a lot of potential in Sadc because it has a huge market in terms of consumers of agriculture products.

In another development, Minister Hasunga said Tanzania was looking into how it can attract more investors from the Sadc states in industries for value-adddition to farm crops, This would contribute to the growth of the country’s economy.

“We encourage investments from Sadc member states who would share with us the returns in agriculture through productive farming. This would also ensure that the Sadec countries have enough food to sustain them,” he stressed.

He also noted that the Sadc member countries have agreed to promote nutrition to its people. They should not only have enough food, butthat the food is nutritious for their good health.

The minister noted that a couple of Sadc countries were recently hit by severe drought that resulted in hunger.

In the event, the Sadc meeting will provide an opportunity to explore ways and means by which fellow Sadc members can pitch in with aid - including Tanzania.

The food production report for 2017/18 shows that the production of food crops in the 2017/18 harvest season reached 16,981,974 tonnes, including 9,537,857 tonnes of grains and 7,354,117 tonnes of non-grain crops which enabled Tanzania to meet its food needs of 13,569,285 tonnes in 2018/19 for a Self-Sufficiency Rati (S-SR) of 124 per cent.

In terms of demand vis-a-vis production, the country has an additional 3,013,515 tonnes, which are considered sufficient for the foresseable future.

Furthermore, Tanzania has ambitious plans to prioritize agriculture for increased economic growth. The private sector-led Agricultural SectorDevelopment Programme Phase II (ASDP-II) initiative and the establishmentof the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot) have been endorsed by the government of Tanzania.

The government, working through Sagcot, has allocated some 63,000 hectares of arable land for the Mkulazi Project.

The land will be used for the cultivation and processing of sugarcane and rice. This project is an important step in the ambition to achieve the government’s objectives for the agricultural sector.

These strategies are being linked to the Agricultural Sector Development Program through Tanzania’s Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) country investment plan.

Meanwhile, reports show that land is a vital asset in ensuring food security. These include - but are not limited to - the nine main food crops in Tanzania, namely maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, beans, cassava, potatoes and bananas.

The agriculture sector faces various challenges. In that regard, it has always been the government’s top priority to develop the sector in bona fide efforts to reduce poverty and increase productivity.

However, farming efficiently has been a huge challenge for many farmers in Tanzania. This is compounded by lack of finances and farming education for what are basically subsistence farmers.

Farm sizes remain very small, with an average plot size for a household being around 2.5ha.

Challenges in the agricultureal industry in Tanzania include - but are not limited to - a lack of agricultural technology, persistent droughts and floods, as well as “agriculture temperature shocks.”

These pose severe challenges to the living standards of most of the people involved in the agricultural industry across Tanzania - and which create huge increases in unemployment, hunger, malnutrition, starvation and assorted diseases.

Huge declines in commodity prices, decreased export revenues, increased trade and budget deficits... All these contribute to hindering the growth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

But, all in all, the agriculture sector contributes a repoectable 32.4 per cent of the country’s GDP.