Are we unconsciously neglecting the agriculture sector?

In the last fifteen years the rural-urban migration has increased significantly, youths from the villages first migrate to the district headquarters temporarily and then proceed to big cities like Dar es Salaam to become hawkers (machinga).

The fundamental questions are who is involved in farming at the village level? What’s happening to the agribusiness sector? Can we become a middle-income country by industrialisation only and neglect agriculture?

Agriculture is the main economic engine of this country. Tanzania is endowed with enough fertile arable land, diverse climatic zones and plenty of water sources all across the country. However, mainly smallholder farmers cultivating average farm sizes of between 0.9 hectares and 3.0 hectares using traditional cultivation methods utilise only 24 per cent out of about 44 million hectares of the total land area suitable for Agriculture. Only 10 per cent of the arable land is ploughed by tractor and production is determined by rainfall. Both crops and livestock are adversely affected by periodical droughts. Small-scale farmers lack capital, skills and can only manage to cultivate for subsistence.

The biggest challenges in the agriculture sector include too much reliance on rain and with the climate change phenomenon this has a major negative impact on agriculture. This situation makes irrigation development in Tanzania a priority but unfortunately I see very little being done to increase farming by irrigation. It is observed worldwide that crop production under irrigated agriculture is always higher and of better quality than under rain-fed. This fact has also been witnessed in our country whereby, as an example, paddy production in Irrigation Schemes with developed infrastructure is over 5.0 tones per hectare while under rain-fed agriculture the yield is less than 2 tones per hectare. It is only irrigation that holds the key to stabilising agricultural production to improve food security, increase farmers’ productivity and incomes, and also to produce higher valued crops.

The livestock industry has maintained a steady annual growth rate of over 2.7 per cent during the last decade. However, human population growth is increasing at a higher rate than the growth in the livestock sub-sector, which indicates that Tanzania is increasingly unable to meet the internal demand for livestock. This is further compounded by the culture of the retention of large cattle herds as status symbols in some parts of the country. The current challenges facing the sector include animal diseases, poor infrastructure and lack of reliable markets, investments and processing industries.

Another repairable challenge is that of co-operatives societies especially those of cash crops. Many have not served their farmers and have actually had negative impact through corrupt practices to enrich the few leaders. It is definitely high time to also deal with the problem and bring the offenders to justice.

There are many more challenges including ad hoc policies, slogan like Kilomo Kwanza, initiatives and strategy plans but none has really achieved the goals, instead we still are faced with the threat of food shortages, increased prices and more rural-urban migration. The farmer in Tanzania still remains poor. This has to change and it is the responsibility of the Minister of Agriculture and livestock to tell the public how will they bring about a change and have realistic goals to be achieved.

At a time when the government is embarking on industrialisation, Tanzania needs a green revolution to transform its agriculture into a modern and commercial sector; it is interesting to see if Tanzania could emulate success stories from Asia. By raising agricultural productivity through transparent policies, enhanced investments, both public and private, improvements in rural infrastructure such as roads, better and more irrigation, inputs such as high yielding seed varieties, more use of fertiliser and technology, more local applied research, it could be possible to transform our farmers to middle income earners. If Tanzania wants to become a middle-income country it first has to achieve the “hat trick” of significant poverty reduction, high growth rate and reduced inequality. This can only be achieved if the agriculture sector is properly managed, revived, sustained and integrated in the mainstream economy. The important thing is that 55 years post independence the farmer is still using the hoe to farm then there is something grossly wrong with the Ministry of Agriculture. Perhaps it is high time RCs and DCs become more accountable about agriculture activities in their regions and districts. I suggest that each district should submit a report of their activities in the agriculture sector and these can be published in the media for the information of the public, a conscientious effort to consciously solve the neglect in the agriculture sector.