SPUR AGRIBUSINESS THROUGH SHORT-TERM CROP FARMING

Generally speaking, short-term, or short-season, crops are those that are grown and mature, ready for harvest, within 45 to 60 days. These include beans, buckwheat, oats, yellow mustard, oilseed radish and sorghum.

But in extreme cases, crops that are grown for up to six months are also considered short-term. A few examples of these are maize, cotton, some carrots, okra, betel leaves, lemongrass, saffron and bitter gourds.

According to the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (Apra), agribusiness is the saviour for many farmers as it is a major means of fighting poverty by most rural households.

Apra has appealed to all stakeholders in agriculture, including the government and its related institutions, to work closely together in motivating farmers, and increasing their operational capacity to produce short-term crops on a commercial basis.

Tanzania has already jumped on the agribusiness bandwagon via its Agribusiness Vision 2025. Pioneered by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agribusiness Vision revolves around the government creating value-addition chains for raw materials and commodity outputs using primary agricultural produce as inputs.

This is in correlation with the National Development Vision 2025 which envisages a semi-industrialised economy by 2025. There should be no reason why the vision cannot be realised on the ground for a country like Tanzania, which is already richly endowed with the requisite resources, including arable land for both rain-fed and irrigation farming, as well as numerous other comparative advantages.

According to a recent report by the US-based venture capital firm Village Capital titled Mapping Agriculture Investing in Africa, Tanzania is among the top East African countries – the others being Kenya and Uganda, which receive investments in agricultural startups.

As it has been said elsewhere, nothing is impossible under the sun, but one must nonetheless strive hard, determinedly and sincerely to make it in all-inclusive sustainable socioeconomic development.

E-PROCUREMENT THE WAY TO GO

Public procurement is one of the most crucial aspects in the running of a government. In fact, about 70 per cent of all the funds allocated for development projects in the national Budget are spent through procurement. However, this is also one of the areas that are prone to abuse and inefficiency, which adversely affect the implementation of projects.

As part of efforts to improve public procurement, the East Africa Community member states of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have already laid the groundwork for high-tech buying by government departments. In addition to improving efficiency and transparency in tendering, e-procurement saves time and cuts administrative costs.

The government should review existing legislation to support e-commerce and e-procurement. We have no choice as the whole world is quickly moving into online-based processes. Tanzania cannot afford to remain behind. Many of the local businesses are heavily investing in ICT to increase efficiency and cut transaction costs.

The government should ensure that e-commerce laws are solid enough to combat rising cyber crime that is one of the big risks from e-commerce.