By E. Lukuba: Farmer
Magu in Mwanza city performing Irrigation
Agriculture:
Agriculture is the
foundation of the Tanzanian economy.
It accounts for about half of the national income, three quarters
of merchandise exports and is source of food and provides employment
opportunities to about 80 percent of Tanzanians.
It has linkages with the non-farm sector through forward linkages
to agro-processing, consumption and export; provides raw materials to
industries and a market for manufactured goods.
Agriculture
in Tanzania is dominated by smallholder farmers (peasants)
cultivating an average farm sizes of between 0.9 hecters and 3.0
hecters each. About 70
percent of Tanzania’s crop area is cultivated by hand hoe, 20
percent
by ox plough and 10 percent by tractor. It is rainfed
agriculture. Food crop production dominates the
agriculture economy 5.1 million ha. are cultivated annually, of
which 85
percent is under food crops. Women
constitute the main part of agricultural labour force. The major
constraint facing the agriculture sector is the falling labour
and land
productivity due to application of poor technology, dependence
on
unreliable and irregular weather conditions. Both crops
and livestock are adversely affected by periodical droughts.
Irrigation
holds the key to stabilizing agricultural production in Tanzania to
improve food security, increase farmers’ productivity and incomes, and
also to produce higher valued crops such as vegetables and even flowers.
Urban Agriculture:
Urban
agriculture has flourished as a household – level initiative to cope
with economic hardships encountered as a result of raising cost of
living. Urban
agriculture that consists of raising and growing of vegetable
and food crops is found in Tanzanian towns and cities where the ready
market for
Agricultural products are found. Producers
of vegetables, milk, broilers’ meat and eggs sell to private
households and to school, hotels, hospitals, bars, cafeterias and
restaurants.
Agriculture Performance:
Agricultural
GDP has grown at 3.3 percent per year since 1985, the main food crops at
3.5 percent and export crops at 5.4 percent per year. Considering that the overall GDP growth target for halving
abject poverty by 2010 is in the range of 6-7 percent, this performance
falls short of the needed growth.
The macro
economic reforms have and continue to have had significant impact on the Agriculture sector.
The economic reforms
have lead to the opening up of the sector to
private investment in production and processing, input importation and
distribution and agricultural marketing.
Most
of production and processing and marketing functions have been assigned
to the private sector. The
Government has retained regulatory and public Support functions or
facilitation role.
Farmers are free to sell their crops
to cooperatives or private traders. Due to competition, normal producer
prices for food & export crops have increased as such
farmers can now sell their produce
much faster. Farmers are no longer confined to a
single source for their essential inputs for crops and livestock.
The
Government recognizes the pivotal role of the agricultural sector both in
terms of economic growth and poverty reduction.
Also the strong influence of factors outside the sector such as
infrastructure, rural financial services, land ownership and good
governance is recognised.
Priority
actions include:
·
The pursuit of macroeconomic
policies that will motivate investment in agriculture by small holders
and large – scale commercial farmers.
·
Creation of an enabling environment
and provide proactive support to private operators, farmers
organizations, NGOs and CBOs supplying inputs and credit to small
farmers and ensuring a strong regulatory mechanism.
·
Concentration of budgetary
allocations in agriculture research and extension.
·
Provision of special support to
investments in agricultural processing particularly in fruits and
vegetables and accord top priority to implementation of new land Act.
Potentials
in the Agricultural Sector:
Tanzania is well endowed with a
variety of farming systems with climatic variations and agro-ecological
conditions of which crops can be grown.
The major staples include:
-
maize,
-
sorghum
-
millet
-
rice
-
wheat
-
pulses (mainly beans)
-
cassava
-
potatoes
-
bananas and plantains
Export crops:
-
coffee
-
cotton
-
cashewnut
-
tobacco
-
sisal
-
pyrethrum
-
tea
-
cloves
-
Horticultural crops
-
Oil seeds
-
Spices and flowers
Agro
– Ecological Zones (AEZ):
Coastal plains
Eastern plateaus and mountain blocks
Southern Highlands
Northern rift zone and volcanic highlands
Central plateau
Rukwa – Ruaha rift valley
Inland Sedimentary
Ufipa and
Western highlands
Farming Systems:
There are 10 farming systems
i)
Banana/Coffee/Horticulture system
Found in
Kagera, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Kigoma and Mbeya regions.
-
tree crop
-
high intensive land use
-
volcanic soils with high fertility
-
land scarce
ii)
Maize/Legume system:
Found in
Rukwa, Ruvuma, Arusha, Kagera, Shinyanga, Iringa, Mbeya, Kigoma, Tabora,
Tanga, Morogoro, Kahama, Biharamulo
-
land not scarce
-
shifting cultivation
-
maize & legumes, beans and groundnuts intercropped, Arabic
coffee.
iii) Cashew/Coconut/Cassava
System:
Found in coast region; eastern Lindi and Mtwara:
-
low rainfall
-
low soil fertility
-
cassava, coconut and cashew
-
land is not scarce
-
shifting cultivation
iv) Rice/Sugar
cane system
Found in alluvial river valleys
-
rice and sugarcanes
v)
Sorghum/Bulrush
millet/Livestock system:
Found in Sukumaland; Shinyanga and rural Mwanza
-
Sorghum, millet, maize and cotton, oilseeds and rice
-
intense population pressure
-
declining soil fertility
vi)
Tea/Maize/Pyrethrum
system:
Found
in Njombe and Mufindi districts in Iringa region
-
Tea, Maize, Irish potatoes, beans, wheat, pyrethrum, wattle trees
and sunflower
vii)
Cotton/Maize
system:
Found in Mwanza, Shinyanga Kagera, Mara,
Singida, Tabora and Kigoma, Morogoro, Coast, Mbeya, Tanga, Kilimanjaro
and Arusha.
-
cotton, sweet potatoes, maize, sorghum and groundnuts
-
Intensive cultivation
-
livestock kept
viii) Horticulture
based system:
Found in
Lushoto district; Tanga region, Morogoro rural; Morogoro region and
Iringa rural in Iringa region.
-
Vegetables, (cabbages, tomatoes, sweet pepper, cauliflower
lettuce and indigenous vegetables) and fruits, (pears, apples, plums,
passion fruits and avocado
-
Maize, coffee, Irish potatoes, tea and beans.
ix) Wet
– rice and irrigated system
-
Occupies river valleys and alluvial plains, Kilombero, Wami
Valleys, Kilosa, Lower Kilimanjaro, Ulanga, Kyela, Usangu and Rufiji.
x)
Pastoralists and Agropastoralist System
Found in
semi-arid areas i.e. Dodoma, Singida, parts of Mara and Arusha; Chunya
districts, Mbeya and Igunga district in Tabora.
Deep attachment to livestock and simple cropping system
Shifting cultivation of sorghum millet
Moderate population density 30 per sq. Km of 26
Limited resource base and poor and variable rainfall
Irrigation:
Tanzania
has a potential for attaining sustainable irrigation development in
order to assure basic food security, improve the national standards of
living and also contribute to economic growth of the country.
There is:
·
Availability of water resources e.g.
small and big rivers and lakes.
·
Available irrigatable land at 1.0
million ha. but currently only 150,000 hectares are cultivated under irrigation
·
National Irrigation Development Plan
and Agriculture Policy
are in place
·
Potential revenue
can be tapped from irrigation water as user charge.
Investment
Potentials:
Under
the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the following parastatals
are potential for investments:
§
Mbozi coffee farms with a total land
area of 409.32 hectares: Ishera, Ndungu, Tukumbi, Ng'amba, Ihanda and
Hanseketewe.
§
Cashewnut Company and Factories in
Mtwara, Kibaha, Likombe, Masasi, Newala, Tanita in Dar es Salaam, Lindi,
Nachingwea and Tunduru.
§
National Milling Company; Rice Mills
in Isaka, Tabora, Shinyanga, Mtwara, Iringa, NMC residential properties,
Mwanza maize Mill, Mtwara Hammer Mill, Wheat and Maize Mill in Ausha.
§
Bagamoyo Farms Limited.
§
Tanzania Seed Company (Kwamtili
Estate).
§
Rice Farm - Dakawa, Mbalari Rice
Farm, Kapunga Projects, Madibira Project and Ruvu Maize Farms, Mbozi,
Namtumbo Project.
§
Wheat Farms/Workshop-Basutu
plantation, Gawal, Gidagamwd, Mulbadaw, Murandja, seteet wheat Co. ltd,
warret and Central Maintenance Services Centre - CMSC.
§
Sugar Farms: National Sugar
Institute; Kagera Sugar Company limited.
§
Agro Processing Industries: Manawa
Ginneries, Pamba Engineering Limited, TANICA, Tanganyika Coffee
Establishment Ltd.; and Roasting Units.
Other Investment
opportunities:
§
Establishing farm machinery and
equipments plants
§
Operating tractor hire centres
§
Establishing ox training centres
§
Establishing training institutes
§
Establishing research centres
§
Developing human & animal power
technologies
§
Operating agriculture mechanization centres
§
Provision/training of extension
experts
§
Agriculture researchers
§
Establishing agricultural
information centres
12.
Support Services and
Information:
Research:
i)
Research remains a core function of the government.
§
The Government encourages more
private sector involvement independently or jointly in research planning
and funding.
§
In order to increase investments in
research on a sustainable basis the government encourages the
active participation by commodity/crop agencies in research
funding and planning; from cooperative societies, unions and
commodity
boards.
§
Appropriate mechanisms will be
established to collect and administer such funds.
§
Private sector will be encouraged to
participate in funding research and where necessary to own and manage
research in particular enterprises.
§
Government funding will be directed
mainly to food crop, livestock, resource management and engineering
research.
§
The government will encourage the
private sector as well as the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
where feasible, to participate in research particularly in the areas of
testing of drugs, development of special technologies and seed processing.
ii)
Training:
Agricultural
training will not remain a monopoly of the government but private sector will be
encouraged to carry out specialized training.
iii)
Extension Service:
Extension
services delivery will not be a monopoly of the government.
Private sector participation for collaborative efforts will be
promoted and where necessary private sector will be allowed to own and
manage extension services for specific enterprises such as beef, dairy,
poultry, small ruminants, horticulture, tobacco and other subsectors
which call for special attention. In
areas where private sector offer extension services by providing funding,
planning, monitoring and evaluation, the government will play a
coordinating role.
iv)
Seeds:
Private sector is allowed to produce, distribute
and market seeds. Production
of breeder seed is done at research institutes, foundation seed
production on five foundation seed farms now under the Department of
Research and Development, and certified production by contract growers
vested in Arusha, Morogoro, Iringa regions.
Tanzania Seed Company (TANSEED) is involved in both foundation
seed farms and certified seed production.
The Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCA) is
responsible for quality control from the foundation seed farm stage up
to the sale of certified seed to the farmers.
The Main Seeds produced are hybrid and composite maize, sorghum,
beans, wheat and sunflower.
Private
Companies involved in seed production and distribution are Cargill
Hybrid Seeds, Pioneer Hybrid International and Paunar and Rotian Seeds
Company.
The Seed
production system in Tanzania is governed by the Seed Act No. 29 of
1973, and the Seeds (Registration of Standards) Act.
A
new approach known as community based seed production has been
introduced as well, whereby selected farmers, who have received specific
training in Seed Multiplication, are supplied with foundation seed which
they then multiply under the supervision of extension workers.
TOSCA is responsible for inspecting the fields and the final
product. Farmers sell the
seed produced locally as “Quality Declared Seed” with simple
packaging and labeling, at a reduced price.
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