Posted on April, 14, 2022 at 09:27 am
MEMBERS of Parliament have advised the government to invest more in irrigation, agricultural research and seed production to sustain growth of the sector.
Several MPs remarked on Monday during a debate on the Prime Minister Office's budget estimates for the 2022/2023 fiscal year that while what has been done so far is laudable, more efforts are needed to ensure that farming contributes more to GDP.
They said that the country's rivers and lakes could be used for irrigation, with Bukoba Rural MP Jason Rweiki- za advocating for the government to adopt camp farming through unemployed youth.
He stated that numerous measures must be implemented in order for the sector to contribute more to the GDP, including the adoption of irrigation schemes where youth can be provided loans by financial services to make it a reality.
The Prime Minister's Office requested the National Assembly to endorse 148.8bn/- for the next fiscal year, with 101.3bn/- allocated for recurrent expenditure and 47.5bn/- for development projects.
"Our country is blessed with beautiful and fertile lands, and we have many rivers, so we can easily undertake irrigation agriculture," he explained.
Mr Rweikiza further advised the government to form a task force that can analyse camp farming where unemployed youths can be provided land, loans, fertiliser and agriculture inputs instead of waiting for government employment.
Musoma Rural MP, Prof Sospeter Muhongo said Tanzania needs a production plan to ensure it exports the world's favourite foods to as many countries as possible.
He mentioned that the 12 world's favourite foods include salad, chicken, cheese, milk, tea, rice, coffee, eggs, apples, yogurt, bread, and soup.
"As a nation, we should have a good policy for Research Development and Innovation.
For example, in 2020 the countries that spent the most money on research compared to their GDPs are Belgium and Sweden.
In African countries in 2006, we adopted that we should spend at least one per cent of our GDP on research even though many countries have not yet arrived there," he said.
Prof Muhongo said space, science, and technology are areas of attention in research policy.
"Whether we want agri- culture, tourism, or fisheries, we must invest in these areas, and we must have satellites.
As a result, we must include it in our research and degree programmes." Babati Rural MP, Daniel Sillo said that farmers should be empowered to do productive farming to enable them to con- tribute more to GDP.
"We have a Tanzania Development Vision 2025, and achieving the aims of this vision without investing in agriculture will be a dream," he remarked.
He stated that the government should also involve the private sector in agriculture and that investments should be directed at the productive sectors to expand the taxpayer base, increase raw materials in industries, and increase employment.
Mr Sillo stated that building and developing irrigation infrastructure, establishing special agricultural areas, following the crop map, and improving research to produce the best seeds in the country are some of the things that the government should do.
Munde Tambwe (Special Seats MP) said the government should be serious about agriculture, in order to save a lot of money on importing oil and other commodities from other countries.
"Targets should be set for district and regional commissioners to ensure that agriculture improves, such as each district having a block farm and producing agricultural products," she said.
Source: Daily News