Posted on October, 25, 2022 at 09:16 am
Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe has stated that vegetable production has been increasing countrywide since 2017. He outlined the quantity of vegetables produced by the country and the respective years of the production of the crop in brackets as; 1.298 million (2017); 1.595 million (2018); 1.927 million (2019); 1.853 million (2020) and 2.017 million (2021).
According to him, the horticultural sector produced 7.305 million tons in 2021/2022, which is equivalent to 3.4 percent less as compared to 7.560 million produced in the 2020/2021 season.
However, Mtwara Region, which is famous for cashew nut production, is still facing insufficient vegetable production, leading to rise in prices. Also, the shortages lead to malnutrition in the region. According to the Tanzania Nutrition Survey for 2018, Dodoma, Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Kagera, Mwanza, Simiyu and Geita regions had 150,000 stunted children despite the availability of food with highest nutrition values.
“The report also showed that Njombe, Rukwa, Iringa, Songwe, Ruvuma, Kagera and Kigoma regions had the highest stunting prevalence,” says the report.
A resident of Mtwara district says the high costs of vegetables is making it quite difficult to have vegetables on the table each meal time. “Vegetables are now very expensive in the region...one needs more than just one bundle of Sh500 for a meal for a family,” she says.
She says however, that most of such vegetables come from distant regions, that was why the prices were a little bit high .
Source: Citizen