Posted on February, 21, 2024 at 09:50 am
IT is the wish of everyone to see a sector that employs the majority of the population transformed into a more commercialised and productive one.
Fortunately, all plans and strategies laid down by public and private players in Tanzania reflect this wish. But to wish and to achieve are two distinctive variables that need definitive actions to actualising it. Today’s essay will have a look on two aspects that gave rise to the subject matter.
While it may be contentious to many stakeholders along the value chain, it is empirical to realise the gravity of the problems that are bedeviling the most important sector in the country. Low growth The World Bank publication of 2019, titled “Transforming agriculture”, reported that for one decade, from 2006 to 2016, agriculture growth of Tanzania averaged at 3.5 per cent. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) rates Tanzania’s agriculture growth for several decades to be between 4.0 and 5.0 per cent.
This is below the 6.0 per cent growth rate mark advised by experts for a country to alleviate its poverty sustainably. Unimpressive productivity With the exception to maize, whose productivity has been averaging at around 3 tons per hectare, other crops’ yield is either one ton per hectare or even below.
What makes low productivity an important issue is that land is an ever-decreasing resource thanks to a population that expands so quickly which invites needs area for settlement, industrial as well as other economic activities.
Low utilisation of advanced technology stands to be the biggest reason taking into consideration that the large number of farmers is smallholders who own one to two hectares of land. Productivity issue maybe improved partly due to gradual change of land ownership.
Currently, a third of farmers in Tanzania are medium-scale farmers who own 5 to 20 hectares. Medium-scale farmers, compared to small-scale ones are endowed with capital and adhere to Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs).
This has resulted in good yields and Production. Study shows that smallholder farmers who are working around medium-scale farmers have been doing so well in terms of productivity and output compared to those are far from them. This is a positive spill-over effect of having land ownership that gives more land to individuals.
On another positive note, there has been a significant transition of labour working in farms to off farms activities. This shows that Tanzania’s economy is diversifying other sorts of economy.
One might wonder whether this should be considered as a gain to the agricultural sector. Well, for the agricultural sector to thrive it needs a healthy ecosystem.
If the agricultural economy is connected to other sectors of the economy that are weak it will be weak as well. It is for this reason that agriculture in developed nations thrives compared to one developing nations despite of having big chunks of land and supportive climate.
Source: Daily News