TANZANIAN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT HAS A BRILLIANT FUTURE

Waziri wa Viwanda na Biashara Dkt. Abdalah Kigoda akizungumza wakati wa kumbukumbu ya Kiongozi wa China  wa mkutano uliofanyika katika ukumbi wa mikutano wa BOT jijini Dar es Salaam

 Wajumbe wa mkutano uliofanyika jijini Dar es Salaam.

 Waziri wa Viwanda na Biashara Dkt. Abdallah Kigoda akizungumza mara baada ya kutoka katika mkutano wa kumbukumbu ya kiongozi wa nchini china, aliyeweka uhusiano mzuri kati ya watu wa Tanzania kipindi cha enzi za uhai wa Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.

Baadhi ya wajumbe wakiangalia picha iliyopigwa kipindi cha Mwalimu Nyerere.

 

By H.E. Amb. Dr. LU Youqing,

Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to

the United Republic of Tanzania

    The founding father of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, once said, “Agriculture is the biggest politics”. President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete emphasized many times that Tanzania is, in essence, an agricultural country where, agriculture means almost everything. Over 80% of the people live in the rural areas. 25% of the GDP and 30% of the foreign exchange earnings. It is a major source of raw materials for agro-based industries. To ensure the priority position of agriculture in the country, Tanzanian government initiated the important development strategy of “Kilimo Kwanza”.

 In 2006, “Green Revolution” was initiated soon after the new government was formed. Then, a series of important policies and programmes on agricultural development put into effect including Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) and the Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP) and the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGOT).

 The government also provided farmers more than 500,000 tons of fertilizer and 50,000 tons of improved seed under Tanzania National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme (NAIVS) and funded farmers to access to new agricultural technology and farm field irrigation. 

   To develop agriculture is a general consensus of all sectors of Tanzania. Many experts and scholars including representatives from the opposition parties have aired constructive opinions in different occasions like parliament to call for government’s more input, better infrastructure and more foreign investment for agricultural sector.

 Chairman of CUF, Prof. Lipumba, once said that agriculture is “the backbone of most developing countries which leads to rapid economic growth ” and “the government should put more efforts on agricultural business by setting up infrastructures, including modern markets, transportation network and fund raising channels”. 

   The international community is enthusiastic on the cooperation with Tanzania in agricultural sector. Countries including US, EU and Japan etc. and international bodies like WB and UNDP etc. all had fruitful cooperation with Tanzania in various forms. 

China and Tanzania also implemented many cooperation projects which played important role in the way of improving agricultural infrastructure, popularizing farming techniques, improving production and increasing farmers’ income. 

Soon after the independence of Tanzania, China helped Tanzania built many agricultural development projects including Mbarali Rice Farm, Ruve Farm, Ubungo Agricultural Implements Factory and Mahonda Sugar Factory etc. 

In the new century, China cooperated with Tanzania in building new projects including China Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center, Sisal Farm, Modern Agro-Industrial Park featuring cotton processing and edible oil expression and meat packing plant thorough both gratis aid and PPP channel, to name but a few. 

The above projects, with annual production value up to a hundred million US dollars, considerably increased input to Tanzanian agricultural sector, enabled tens of thousand farmers entered into purchase contract with investors, provided over 10,000 local jobs and trained large number of modern technical and managerial personnel.  

 

   Tanzania successfully achieved leap-type development from food shortage to surplus with grain production increased in successive years. Food shortage in 2001, 2002 and 2004 were 590,000 tons, 450,000 tons and 670,000 tons respectively.

 Since 2009, food production increased remarkably with annual growth rate up to 17%. The food-sufficiency rate of Tanzania in 2010, 2013 and 2014 were 112.4%, 118% and 124% respectively enabling Tanzania to support neighboring countries by food exportation which is also an outstanding contribution to regional food security.

  In recent years, large area of farm field in many regions of Tanzania were hit by natural disasters but the agricultural sector still remained high growth rate. According to IMF analysis, it is the result of largely improved productivity due to agricultural reform initiated by the government. 

   As the majority of developing countries, Tanzania is also faced with serious challenges in agricultural sector including long-term insufficient input, backward infrastructure, unreasonable planting structure, immature market, low income of farmers and unsatisfactory contribution to poverty reduction etc. 

With the consensus between Tanzanian government and all social sectors on those challenges and joint efforts from all stakeholders, Tanzanian agricultural sector will surely make greater achievements. 

   I believe that the new Tanzanian leadership to be generated from the coming general election will continue attaching great importance to agricultural development and lay a solid material foundation for Tanzanian industrialization to safeguard the country’s continuous stable rapid growth. Ample agricultural product will effectively stabilize commodity price and relieve inflation pressure.

 Comprehensive development of farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side-line production and fishery will promote the agro-processing industry and considerably lift product added-value and increase both government’s and farmers’ income. 

The improvement of agricultural production efficiency will generate large quantity of surplus rural labor which will become “Demographic Dividend” for Industrial and service sectors.