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The government of Tanzania has just published a new strategy paper for agricultural development, which is intended to stimulate growth in the sector and thereby help reduce rural poverty.
The medium-term objectives are to enable agriculture increase farm incomes, improve rural food security and boost national economic development through tapping the substantial growth potential of this key productive sector.
Tanzania, it said, has a large untapped land resource, offering "virtually unlimited expansion and diversification in crop and livestock production", but has been hindered by a reliance on hand hoes as the main cultivating tool.
In the short run, it said, the most practical approach to increasing agricultural production is to focus on labour productivity, especially among small-scale subsistence farmers who dominate the sector, and to try to boost it through greater use of affordable technologies.
For commercial farmers, it hopes improved marketing systems and a policy environment that encourages profitable, private investment will raise farm profitability and encourage the adoption of new technologies. For full strategy paper, go to http://www.tzonline.org
The agricultural sector has maintained a steady growth rate of about 3 percent per year over the last decade - greater than the rate of overall population growth and the rate of growth of the agricultural workforce, according to the strategy paper.
However, this was "considered unsatisfactory because it has not been able to bring a sufficient number of the rural poor above the poverty line and has perpetuated the existing pervasive poverty among farming communities," it added.
Rural-urban migration, non-farm job opportunities and the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics were limiting the agricultural labour force, which was a major determinant of productivity, the document stated. In recent years, rising illiteracy among the rural population had also become "a major obstacle to agricultural transformation," it stated.
The sectors numerous weaknesses included: low productivity, poor coordination and underdeveloped support facilities, erosion of the natural resource base, inappropriate technology, impediments to rural people's access to food markets and dependency on rainfed agriculture, it added.
On the plus side, it said, there was large potential to increase the production of crops such as wheat and rice to reduce imports, and to increase food and livestock exports to neighbouring and regional countries.
Tanzania's membership of regional trade groupings and signature of international trade protocols should also help to improve access to markets within the region and globally.
Among other things, the agricultural development strategy proposes restructuring commodity boards, promoting farmers' organisations and strengthening financial, lending, taxation and incentive measures.
It suggests supporting private agribusiness; promoting agro-processing and rural industry; increasing access to inputs (improved seeds, fertilisers etc) in rural areas; strengthening markets; and improving rural infrastructure.
The strategy also suggests policy changes to allow private agribusiness expand investment in primary production - either directly or through partnerships with small farmers, input distribution, marketing of produce and agro-processing.
"The overarching government objective is poverty reduction and this calls for strategies that are capable of raising the incomes and living standards of a large proportion of the rural population in the relatively near future," the document added.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
