Tuesday 27 April, 2010 kilimokwanza@guardian.co.tz
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
EDITORIAL
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inside
MPs not yet convinced as Dr Magufuli plans to issue IDs to Tanzanian cattle MEMBERS of Parliament last week sent Dr John Magufuli, the minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries, back to the drawing board on two bills intended to create a proper regulatory framework for migratory herds of cattle.
How can we provide for today without forgetting the future?
Give agricultural growth corridors a chance
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he initiative for the rational development of agriculture through growth corridors is already being taken seriously by some countries in Africa. The latest convert to the corridor approach is Mozambique where the Beira corridor has taken off with a lot of promise. An agricultural growth corridor is developed through private – public partnerships that seek to align productive agricultural units with existing infrastructure and make viable the delivery of certain services that would otherwise have been too expensive in a normal geographical set up. It also invites the improvement of existing and setting up new infrastructure. For example, a cluster of a few hundred farms along a highway that leads to the port or a big city can better support an agricultural supplies store, a small bank branch, an electricity line extension, tools workshop, tractor hire service, warehouses, grain mills and different types of agribusiness. What is important also is that the ability of such businesses to find a viable market also means that the farmers are able to enjoy their services at competitive prices, thereby enhancing their capacity to grow, expand and increase the quantity and quality of their output. Both the service providers and the farmers are able to enjoy relative economies of scale compared to the costs they would face if they operated in isolation. It also becomes more realistic to market output from such a community than from scattered little units. An agricultural growth corridor does not come as an alternative or competitor to existing agriculture development programmes. It neither competes for resources nor requires an either/or choice by development planners. It is not a programme, but an
approach that uses the geographical setting to improve rational use of resources, increases the viability for service provision units as new demand that was not there before is generated in the clusters and exposes the farmers to bigger, better markets for their produce. Because it is a public – private partnership, major investments that the usual risk capital would hesitate to fund in new settlements can be supported by public and international institutions at first with a long-term view of divesting from them when their market has matured. Although an investment blue print earmarks the required investments along the corridor and in the clusters for partners to take up, with time increased activity attracts other investors who may not have been there in the beginning. Big industries are also likely to grow at the ‘end’ of the corridor, basing on a reliable supply of inputs from the corridor. But the story does not end there. Corridors are supposed to grow out beyond their countries of origin and link up with others in neighbouring territories, further cementing the regional economic integration structures and enhancing their benefits for the people of the continent.
Wallace Mauggo Editor
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The opportunities and challenges of transforming agriculture in Zanzibar The development of the agricultural sector has been identified as apriority for poverty reduction in Zanzibar’s Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty
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After nearly achieving agricultural self-sufficiency in the 1960s, Iran reached the point in 1979 where 65 percent of its food had to be imported. Declining productivity was blamed on the misuse of modern fertilizers, but now its agriculture is developed enough to help others...
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POLICY
To have your organisation promoted in Kilimo Kwanza, Call: 0787 571308, 0655 571308 0754 571308
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MPs not yet convinced as Dr Magufuli plans to issue IDs to cattle
M By Miki Tasseni
The single greatest challenge that agriculture faces, is how to increase food production sufficiently to feed the current world population of 7 billion without destroying the resources that subsequent generation will need to draw upon.
Iran set to transfer Italian technology to Tanzania
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
EMBERS of Parliament last week sent Dr John Magufuli, the minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries, back to the drawing board on two bills intended to create a proper regulatory framework for migratory herds of cattle. The bills were the Livestock Identification, Registration and Traceability Bill, and the Grazing Land and Animal Feed Resources Bill. The trouble with that assignment is that it isn’t a matter of incorporating a number of reservations, as often those are pointed out in Parliament and corrected, but the very intention of the bills. It means that the regulatory or legislative effort is a non-starter. For once, there is a lesser scope for altering the ramifications of the bill to reflect what the MPs observed, chiefly those from predominantly livestock rearing zones or districts. Those from mainly agricultural areas tended to be sympathetic with the bills, seeing in them a certain scope of restraint on movements of livestock and uncontrolled use of real or potential pastures. That has often included grazing on farmland, without any chance of seeking remedies, the resulting situation being a series of clashes pitting the two groups. Contributions from the floor of the National Assembly by pro-livestock MPs tended to emphasize the lack of conformity of the bills with prerogatives that the mi-
gratory herding communities traditionally take for granted. That is precisely what the bills seek to change but it can’t be expressed in those terms politically; instead the minister had to contend, contrary to all evidence, that the bills were intended to uplift the freedom of migratory herds. There was a strategic point in what he affirmed, within a structure of constraints. Efforts of the government to place the cattle rearing regime in some sort of modernized regulatory structures were viewed with thinly veiled contempt by MPs from cattle rearing communities. Benedict ole Nangaro (Kiteto-CCM) said that ‘the bills had not considered the fact that pastoralists were still using traditional methods to tend their animals,’ while the draft laws (regulatory regime) were ‘too advanced.’ He contended that ‘pastoralists have no time to take their children to clinics or obtain birth certificates for them. How can they possibly take their cattle for registration’? It was a bit of a hilarious argumentation. That in law is to add an offence over another and contending that the second cancels the first, as ordinarily taking expecting mothers to clinics and hospitals need to be more or less obligatory, as is registering children. The idea that pastoralists ‘have no time’ for that activity is similar to contempt of institutions and observing only what customary law or routine provides for, and it also suggests ineffectiveness of local government and sector policies as a whole. NGOs shall take note of vast education effort still wanted in the area. Still however it provides a minimum of reality check on the proposals or legislative
ideas contained in the bills, and an apparent breakdown of communication between knowledge of ecology – ways of living of a people and how they organize their households and cattle rearing – and policy making. For it didn’t need one to take a bill to the House and be told the basic irrelevance of registering a migratory herd of cattle, and without being aware that kids of migrant herders are scarcely registered at birth. It was a crying contradiction. Local Selelii (Nzega-CCM) was adamant that the bills be taken back to the committee level as they did not incorporate the views of the livestock rearing communities, while his Simanjiro colleague, Christopher old Sendeka (CCM) was even more forthright. He rejected the idea of pastoralists transporting newly born cows and goats to the registrar as the bill requires. He said ‘the bills were not helpful to pastoralists and could lead to the demise of pastoralist communities if they were passed.’ It’s unclear if this too is targeted. Ole Nangaro had hilariously remarked that the bills are ‘some PhD thesis from a student in Texas brought to guide poor Tanzania pastoralists,’ which critics noted targeted two individuals at once, first the ‘cowboy’ ex-US President George W. Bush who hails from Texas and Dr Magufuli himself. He was recently awarded a doctorate degree in chemistry - and would now appear to be applying his methodology to writing another, for a Texas professor as it were. It is hard to see how compliance with the regulation can be expected. Generalizing claims by MPs like Lekule Laizer (Longido-CCM) that ‘the bills did not
Minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries Dr John Magufuli focus on developing the livestock sector and would only succeed in creating more chaos is they were passed unchanged’ puts at issue the sort of consultation engaged. MPs from livestock rearing communities insisted on continuing with traditional identification marks vowing to reject the envisaged system like putting ear tags on animals. As a matter of fact these ‘traditional marks’ lower the value of hides and skins from Tanzania; stakeholders in the processing and export industries have for many years decried traditional methods. NGOs which view traditional knowledge as more helpful in managing communities and guiding change will see plenty of substance in MPs’ criticisms. Laizer said for
instance that ‘in my community we can identify over 60 animal colors but veterinary officers can identify only four colors.’ It means that government officials can’t be the basis of usable systems of identifying animals, in case cattle theft has taken place and animals need to be traced. In any case mere ability to identify animals helps nothing as it isn’t corroborated. One feature about the bills was that they were overly police-function oriented in what they set out to stipulate, virtually introducing a ‘pass system’ as in apartheid South Africa – making an offence out of movement, as vagrancy. When Dr Magufuli said that under the current system the livestock keepers aren’t free, he was trying to harness strength out of grief, that when herders know precisely where to take their cattle, they will not have to face removals from river valleys, etc. The pastoralists on the contrary wish for all these areas to remain potentially within reach, not foreclose them to migratory cattle, by law. Dr Magufuli and the government for that matter seem to have been targeting to bring about harmony in how migratory cattle relate to farming areas, by some sort of police regime governing migratory cattle. Were it that herders heed advice it would remain an extension problem where local officials would liaise with community elders among the pastoralists, but the current wasn’t passing between herders and peasants. In that way it was necessary for a clear regulatory regime to be brought up on migrating cattle rearing. The effort at introducing harmony in the farming vs livestock rearing regime actually fails to solve the problem in both areas, as the two communities can live side by side if each community has more than it needs. When pastoralists haven’t go enough land and start encroaching farming land, and peasants have inadequate land so farming land keeps being expanded, seeking a regulatory regime can be difficult. By the order of things, what is firstly affirmed by law is farming, and then the rest can be considered as grazing land. But in the final analysis the problem is that both communities need to change so that they take up other activities, as the land they depend upon won’t expand, while their numbers expand. However such change can’t be put to legislation, only arise as a consequence of economic mechanisms already engaged at a macroeconomic level, but they are still at infancy, and can’t break the contention between farmers and pastoralists. The issue isn’t to set out lands for either farming or pastoralist activity, but rather to extend land to each community and extend titles so that it can be exchanged. Pastoralists can then keep cattle on their own land individually, or merge by private accord, arbitrated only by the courts.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 27 April, 2010
COVER STORY
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
COVER STORY
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Taking Off Through Development of Agricultural Growth Corridors
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By Kilimo Kwanza Reporter hile Tanzania has several lucrative sectors like mining and tourism that can yield fantastic returns for individual investors, it is only agriculture that is capable of causing a major, general leap forward for the benefits of the majority of the population, if handled properly. But while it is now understood by the skeptics that concentrating on agriculture is the most feasible way to cause a turning point in the country’s development process, there are many constraints and the search for the optimal way around them continues. One of the more interesting approaches to overcome these constraints is through the development of agricultural growth corridors, as is happening elsewhere, the nearest example being Mozambique’s Beira Growth Corridor. Agricultural growth corridors are developed through public-privatepartnerships that seek the cheapest and fastest way to align agricultural productive units and systems in a situation where vital basics for the sector are still inadequate and would be unaffordable if they were to be undertaken by any individual entity. The concept therefore seeks the agricultural development of geographical belt or region through aligned productive clusters whose location takes advantage of existing infrastructure, for easier provision of services and linking them along transport and trade routes. In most areas of Tanzania, the key elements required for the take off of the development of agriculture are missing. Millions of individual farmers lack access to basic inputs like quality seeds which condemns them to poor yields from the word go even if other factors like climate and soil fertility were favourable. They cannot afford fertilisers which would at least boost quantities produces per hectare. Many cannot get chemicals for pest control, which leaves them exposed to ruin occasioned by simple plant and animal diseases for which remedies are already known. Moreover, thousands upon thousands of agriculture graduates trained at the country’s universities remain largely irrelevant to the farmers as they are not engaged in the agricultural sector where they knowledge would have been useful. So appropriate farming methods are not widespread, ability to use fertilisers safely and optimally not disseminated and measures to prevent spread of disease often not taken in time. Other missing basics that would help ordinary farmers to at least start benefitting from their sweat beyond mere survival include storage capabilities to protect farm produce from rapid deterioration. Proper storage would also go a long way in stabilizing farm incomes, unlike today where produce sells for extremely low prices during harvest time and becomes unaffordable to the very farmers who produced it later. Lack of storage capacity is at the very base of food insecurity, which takes away the minimal dignity of our people when they get reduced to begging. Financial services remain quite far from the farmers. SACCOs and microfinance institutions have been introduced in many parts of the country but the interest rates and methods of collection are so discouraging, the institutions are more feared than sought in some cases. The population remains under-banked, and even the commercial banks are not very keen on funding agriculture as they are when it comes to trade and industry. The farmers are therefore left with no avenues to secure capital for expansion and remain operating at the same or even smaller scale over the years. Tanzanian farmers’ other big frustration is lack of transport mostly due to underdeveloped infrastructure. Stories of produce rotting in one region while there is a shortage in another abound every year. Lack of assembly and servicing capabilities for transport engines only exacerbates the dilemma of poor or nonexistent roads and a neglected railway network. Partly because of poor transport but also due to low priority agriculture has suffered over the years, market outlets for farm produce are not well developed. Physically, market access infrastructure is underdeveloped both inland and at the coast. But also, the marketability of the produce is undermined because of low processing (value addition) capacity, which makes penetration of more advanced and distant markets difficult. Inability to preserve perishable products is also a highly
Proposed Tanzania Agricultural Development Corridor ridor reaches largescale industries in the Northern and Central Provinces of Zambia, Malawi and the Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi.
SAGCOT aims to facilitate the development of three to four clusters of profitable farms and agribusinesses in the Southern Corridor. Building on existing operations and planned investments, the clusters will be centred on areas of particularly high agricultural potential and will include nucleus commercial farms and outgrower schemes; serviced farm blocks; processing and storage facilities available to commercial and smallholder farmers; and improved infrastructure to farms and local communities. The development of the clusters would be funded through an innovative mix of catalytic public and private sector finance.
Agricultural growth corridor strategy limiting factor in marketing Tanzania’s farm produce. That is why farmers who recently ventured into growing apples have been frustrated with rotting fruits on their hands while Dar es Salaam’s supermarkets are teeming with apples imported from South Africa. Simple but important things like suitable and attractive packaging have not yet received enough attention. Advisory services are almost non-existent. Technical support in key areas like irrigation is inadequate and soil deterioration that potential-
ly follows uncontrolled flow of irrigation water is not yet being addressed in advance as it should. Adopting modern methods like drip irrigation still seam very far off.
How it works The development of agricultural growth corridors addresses all of the above issues and many more. In its most simplified form, a corridor model would have government and development partners backing the coordination of planning and attraction of anchor investments and strategic services in
the clusters. Once the buy-in of key players to form a critical mass have been secured an investment blue print is prepared and it lists exactly required the investments that need to be done. These are supposed to be taken up in a coordinated form so that there is no duplication, while the investor is assured of viability of n identified market. These could be power supply, a bank branch, fertilizer depot, a tractor servicing centre etc… The blue print also clearly shows the actions to be undertaken by different part-
ners ie the government, development partners, private companies and the timelines during which they should be accomplished. The approach is intended to enhance access to services and infrastructure that a rural farmer would otherwise miss, achieve economies of scale for the different units operating in the cluster, and make possible certain investments in the cluster that would otherwise have been unviable with fewer customers Examples of private-public-partnerships of private companies with government, the donor community and
NGOs include the Ghana Grain Partnership, Tanzania Agricultural Partnership, Malawi Agricultural Partnership, Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor…. The Beira Agricultural Development Corridor: – Launched last January, the Beira Agricultural Development Corridor of Mozambique is meant to cover 190,000 ha of irrigated agricultural land, create 190,000 jobs and direct-
ly generate one billion US Dollars a year in revenues. – It is also expected to earn the government $50million a year in tax revenue, enable 150 villages to get electricity and clean water supply. – 13,000 smallholder farmers will get affordable access to irrigation services 200,000 households will have access to finance, inputs and market for their produce.
Agricultural growth corridors are one of the key drivers that will unlock Africa’s social and economic growth potential as part of a integrated approach to agricultural development focusing on market development, investments in infrastructure and access to finance. Significant potential in aligning commercially interesting projects involving both small and large farmers together with country development agendas, thus attracting the investment capacity, ca-
The clusters will benefit the Tanzanian economy on a number of levels: – Local entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to set up new businesses in the agriculture services sector – e.g. transportation, storage, processing, marketing. – Rural communities will benefit from improved access to infrastructure (e.g. feeder roads, electricity and potable water) while also gaining employment opportunities with agricultural firms throughout the value chain. – Commercial, emergent and smallholder farmers will be able to produce higher yielding crops in areas which are not currently heavily populated, resulting a rapid increase in national production. – Smallholder farmers will have the opportunity to become emergent or commercial farmers with affordable access to irrigation services. – A large number smallholder farmers continuing to operate under rain-fed conditions will have improved access to inputs, value-adding services and markets. – The East and Central African region will benefit from improved food security; and the Tanzanian economy benefits from increased tax revenues, and an improved balance of payments. pabilities and delivery strengths of private sector investment at scale
The Agricultural Growth Corridor is an example is a tangible response to this combined need of how it can be done in a coordinated and systemic manner harnessing value across the whole value chain, making an impact on millions of people; small and large scale farmers alike.
The Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor investment blueprint presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year provides an excellent example of a public-private partnership that offers benefits to all stakeholders, while unlocking the region’s tremendous agricultural potential.
Kilimo Kwanza calls for the private sector to mobilise new investment to promote a modern and profitable agriculture sector. It also calls for a transformation of small holder farmers into successful commercial farmers. The Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) presents a framework and approach for how this can be achieved in line with the Kilimo Kwanza vision.
The Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is formed along the trade route and rail links linking Tanzania to landlocked countries in South-Eastern Africa. Within Tanzania, the corridor serves the Coast, Morogoro, Iringa, Rukwa and Mbeya regions. Internationally, the cor-
Successful implementation of SAGCOT will help form the basis for a competitive and sustainable agriculture sector in Tanzania, with benefits for millions of people living in the corridor. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and provide opportunities for tens of thousands of smallholders and emergent farmers to become fully commercial producers. By helping achieve the vision of Kilimo Kwanza, SAGCOT can contribute towards making Tanzania selfreliant in food and an exporter to the rest of the world. This will not happen overnight.
Making it happen will require a strong commitment to change and the perseverance necessary to ensure successful implementation from both public and private sector stakeholders.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
PERSPECTIVE
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sources, by: – Maintaining a diversity of crops and varieties to protect farmers against failure in any one crop, and providing new ways of increasing food supplies. – Diversifying farming systems to make greater use of the biological and genetic potential of plant and animal species. – Taking advantage of natural processes, such as recycling nutrients and intercropping plants that fix their own nitrogen enrich soil as well as reduce dependence on mineral fertilizers. – Adopting integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, that include conserving existing natural pests enemies, rotating crops, intercropping, and planting pest - resistant varieties. When pesticides are quite necessary, they should be used selectively and in small quantities. – Switching whenever feasible to renewable energies, such as biomass, solar and wind- power that are locally available, non-polluting, and have the added benefit of creating employment.
Water logging and salinization of irrigated lands threaten biodiversity and pollute surface and groundwater resources
How can we provide for today without forgetting the future?
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Cleophas Rwechungura, Agricultural Council of Tanzania he single greatest challenge that agriculture faces, is how to increase food production sufficiently to feed the current world population of 7 billion without destroying the resources that subse-
quent generation will need to draw upon. Land and water are the most basic requirements in agricultural endeavors, yet they are finite. Despite dramatic agricultural advances, many millions of people remain under nourished. Arable land is getting scarcer as we continue encroaching marginal and fragile areas. In the same breath, the availability of water per caput is declining rapidly. Planners have concluded that the only possible response to these constraints is a
strategy of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development- SARD, which will provide for the present without prejudicing the future. In this regard, increases in production must come mainly from existing land and water managed in a sustainable manner. Agricultural activities that degrade the productive potential of land and water resources by causing soil erosion, water logging and salinization of irrigated lands, threaten biodiversity and pollute surface
and groundwater resources, are self- defeating. Furthermore, pollution of coastal and inland waters, over fishing of the oceans, and extensive deforestation, all cost too high a price in environmental, social and economic terms.
ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY Involving farmers is essential to sustainability. This is a two-way street. Giving farmers incentives, technical information and support to enable them manage their
land and water sustainably, and receiving from the know-how of farming systems that can be adapted to increase yields while safeguarding the resource base. Relatively simple new approaches can help to increase food supplies in both developed and developing countries without depleting the resources on which they depend, or relying heavily on inputs such as fossil fuels, mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Much can be accomplished through improving management of the natural re-
RAISING PRODUCTION Future food security will depend mainly on increasing the productivity of agriculture rather than extending the area under cultivation. The technological advances have showed the huge potential offered by new high - yielding varieties of wheat rice, maize and other staple foods. Largely through the adoption of these varieties food production in many of the developing countries outstripped the rate of population growth. Increased food production is very much dependent on the availability of water, machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides. One of the most important technologies for increased production is irrigation. Irrigated land is more than twice as productive as rain -fed cropland. Thus bringing more land under irrigation, could boost production. However, bad design and poor management can be counterproductive, resulting into accumulation of pollutants, and sediments, an ideal habitat for vectors of waterborne diseases. In the current world where more than two-thirds of the water withdrawn from the earth's rivers, lakes and aquifers is used for irrigation, less than half of the water diverted for irrigation actually reaches the crops. However, new irrigation methods have been developed that use water more efficiently through recycling waster and providing better drainage. Drip irrigation and low- pressure spray systems deliver water directly to crops, and small dams located closer to agricultural areas are replacing large projects that strain the environment and are costly to maintain. There is also a question of containing pests that persistently attack field crops. Contemporary sciences make us believes in chemical synthetic pesticides as a panacea to pests attack. Incidentally, wholesale use of industrial pesticides has a negative effect to crop production and the ecology. It is therefore wise to embark on a sustainable approach to managing pests by combing biological, cultural, physical and chemical methods in such a way that they pose the least possible hazard to crops and the environment, at the same time minimizing production costs. Agricultural Council of Tanzania is an apex organization having a mandate to undertake participative and consultative lobbying and advocacy role on key private sector agricultural issues on behalf of its members and stakeholders. Among ACTs major advocacy issues is a campaign directed to increased agricultural production and productivity, while safeguarding the resource base. It acknowledges a need to produce in a judicious manner to provide for our needs and for the generations to come.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
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By Juma Ali Juma he development of the agricultural sector has been identified as a priority for poverty reduction in Zanzibar’s Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty. The potential for agriculture to tackling greatest economic challenges including high levels of poverty and food insecurity is enormous but has not been realized as the sector is still confronted with dismal performance of low growth rates induced by inadequate investments and inefficient utilization of its resources. The agricultural sector has wide scope to stimulate expansion of other sectors such as agro-processing and value addition and market linkages to service and trade sectors. As such the sector has opportunities to create employment and support livelihood to a large segment of the population. Increased investment in agriculture will accelerate the growth of the sector and therefore facilitate achievement of sustainable rural and urban livelihood systems and consequently promote overall food security and economic well-being. The private sector investment in agriculture would instigate diversification and value addition, expansion of exports, creation of employment and wealth, clustering of smallholder farmers and SMEs and agglomeration of non-informal sector in order to integrate them into the global and value chains. Furthermore, the private sector investments will facilitate interlinkages of agriculture with other sectors especially the services such as tourism and trade which have registered high rates of growth over the last decade. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar recognizes the essential role of the private sector in achieving agricultural growth and prosperity through investment in production, marketing and processing. The Zanzibar Agricultural Transformation Initiative advocates for effective private sector participation through provision of favorable policy and economic environment, promotion of agricultural technology and collection and dissemination of information to reduce the risk inherent in agricultural investment. The government is committed to fulfill this vital role in the transformation of agricultural sector. INVESTMENT IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION Zanzibar has a comparative advantage in the production of cloves, tropical fruits, spices and essential oils. We do not need to overemphasize the superior quality and dominancy we have enjoyed for our cloves over more than hundred years. This privilege has changed drastically over the last thirty years, and the change has inflicted immense trouble to our economy and wellbeing of our people. The potential to re- capture our position in cloves and clove-based industries still exists. The private sector investment should be directed to support clove re- planting and rehabilitation through establishment of supportive financial institutions, facilitating inputs and investing in intensification of clove based farming systems through contracting smallholder clove farmers for production of high value crops such as cinnamon, black pepper and vanilla; products that are easily marketable locally, regionally and internationally. The expanding domestic market for food, especially for livestock, marine and vegetable products is another opportunity for private sector investment in agriculture. With expansion in the rapidly growing tourism industry and rise of high income market segments, domestic demand for fish, meat, milk, and other high-protein products is likely to grow at a rapid pace.
PERSPECTIVE
Opportunities and challenges of agricultural transformation in Zanzibar
Getting the ground ready and (below) passing on the relevant skills
Currently, the expenditure on food and beverages in tourist hotels and restaurants alone stands at 13.8 million USD annually. About 20 percent of fruits, 60 percent of meat and 80 percent of vegetables consumed in this market are imported from outside Zanzibar. The main challenges to penetrate into this market are a weak supply base and inferior quality of our products; the challenges that can adequately be addressed through private sector investment by organizing intensive quality market driven production through smallholder contracts. Smallholder contracting can be done for vegetables, for fruits, for poultry and for dairy farming. For the fisheries sub sector, there is a great potential for private sector investment in primary production in deep sea fishing and in aquaculture. The Deep Sea provides substantial investment opportunity in fisheries development towards promoting capacity in production, processing and marketing through investing in semiindustrial vessels capable of fishing for deep water pelagic in contiguous Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters; establish suitably equipped fish collection/icing cen-
tres in more remote areas, investing in onshore fish processing industries in compliance with local and international market requirements. There is also a great potential for private sector to invest in aquaculture sub sector in order to increase fish production and improve its share in boosting national economy and livelihoods.
INVESTMENT IN AGRO PROCESSING AND VALUE ADDITION Zanzibar's agro processing sub-sector is currently small and underdeveloped. The country has considerable untapped potential to add value to existing raw materials, agricultural and marine products and draw upon the strong brand associated with the image of "Zanzibar". Basically the raw materials for agro processing and value addition in Zanzibar can be sourced from crops, livestock and marine products. In terms of crops, food crop commodities such as cassava, sweet potatoes, banana, mangoes, oranges, pineapples and tomatoes can potentially be produced to the amounts sufficient for processing and value addition. Huge markets exists both internally and
externally for quality processed products such died fruits and vegetables (banana, pineapple, lime, papaya, cassava, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, jackfruits, breadfruits etc); in addition to different preparations of jam, marmalades, prickles and juices. Appropriate technologies and experiences for drying are available including kiln drying, sun drying, electrical drying and solar drying. The fisheries sub sector has recently recorded a significant increase in fish catch thanks to increased government efforts on conservation of marine and coastal environments. The recent documented reports on fisheries sub sector (2008) indicated that the annual fish catch has increased from 17,922 tons in 2000 to 23,581 tons in 2007. The report also showed that Zanzibar is producing 7573 to 7896.6 tons of dry seaweed annually while its quota in the world market is only 7500 tons per years, meaning that 300 to 500 tons remain un-sold every year. The potential solution for solving this cumbersome quota system designed for raw seaweed exports is through promoting investments in seaweed processing and value addition. Recent study (2009) on assessment of post harvest losses of crops, livestock and fish estimated that post harvest losses of fish in processing, preservation and notably in storage averages 10 percent while the overall loss in the whole value chain is estimated at 25 percent per year. When translated into quantity and monetary values, the annual loss of fish accounts for about 5 thousand tonnes of fish
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worth more than Tshs 8.6 billion. It is therefore evident that the fisheries sub sector has potential for further expansion especially in the areas of investment in deep sea fishing and post catch handling and processing. The Zanzibar animal production sub sector includes keeping of dairy, beef and poultry. However, the dairy products have a highest potential for processing since they are produced in sufficient amount as a result of increased number of crossbreed cows and per head milk productivities. Recent figures showed that the number of cross bred cows is currently close to 29,000 and milk productivities has recently registered an upward trend from an average of 7-11 lts/cow/day to 14lts/cow/day. Despite this exciting achievement, farmers are experiencing difficulties in disposing their products. The recent development in the tourism industry has not impacted positively in creating the market linkages for the domestic livestock products such milk, eggs and beef, mainly because of the inferior quality and unstable supply base. Thus investment in agro-processing and value addition in livestock industry as envisaged in Zanzibar Agricultural Transformation Initiative could be the ultimate solution in creating and exploiting new market opportunities for the domestic livestock products. The writer is the Coordinator, Zanzibar Food Security and Nutrition Programme; Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Environment Zanzibar
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Iran is donating a hundred twowheel tractors to Tanzania for immediate delivery and intends to follow this up with more soon after.Furthermore, the country is backing the establishment of factory for making such equipment in Tanzania. The Iranian Ambassador to Tanzania, Movahedi Ghomi explains to The Guardian’s Angel Navuri how his country has made it in agriculture since the revolution three decades ago and why he thinks Tanzania can exploit its huge agriculture potential
Q: Please give us a brief history of agriculture in your country A: After nearly achieving agricultural self-sufficiency in the 1960s, Iran reached the point in 1979 where 65 percent of its food had to be imported. Declining productivity was blamed on the use of modern fertilizers, which had inadvertently scorched the thin Iranian soil. Unresolved land reform issues, a lack of economic incentives to raise surplus crops, and low profit ratios combined to drive increasingly large segments of the farm population into urban areas. The 1979 Revolution sought self-sufficiency in foodstuffs as part of its overall goal of decreased economic dependence on the West. Higher government subsidies for grain and other staples and expanded short- term credit and tax exemptions for farmers complying with government quotas were intended by the new regime to promote self-sufficiency. But by early 1987, Iran was actually more dependent on agricultural imports than in the 1970s. But we pulled together to consolidate the gains and through good management of the available resources, high endeavor, effort and diligence, our agriculture started recovering. A lot also depends on people having self-esteem, which pushes them to seek self-sufficiency. Q: What specific area is Iran channeled in Agriculture sector? A: The Iran government will provide 100 tractors to Tanzania to support the 'Kilimo Kwanza' initiative, in the first phase and more will be delivered. The tractors venture will later be managed by a joint private company between the two countries to be announced soon and will facilitate all activities in farming, including carrying the produce to the market. An assembly plant will be established in Dar es Salaam and will provide technical services and facilitate maintenance to those who will possess such tractors in the country. “These are diesel engine tractors that use four liters to run for 24 hours and are of Italian make, produced under license by an Iranian Company,” he said. Each tractor including accessories costs 4,500 US dollars. One of the main accessories of the tractors is a tailor that can carry up to 400kg and other parts which accompany the tractor include lawn and cultivating blades.
Tuesday 27 April, 2010
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Iran set to transfer Italian technology to Tanzania
His Excellency Movahedi Ghomi. Below, the two wheel tractiors that will cost only $4,500 on the Tanzanian market
The $4,500 tractor, implements and trailer
The tractors have proven to be very efficient because they are widely used in the northern part of Iran, where the climate is tropical just like Tanzania. The assembly plant also intends to have a transfer of technology plan for the country, so that it can help the small scale industries in the country to produce some of the spare parts. Q: Any other plans you have for the agriculture sector? A: We have secured a piece of land for the construction of a University in the country. That piece of land has been allocated in Kigamboni area and plans to start the construction are underway. The university will be jointly operated by Tanzanians and Iranians and the embassy is working very closely with the Tanzania Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in putting up the facility. Our companies are also set to invest in the country in quality seed production and they will employ people in the farming sector> We also intend to support a vocational training institution for training agriculture experts and other careers and also reopening the Jihad Agriculture Centre Q: How do you seee the future of Kilimo Kwanza ?
A: It has a future because Tanzania is blessed with fertile land and many sources of water in a way that there is no excuse for the country not to do well in Agriculture. If the rain that is falling here could be received in Iran, we would have everything we ever desired in our country without any problems.
Q: What Advice do you have for the agriculture sector? A: Agriculture is important in every country therefore Tanzania needs to use its resources well and manage them. For now what is happening in this country is poor management of resources. The country needs committed officials and flexible management and a good strategy that will plan for the future of agriculture for Tanzani. But also the government should try and make sure rural roads are better for the farmers to transport their products to the market or else the products will be wasted.
Q: Is Irania assistance, in your view, leading to self assistance? A: Making Tanzania to be self sustaining, all depends on Tanzanians themselves. They can do it since they have all the recourses needed, it’s a matter of having a
strategy with good management. Q: What is the state Agricultural production in Iran today? A: Agriculture’s share of Gross National Product is about 14 percent, labour market (occupation) 21 percent, Agricultural production 85 million tons including 62.5 million tons of farming products, 13.5 million tons of gardens products, 8.6 million tons of livestock products, 455 thousand tons of fishery products, iran’s place in terms of the variety of gardens
products it’s the 3rd in the world, interms of agriculture products among the top 10 countries in the world, Iran holds the first place in the world in production of pistachio, saffron, dates, pomegranates, apricots and barberry. It holds a significant position place in the world in production of watermelons, cucumber, hazelnut, lemon, almond, walnut and raisin. It also holds the produces a lot of green tea leaves, tangerine, melon, cantaloupes, apricots and barberry.