SUPPORTING THE PROMOTERS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
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kilimokwanza@guardian.co.tz
Nutrition: A ch allen ge th at deserves more attention
Agriculture subject is an important instrument in schools as part of agriculture development initiatives
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Tuesday 15 February, 2011
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 15 February, 2011
EDITORIAL
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 15 February, 2011
COVER STORY
inside
Nutrition: A challenge that deserves more attention
There is a huge difference between having a full belly and being well fed
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ood nutrition is not just about eating. It is about eating the right combination of foods in the right amounts. As things stand, at least eight out of every ten Tanzanians depends directly on agriculture for their livelihood. An estimated one in three Tanzanians also lives below the poverty line and as such is constantly threatened with chronic hunger and malnutrition. The challenges posed by nagging food shortages aside, the Tanzanian government also losses billions each year due to macro-nutrient deficiency. The country faces the daunting challenge to now focus not only on agricultural production for food self sufficiency, but also on the important matter of nutrition. Macronutrient deficiency seriously impedes the productivity of adults and in turn curtails the economic development of the country. An unacceptable number of Tanzanian children and mothers also suffer from health complications and die each year due to poor nutrition. At school, student performance is also adversely affected both by malnutrition and macronutrient deficien-
Artwork
& Design: KN Mayunga
cy. The chronic massive failures at school also call for safety nets to provide training for the millions of school drop-outs across the country that now face very daunting futures. Failure at school should not translate to failure in life. Plans should be put in place to ensure that these young people go on to live healthy and productive lives. There is a need to diversify the education curriculum and give roles to key departments like the National Service Army (JKT) to provide education in commercialized agriculture. This issue of Kilimo Kwanza explores the linkages between agriculture, health, nutrition, education and socio-economic development.
Commercial mango farming promises a bright future
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By Angel Navuri, New Delhi, India
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Grain reserves needed to alleviate crisis
Wallace Mauggo Editor
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he government has been called upon to establish a new paradigm for agricultural development through which agricultural growth will lead not only to increased production and poverty reduction but to improved nutrition as a way to reduce malnutrition. Speaking to Kilimo Kwanza during the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director General, Shenggen Fan said that Tanzania faces the challenge of setting priorities and sequence interventions to maximize the benefits from the dynamic and nonlinear relationship between growth and nutrition. The country also needs to pay attention to the role of conditional factors in agriculture and nutrition. According to Fan, policies on nutrition and how these impact health varies across different economic, geographic, and social conditions. Research needs to be done based on more comprehensive nutrition data, including micronutrient intakes across different segments of the population. “Strong institutions and governance, as well as monitoring and transparency, are vital to ensure that nutritional objectives are not left out of the development process and that pro-nutrition growth strategies and investment policies are effective,” said Fan. Economically, micronutrient deficiency costs the government approximately 480m dollars (TSH 650bn/-)
Nutrition: A challenge that deserves more attention each year. Over 40,000 Tanzanian children aged five years and below died in 2010 from causes related to malnutrition. An estimated 27,000 children in the country die each year due to vitamins and minerals deficiencies while 1,600 women die as a result of complications related to anemia during childbirth. Commenting on agriculture education in schools, Fan said the government has to introduce agriculture subject to schools in order to have good experts in the sector as part of Kilimo Kwanza initiative. Agriculture is not taught in Tanzanian primary and secondary schools despite the fact that more than 80 per cent of the population depend directly on agriculture for income. “Agriculture subject is an important instrument in schools as part of agriculture development initiatives,” he said. “We need agriculture experts in future and so the subject has to be introduced to individuals from primary school level. This will help the country to have better agriculture experts since many of the country’s agriculture ex-
perts studied in college or university level,” explained Fan. He said concrete knowledge of the experts cannot be achieved only in university level adding that students have to grow up with it starting from primary and secondary school level. More than a third of Tanzanian children fail to reach physical and mental potential because of malnutrition which is also the cause of more than a third of child deaths. Children from the poorest communities are at greater risk of disease and malnutrition and perform poorly at school. Iron deficiency in adults decreases work productivity by up to 17% per year while it impairs school children’s’ learning capacity by 90%. This creates the need for the country to also invest in production of fortified foods. Agriculture experts in the country have therefore been called upon to link agriculture with health and nutrition as a way to reduce malnutrition. “Experts should not be advising farmers on increasing production without linking this to health and improved nutrition. This is how we will be able to reduce malnutrition which affects
many children and women,” he said. He said as part of overall economic growth, agricultural growth has an important role to play in reducing and preventing under nutrition through a number of channels. Its impact extends from increased household ability to purchase and produce more nutritious food to economy-wide effects, such as increasing government revenues to fund health, infrastructure, and nutrition intervention programs. However, the IFPRI boss said the remaining question is about the effects of different patterns of agricultural growth on nutrition. Other factors such as infrastructure, the status of women including their educational level, and land distribution may contribute to how well agricultural growth translates into nutritional improvements. He further said that past experience has shown that agricultural development can serve as an engine for growth and poverty reduction, primarily for two reasons which are backward and forward links in production and consumption between agriculture and the rest of the economy, and the fact
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that the majority of the poor live in Tanzania rural areas whereby agriculture makes up a large share of their income, expenditures, and employment. “The question we face now is to what extent can agricultural growth and growth in particular sub-sectors of agriculture a springboard for nutritional improvement through such channels as increased agricultural production and lower food prices.’’ he noted He also said that although empirical evidence on the nutritional impacts of agricultural growth is limited, it shows that the impact varies across measures of under nutrition and stages of development. “Increasing demand for and access to nutritious foods along the entire value chain through consumer knowledge and awareness campaigns, mitigating health and nutrition risks associated with agriculture,” Fan said. Earlier when opening the conference , India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh said malnutrition remains a serious problem in many parts of Africa and many developing countries. Globally, nearly 1 billion people still go hungry. “Nearly one in four children under five is underweight. The problem of hidden hunger that is, deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals, such as iron, Vitamin A and iodine is also severe. Nutrition is therefore a serious challenge that has not received the attention it truly deserves,” explained the PM. According to him, malnutrition is not only a consequence of poverty, but also a cause of poverty. A malnourished child is more vulnerable to disease and less able to earn a living. The complexity of causes that underlie malnutrition calls for a multisectoral strategy to address the three key issues of availability, access and absorption. “In our country, rapid growth in agriculture with particular emphasis on the sub-sectors growing food and on the poorer regions will help to address issues of availability and access. But experience has also shown that rapid growth in GDP in general and even agriculture in particular, though necessary, is not sufficient to produce desirable nutritional and health outcomes among the socially and economically disadvantaged groups of the community. There are other causes that need to be addressed,” he explained. “We need to address the issues of absorption of nutrition, health and hygiene, which in turn depend on many other factors such as the availability of clean drinking water, sanitation and also on the education and status of women in society. Our fight against malnutrition incorporates, as it must, all these areas,” he added. Citing an example he said in India, the first priority has been to ensure food security which in turn requires a high order of self sufficiency. Cereals and pulses are the staple foods of the people of India. India has naturally focused attention on ensuring adequate production of these products to meet the needs of its population. He said that food grains however are only one part of the solution. With economic growth and changing dietary habits, demand for fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, meat and fish is steadily increasing. This is entirely natural. Good nutrition requires a balanced diet through multiple food sources.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 15 February, 2011
POLICY
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 15 February, 2011
POLICY
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Introduce Kilimo Kwanza in Primary and Secondary Schools Pillar 8 – Science, Technology and Human Resources for Kilimo Kwanza
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By Makuna Chirimi he call for Tanzania to introduce agriculture subjects in Primary and Secondary schools has gained international voice courtesy of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director General, Shenggen Fan. Speaking to Kilimo Kwanza at the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health held in New Delhi recently, the Director called on the government to introduce agriculture subjects in schools as a way of developing expertsise in the sector. “Concrete knowledge of agriculture cannot be achieved at university level alone. Students have to grow up with it starting from primary and secondary school level,” the IFPRI Director General said. The eighth pillar of Kilimo Kwanza recognizes the importance of science, technology and human resources in agriculture, with monitoring and evaluation of existing needs and trained manpower in agriculture being one of the tasks to be undertaken under this pillar. Tanzania boasts 95% universal primary school enrolment. However agriculture is not taught in primary and secondary schools despite the fact that more than 80 per cent of the population depend directly on agriculture for income. Dust has yet to settle on the “national disaster’ that was the primary school and form four examination results in which more than half of all students failed. The pass rate for secondary schools was below 12%.As such over 400,000 primary school and 170,000 secondary school leavers who failed may never again see the inside of classroom. The disquieting news of a former student who failed then committed suicide perhaps captures the national mood concerning both the real and perceived failings of the current education system and the prevailing socio-economic situation. The government has identified agriculture as its priority area for this year. However the education sector has received the lion’s share of the budget, with an estimated one out of every five shillings spent on education. But even as educationalists scratch their brains to find ways of improving dwindling
pass rates, serious thought should be given to the fate of thousands who are falling and who will continue to fall by
the wayside. Seeing as eight in ten Tanzanians live off the soil, most of the “classroom
failures” now face the uncertain future of working as unskilled farm labour. These drop outs will be expected to
gainfully contribute to Kilimo Kwanza without knowledge of modern commercial agriculture and production tech-
niques. Oh how different things would be had they been formally introduced to agriculture at primary school?
Failing the school examinations need not be the end of the road. For example a village born and raised stan-
dard seven drop out, Ntuban’ga Beleng’anyi has somehow managed to construct a vehicle from scratch. The
vehicle, fitted with a threshing machine’s engine, is now a sensation of sorts along city roads. Beleng’anyi says that upon completion his vehicle will be used for various applications in Kilimo Kwanza including threshing, husking, grinding, power generation and pumping water. An uphill task facing the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFC) is to develop incentive programs to attract, train and retain youth in agriculture. Also central to this theme is fostering attitude change towards agriculture. The pervading attitude across the country is that the “most important” things are taught in school, and since these “important subjects” do not include agriculture, many parents and students go with the assumption that agriculture is not important and that it doesn’t offer real career options. The agriculture sector suffers a dearth of skilled or even semi-skilled manpower. Reports indicate that less than 30% of all graduates from the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) move on to pursue careers in agriculture. SUA is also the only institution of higher learning in the country that offers dedicated formal training in agriculture. As such, the country rapidly needs to invest in alternative institutions that could support the training of agriculture specialists who are guaranteed to stay in the field. It was encouraging to hear of government plans to introduce a National Service (JKT) camp in every district. Plans for the Ministry of Education (MoE) to provide scholarships and loans to agricultural undergraduates are also commendable. But these plans need to be implemented. And fast. Expanding the JKT’s annual intake and course offerings could give a second chance to the millions of young people whose future currently hangs in the balance. The JKT is also uniquely and strategically poised to fill the void of training agriculture specialists. With a long history of providing training and practical life skills to youth, time is ripe to expand the role of the national service to act as a safety net that will support our now flailing education system while assisting to attain the goals of commercializing agriculture. The JKT could collaborate with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFC) to engage in support training of recruits who can work as agriculture para-professionals and de-
ployed in every ward. Recruits, consisting primary and secondary school dropouts can be provided with both short course basic and long term advanced practical training in soil and water conservation, agro-processing, agro-mechanics, irrigation and modern agricultural production methods. The JKT could also serve as a strategic starting point for a recruitment program for agricultural specialists in irrigation, hydrology, dam designers, agro-mechanics and agro-contractors. Such training could also provide a good launching pad to provide agricultural loans and land to entrepreneurial graduates and groups of candidates who can move on to become commercial farmers. Training models can build linkages with organizations like SIDO to train, promote and expand small scale agroprocessing among students. This is an important first step in creating forward linkages and spurring the development and expansion of agro-processing industries which is envisaged in the seventh pillar of Kilimo Kwanza. The new JKT graduates could assist in establishing and managing agricultural resource centres, establish weather centers at ward level and establish mechanisms for data warehousing and marketing information. Mainstreaming of gender in Kilimo Kwanza and development programs to strengthen the position of women in agriculture could also start at the camps which recruit both male and female students. Recently the government through SUMA-JKT acquired hundreds of tractors on loan from the government of India. As financial institutions turn their backs on agricultural lending, perhaps some of these tractors can be incorporated into the pilot phases of such training. Starting Kilimo Kwanza camps is a logical step in the right direction as it would also increase grass root awareness and support for the green revolution. Kilimo Kwanza is here to stay and as such needs to be quickly and practically incorporated into the education system. Human resource development is a key component that has so far received little focus and support. Education and training of human resource at all levels starting from primary school is key to achieving the goals of commercializing and modernizing agriculture.
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Tuesday 15 February, 2011
MARKET
By Lazaro Felix THE country could reap great economic benefits through organized and well managed mango cultivation. Mangoes are even said to be a better source of income currently compared to tea, coffee and cashew nuts, this according to experts in the sector. They have termed it as an opportunity that the government should seize through Kilimo Kwanza to improve the country’s economy. However, some farmers are skeptical and view the green revolution as being full of empty promises. As such that they are pessimistic whether the poor farmers’ lives will ever change for the better. However is all goes according to plan then life will surely change for the better for those engaging in commercial mango farming. The income earned through mango farming is satisfactory and this can be testified by those in the business whose number has been growing by the day. This is why the Association of Mango Growers (AMAGRO) looks forward to increasing it’s annual production from the current 300,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes come year 2012. Those in the business have it that mango farming can transform an individual’s life as well as that of their grandchildren. One well maintained acre of mangoes for example can take up to 64 trees; with a mature five-yearold tree producing an average 300 mangoes. A ten year old tree produces between 900 and 1000 mangoes. Sold at 300/- each, this means that one tree can generate up-to TSH 90,000/- annually. According to AMAGRO, an acre with 5 year-old trees whose mangoes are sold at 300/- each produces 5,760,000/-. During the last mango season, a single mango was sold at 600/- at retail price. However according to the chairperson of AMAGRO, Burton Nsape, only one per cent of the estimated 300,000 tonnes of mangoes that Tanzania produces annually is good for international market. The remaining 99 percent do not meet international market standards. Nsape says if mango agriculture is mechanized, it would reduce poverty among a majority of farmers given the fact that; “mango income per acre is much higher compared to coffee, tea and cashew nuts.” Commenting on the December 2010 mango testing festival, Nsape said the festival was a success and encouraging as it attracted more people from various regions and paved the way to business opportunities within and outside the country. “After the festival was over, some people visited our offices to get more information about mango farming, mango business opportunities and we hope the number of mango growers will increase,” said Nsape. During the festival, people were introduced to new mango varieties which are acceptable in the world like apple, keith, tommy atkins, kessar and zill which respond well in the market places. These are more preferable because they are fibreless, tastier and juicier. Mango Farming Training Officer, Hamadi Mkopi said through the event,
Commercial mango farming promises a bright future
people now know that mangoes can be among other commercial crops; hence they curiously ask for more information related to mango activities. “We thereafter got business opportunities within the country and outside. Locally, Azam factory for example promised to buy all our mangoes for his juice industry. Also Turkey, Netherlands and countries in the Middle East asked us to export them mangoes,” Mkopi said. He added that, “attracting internal market is very important. For example South Africa only exports 5 percent of
its mangoes and 24 percent is processed into juice, 25 percent makes pickles, 15 percent are dried and 30 percent are sold locally.” South Africa has the advantage of generating more income through selling dried mangoes because at the end of year 2000, a kilogram of dried mangoes was sold at 6 pounds in the world market. Mkopi said exporting mangoes to the countries that showed interest during the mango festival is hindered by low mango production capacity. “It becomes difficult to supply say
10 tons to 100 tons to other countries because we lack collection centres and packing houses. We need more funds, land and government support in order to build a packing house and other facilities,” he said. Tanzania still faces poor mango farming something that limits the supply to the world markets. According to 2007 statistics, the country produced 317,000 tones of commercial and local mangoes. Of these, only 15000 tons were modern commercial mangoes which attract international markets. The remainder could not meet the in-
ternational market quality. Countries that use modern farming technology benefit more. India for example produced more than 13m tons in 2007, Mexico and Pakistan produced more than 2m tons each while China produced more than 3m tons. The same statistics approximated that the world annual production of mango was more than 33m tons. In Philippines, mango farming supports industrial growth especially sugar and plastic industries from which packaging materials are manufactured. It also generates employment to more than 900 households who provide labour to industries and farms. Mkopi noted that unlike other cash crops like coffee, cotton and cocoa; mangoes have proved to be among the few crops that are free from stiff competition in the world. Countries in the northern hemisphere like China, Philippines, Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria, Haiti, Egypt and others produce 85 percent of all mangoes worldwide while those in southern hemisphere like Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania Australia and others produce the remaining 15 percent. AMAGRO is working to transform farmers’ lives but faces challenges like unfulfilled government promises about Kilimo Kwanza as one of the major stumbling blocks in the development of mango farming. Farmers for example were promised benefits from a farmers’ bank which is yet to be established. Another challenge is the growth of urban centres which leaves farmers landless since some farmers are forced to surrender their plots to the government during city planning. “Instead of maintaining these plots to act as green belts they evict farmers from their places,” said the AMAGRO chairperson. Other challenges that mango growers face include grading and packaging which discourage farmers. Apart from the quality of mangoes, factors like size and mango colour are considered in international markets. According to the AMAGRO training officer, poor farming methods lead to poor mango colour, oversized fruit whereby some mangoes weigh up to 2 kilograms and hence can not fit in specified boxes. Moreover lack of fruit selling stations which are legally recognized affect mango consumption at home. Mkopi thinks the lack of such vending stations and proper market centres denies consumers proper access of the fruit. AMAGRO plans to take measures to address challenges like building the packaging house, empowering farmers to increase the sizes of their farms as well as encouraging local markets. It will also open clusters in some regions for easy training and to a large extent spend the association’s fund to prepare mango festivals, undertake research which will enable farmers to have two mango seasons and open a mango economic zone. The recently held AMAGRO’s mango tasting festival was aimed at providing an effective platform to mango growers to network with buyers, experts and other key stakeholders and to open a platform for more Tanzanians to join mango farming.
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Tuesday 15 February, 2011
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Angel Navuri, New Delhi, India anzania’s failure to reap real economic benefits from the sustained period of rapid growth has raised eyebrows among global researchers attending the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health. World researchers gathered here have highlighted that Tanzania’s
POLICY
Tanzania’s growth without economic benefits raises eyebrows poverty rate fell from 35.7 to 33.6 percent only in the last two years while the share of the population consuming insufficient calories declined marginally from 25.0 to 23.6 percent. “Although Sub-Saharan Africa experienced unprecedented economic
growth in recent decades, agricultural growth, often regarded as instrumental in lowering poverty rates in agrarian-based developing countries, averaged a respectable 4.4 percent during the period. The Tanzanian economy is one example of a country that failed to
reap the benefits of sustained rapid growth” International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) researcher, Karl Pauw said. He said the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6.6 percent per year during 1998–2007, while agri-
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cultural growth, often regarded as instrumental in lowering poverty rates in agrarian-based developing countries, averaged a respectable 4.4 percent during the period. Some of the questions that were raised during the conference were; first, why didn’t the rapid growth translate into more rapid reductions in poverty and malnutrition? Secondly, what is the contribution of agricultural growth to reducing poverty and malnutrition in Tanzania? An examination of recent production trends suggests that although the agricultural sector as a whole grew rapidly during 1998–2007 (at 4.4 percent per year), growth has been volatile, and the source of this growth has been concentrated among a few crops. Rice and wheat, for example, dominate production trends for cereals, while cotton, tobacco and sugar production grew almost 10 percent per year. Larger-scale commercial farmers grow these well-performing crops on farms heavily concentrated in the northern and eastern periphery of the country. In contrast yields for maize, the dominant staple food crop grown extensively by subsistence farmers, remained low due to primitive farming methods, despite rice and wheat expansion and generally favorable agroecological conditions. During the conference it was also highlighted that Tanzania remains a net cereals importer because production has failed to keep pace with rising consumer demand. Another IFPRI researcher, James Thurlow suggests that Tanzania’s low poverty growth elasticity results from the current structure of agricultural growth, which favors larger-scale production of rice, wheat, and traditional export crops in specific geographic locations. He said that accelerating agricultural growth in a wider range of subsectors than those currently leading the growth process can strengthen growth’s effectiveness in reducing poverty. Faster agricultural growth would also benefit urban and rural households by increasing caloric availability and the ability to pay for food. “Various interventions are required to improve smallholders’ crop yields, such as investing in rural infrastructure, researching and adopting improved seed varieties and providing extension services,” he said. He noted that in recent years, the Tanzanian government has allocated a relatively small share of its budget to agriculture. However, current development plans indicate a reprioritization of agriculture as a driver of economic growth and socioeconomic development. Our results provide some indication of which agricultural sectors should be prioritized within this development plan in order to maximize national growth, poverty, and nutrition outcomes,” He added.
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By Angel Navuri, New Delhi, India
Tuesday 15 February, 2011
POLICY
hile plans are underway to introduce global grain reserves, the Tanzanian government has been urged to increase the number of its grain reserves to enable easy movement of food to affected areas incase of serious food crisis. Reports show that there are visible signs that the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, and according to analysts, this puts pressures on Tanzania’s food supply situation even as the government has sought to allay the fears. The global food crisis is already linked to recent unrests in North African countries, and there are fears that further deterioration of the situation could spark a repeat of the deadly riots that broke out in 2008 around the world. Early this month Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country after he failed to quell deadly riots, even after slashing prices on food staples. In an interview with the Kilimo Kwanza, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)’s Director General, Shenggen Fan said increasing the country’s number of grain reserves and improving their standards will stabilize food prices during any crisis. “High food prices during any crisis are caused by the shortage of food in the reserves while at the same time the food cannot be moved easily to the affected areas because of poor infrastructure. The moment the two areas are improved there won’t be any problem during crises,” Fan explained. “Plans are underway to start global grain reserves but currently we are convincing the Tanzania government to improve the standard of grain reserves and increase the number so that more food will be reserved to have enough for all,” he said. Fan said that although it will be a difficult task to have a global grain reserve, IFPRI will work hand in hand with governments to achieve the goal. The Director General also advised the country to have a food network with its neighbouring countries so that incase one country has a food crisis another one will be able to assist. “Tanzania and other neighbouring countries should form a food network so that incase of a crisis, it will get assistance, “ he noted. Prices of grains and other farm products in the world began to rise late last year after poor harvests recorded in Canada, Russia and Ukraine, tightened global supplies. More recently, hot and dry weather in South America has cut production in Argentina, a major soybean exporter, as floods sweeping across Australia this month wiped out much of that country's wheat crop. Earlier this month, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said its food price index jumped 32 per cent in the second half of 2010, well above the forecast. Prices rose again last week after
More grain reserves needed to alleviate crisis
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Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) – Tel: +255 22 276 0006
Dar es Salaam Water and Sewarage Corporation (DAWASCO) Tel: +255 22-2131191/4 Drilling and Dam Construction Agency (DDCA) Tel: +255 22 2410430/2410299 Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority Tel: +255 22 2123850, 22 2123853 Water and Environmental Sanitation Projects Maintenance Organization (WEPMO) Tel: +255 22 2410738, 716 099959 Ministry of Water Tel: +255 22 245 1448
INDUSTRY SUPPORT AND ASSOCIATIONS
Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) – Email: dg@sido.go.tz, info@sido.go.tz ANSAF - P.O. Box 6370, Dar es Salaam CNFA - info@cnfatanzania.org
Tractors Limited Cells: +255 784 421606, 786 150213
Consolidated Holdings Corporation (CHC) Tel: 255 (022) 2117988/9 Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) – Tel: +255 22 2863683/2863409 Export Processing Zones in Tanzania (EPZ) Tel: +255 22 2451827-9 Agricultural Economics Society of Tanzania (AGREST) – Tel. +255-23 260 3415
Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) Tel: +255 22 2122984-6 Tanzania Agriculture Partnership (TAP) Tel: +255 22 2124851
Tanzania Milk Processors Association (TAMPA) Tel: +255 222 450 426
Rural Livelihood Development Company (RLDC) Tel: +255 26 2321455 Tanzania Cotton Board Tel: +255 22 2122564, 2128347
Horticultural Development Council of Tanzania (HODECT) Cell: +255 789 222 344; Fax: +255 27254 4568 TATEECO Ltd – Tel: +255 784 427817 AGRO-PROCESSING ERTH Food - Tel: +255 22 2862040 MUKPAR Tanzania Ltd Tel: +255 28 250038/184
ASAS Diaries Limited - Tel: +255 26 2725200 Tanga Fresh – Tel +255 27 2644238 NatureRipe Kilimanjaro Limited Tel: +255 22 21 51457 EQUIPMENT
the US Department of Agriculture cut back its already tight estimate of grain inventories. Estimated reserves of maize were cut to about half the amount in storage at the start of the 2010 harvest; while soybean stocks were at the lowest level in three decades, partly due to large purchases by China. The ratio of stocks to demand was expected to fall later this year to "levels unseen since the mid-1970s," the agency said. However, the local situation has not deteriorated as much even though President Jakaya Kikwete warned during his end of the year address in
December that the government could not exactly forecast results for 2011 amid poor rainfall in food-rich areas. Latest statistics from the Bank of Tanzania show that the stock of maize and sorghum at the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) stood at 138,964 metric tonnes by September last year. The amount, the largest held by NFRA since January 2008, puts the country in a relatively comfortable position in the short term. President Kikwete also revealed the government had spent over Sh60bn to raise the national reserve to a strong 200,000 tonnes with projections of attaining the 400,000 by 2015.
The ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFSC) officials say NFRA has already been beefed up to 206,245 metric tonnes as part of preparations for any future emergency food needs. Although Prime Minister Pinda told the ongoing parliament in Dodoma last week that the local food situation was stable due to surplus harvest in the last season, people in some parts of the country are going hungry due to famine. However, the Prime Minister warned against misuse of food to avoid food shortage currently facing many countries in the world.
Gurudumu Tatu Limited Tel: +255 22 2865632 / 2863699
National Service Corporation Sole (SUMAJKT) Cell: +255 717 993 874, 715 787 887 FINANCE Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) Tel: 023-3752/3758/3765 Community Bank Association Tel: +255 22 2123245
Bank of Tanzania P.O. Box 2939, Dar es Slaam, Tanzania AGRO-INPUTS Minjingu Mines & Fertilizers Ltd Tel: +255 27 253 9259 250 4679