Kilimo Kwanza

Tuesday 9 March, 2010 kilimokwanza@guardian.co.tz

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA 2

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

BIOFUELS

EDITORIAL

A clear way forward on biofuels needed

inside

A clear way forward on biofuels needed Being part of the global village where the search for alternative sources of energy and environmental protection are critical issues, Tanzania cannot afford to continue with an indecisive attitude towards the promotion of biofuels, an industry for which it has huge potential.

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by 2009

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Most land in Tanzania not yet surveyed, unregistered

By Sayuni Kimaro

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It is like the chicken and the egg; which came first?

Most people in Tanzania have no land titles because there is no capacity to issue them. But government has not developed the capacity because the people have not expressed enough demand for/interest in titles...

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Go for that title deed now!

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t emerges that 89 percent of Tanzania has not yet been surveyed. For this massive country measuring nearly a million square kilometres, this represents about 900,000 squares kilometres of uncharted territory. This ‘unidentified’ Tanzanian land is larger than the combined size of the country regional partners of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi put together.

According to Mr Ladislaus Salema, the Mukurabita Program Coordinator in the Office of the President, even if the Lands officials had all the equipment they need, it would take the next ten years to have 30 percent of the country properly mapped and titles issued to the occupants of the land.

While Tanzanians can sit back in the comfort of the constitutional provision that vests all the land under the trust of the President on their behalf, and be assured of always being able to access it, they are missing out by not getting their own lease titles. There are several factors for this but the biggest problem, according to Ladislaus Salema, are the people themselves. They are simply not seeking the titles. Salema says even though there are technical limitations for titling the land,

there just isn’t any significant demand for the titles to cause the required investment in the technical capacity to issue them.

The consequence of Tanzanians’ not having titles for their land is economic stagnation. A person who does not have a title deed does not have registerable interest in that land, however big it is, and regardless of the millions they may have invested in building and farming on it. They cannot be entertained by any bank if they want financial services.

President Jakaya Kikwete has been encouraging people to secure their rights in their land by seeking titles. He has officiated at functions handing out hundreds of titles to those who have seen the light.

Leaders at all levels should join the president in encouraging ordinary people to secure their plots and shambas by getting certificates of registration. This will enable them to start handling agriculture as a business. The first step is to get a title for your land.

Wallace Mauggo Editor

Agriculture first, but with industry as well Agriculture is the largest sector in the economy accounting for over 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It also employs over 60 percent of the population labour force in the rural areas and accounts for about 40 percent of foreign exchange earnings but...

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Japan vows to boost rice production in Tanzania Japan’s Ambassador to Tanzania, His Excellency Hiroshi Nakagawa on the weekend discussed his country’s involvement in Tanzania’s development with Angel Navuri. Below are excerpts of the interview: 8

Art & Design: KN Mayunga

eing part of the global village where the search for alternative sources of energy and environmental protection are critical issues, Tanzania cannot afford to continue with an indecisive attitude towards the promotion of biofuels, an industry for which it has huge potential.

Debates on food security versus biofuels production have run their course, with neither side carrying the day, nor significantly going ahead to step up production.

The country continues to spend some $1.5 billion a year – a quarter of its foreign exchange – to import petroleum while it could ‘grow’ its clean fuel and export the rest as well. But at the same time, Tanzanians continue to suffer from hunger while millions upon millions of hectares of land lie idle, sitting on tonnes of fresh water that could be used to irrigate them and produce more food than we need.

There is no shortage of talk, talk and talk at seminars where all brilliant reason are advanced why “we cant” do this and why we can’t do that. What is lacking is decisiveness. All the clever papers delivered at workshops will not put more food on the table if not implemented, nor will they save the environment that is being destroyed at an alarming rate by dangerous activities like charcoal burning, which are inevitable in the absence of a less primitive approach to energy production and consumption.

To produce or not to produce biofuels There is no doubt that protection of citizens’ access to agricultural land for food production is paramount. But since the benefits of promoting the production of biofuels can also not be underrated, and the country obviously has enough land for both, what is needed is a clear policy on the promotion of biofuels in Tanzania. It is estimated that the country’s fuel needs can be met by just opening a total of 500,000 hectares to biofuel production.

Already there is a Biofuels Task Force (BTF) established in April 2006 to promote development of the sector and development of the legislation to stimulate the use of biofuels. But time is running out for clearheaded implementation, and the government needs to formulate and implement long-term policies, regulations and strategies of biofuel production instead of quick adaptation of the production. For example, a large-scale investor is allocated a huge chunk of land amid fanfare today, only to cave in due to activists pressure tomorrow and packs up his bags. This is symptomatic of lack of clear regulations in the sector that is yet to make a definite take off.

It is not in dispute that all efforts should be made to avoid large-scale farmers taking over already occupied farming land to grow biofuel crops. In light of the changing climate and growing threats to the environment, the country’s land and environmental policies need appropriate regulatory updating. While the Energy Policy calls for efforts to promote fuel switching from petroleum to other alternative, environmentally friendly fuels, it doesn’t explicitly mention biofuel, probably because at the time it was written, biofuel production was barely being considered.

The Land Policy seems to be better tailored to secure the interests of the nationals, promoting community and management of local lands and natural resources.

Thus, if respected, these laws offer important protections for individuals and villages facing land acquisition pressures from biofuels production.

The National Environment Policy of 1997 articulates well the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation, which should cover poverty and bio energy production and consumption. It recognises that investment in development is vital for environmental protection because the environment is the first victim of acute poverty. It also advocates minimization of wood fuel consumption through the development of alternatives and promotion of sustainable renewable energy resources, and energy conservation.

And the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (2001) promotes creating a favorable environment to bring new land under production by either small farmers or large private investors. It therefore supports large and small investment for biofuels production in Tanzania, as long as those investments as environmentally sustainable. But the Government needs all along to ensure the sustainability of land for the benefit of the population and prevent biofuels investments from impacting negatively on the remaining forests.

Opportunities and Risks Tanzania has sufficient arable land for biofuels production. The tropical climate is conducive. Unlike Brazil which has succeeded by using rain-fed agriculture for its sugar cane for biofuel production, investor in the sector may have to rely heavily on underground water.

But this is relatively easy to access in the country where in many places it is accessible at a mere ten or fifteen metres of drilling. The country also has a long coastline through which shipment for export to the ready European and American market possible.

Several companies have already been registered for production of biofuels in Tanzania. Most of them are foreign companies and they have been allocated land. Hey have initiated biofuel projects some of which have been hit by controversy over complaints by displaced locals.

Usually, this arises when local administrators conclude without checking exact occupancy on the ground which should involve consulting local residents.

Some of these investments, such as the Sun Biofuels project at Kisarawe have attracted a lot of local and international media coverage, raising concern of civil society groups about the environmental and social impacts of biofuel investments.

Maximum scrutiny must therefore be exercised before implementing biofuel projects in the country, so that communities in prospective areas do not suffer adverse environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts. But that is what regulations and regulatory bodies are for.

Tanzania has an undeniably huge potential for producing biofuels and biofuels in turn have a potential of reducing national expenditure on petroleum fuels. The country also has a potential to produce and export biofuels to the EU and America where the market already exists and open to African producers.

Not only would the country enjoy massive savings from petroleum imports but it would also increase its GDP, employment and enjoy more export revenue, all of which would stimulate economic development.

A domestic market worth $1.5 billion is available, and without our own biofuel production, that money has to be spent anyway, with the attendant pollution, without creating employment for us. Production of biofuels here would add to energy supply for rural areas so that places that would otherwise have to wait for several decades before they get clean energy for lighting and cooking can also be brought on board.

At present, oil palm and jatropha are the main crops used for producing biofuels in Tanzania. Oil palm has been cultivated for decades in parts of Tanzania as a food crop, whereas jatropha has been used in certain areas for hedges or grave markers though not for commercial or other uses. Sugarcane is widely cultivated in Tanzania to produce sugar, and many proposals have been developed to diversify and expand the use of sugarcane for biofuel production. There is the potential to produce biofuels from other existing oil food crops such as coconut, sunflower, and even avocado, but no biofuel projects using these crops are currently operational in Tanzania.

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA 4

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

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Most land in Tanzania not yet surveyed, unregistered It is like the chicken and the egg; which came first? Most people in Tanzania have no land titles because there is no capacity to issue them. But government has not developed the capacity because the people have not expressed enough demand for/interest in titles to cause sufficient investment in land surveying and registration. ERICK KABENDERA asked the national coordinator of Mukurabita, Mr Ladislaus Salema this affects Kilimo Kwanza.

Question: The government has recently introduced Kilimo Kwanza – a new public/ private sector partnership aimed at spearheading efforts to bringing about Agriculture revolution in the country. How do you think your programme can support this programme?

A: Kilimo Kwanza is like a political slogan that is built in the system of implementing the agriculture sector development slogan.

There have been other initiatives in the past aimed at transforming small scale farming from the use of traditional technology in bringing about agricultural development. However, it is wrong to say that the programme aims at transforming small farmers from the use of hand hoe given the fact that no one can avoid using a hand hoe no matter how advanced the technology is.

Agriculture depends on mixed technologies and therefore I think the strategy behind the initiative I think is to empower small farmers to be able to use technology in production, harvesting, preservation as well as transportation of their produce.

Also important is the availability of good seeds. As Property and Business Formalization Programme (PBFP), we want to formalize farming and make sure that small farmers are well recognized and

One of the aims of Mukurabita was to bring about change to property and business entities in the informal sector, into legally held and formally operated entities in the formal sector of the economy. Before he was given his permit, Kicheere and other residents in his area had to fill out application forms at the local government office, which were forwarded to the council before he was awarded his permit

By Erick Kabendera

M UNCHARTED TERRITORY; Many people use land for generations, without ever bothering to register their interest in it. Nearly 90 percent of the land is not yet surveyed, and it wiould take over 30 years for this to be done, (like the inset.) making the registration of certificates of proprietorship impossible. As a result, the ‘owners’ can not secure serious financing from financial institutions.

accepted. This means that a plot has to be surveyed and registered as part of the process to acquire land permit.

Every farmer should know that they can not do anything substantial if a piece of land on which a farmer wants to use for agricultural purposes is not formalized.

Q: From what you have said, what do you think are the chances of the programme being successful?

A: Kilimo Kwanza will only succeed if small farmers are empowered with modern equipments, which is only possible if their land is legally recognized and that is where we think Mkurabita can come in to help.

Q. It is widely believed that it is difficult to know how much of the country is unsurveyed because of lack of reliable statistics. How do you can your programme help reverse the trend?

A. The problem is not the statistics but the people themselves. We conducted a research on that some years ago and found that 89 percent of land in Tanzania is not surveyed. And those who own majority of the land are not integrated in the formal economy and therefore cannot participate in the ongoing discussion on land ownership.

If we formalize at least 50 percent of the land then we can be able to talk about the issue of proper utilization of land. It is very important to compare ourselves with developed countries especially those which have introduced proper ownership systems and eventually become successful.

For instance investors in the country are borrowing money from banks.

But all they have is only ideas, and they operate under limited liability registered companies.

Thus it becomes easier for them to show some papers and a few details before they are granted loans.

But majority of Tanzanians are in total darkness and do not think that way and that is the real meaning of Mkurabita; trying to help people see such opportunities, especially those who practice agriculture but cannot seeks loans from banks because their property is not formalized.

Q: So how can Kilimo Kwanza tackle such shortcomings to achieve its goals?

A: Kilimo Kwanza is big programme whose implementation can take long.

It is not a timeframe plan and therefore we need to put more efforts in that this helps to bring about modern agriculture.

Small farmers must formalize their

lands so that they become recognized and should embark on using modern farming tools. Kilimo Kwanza cannot just stand on its own as it has to be linked with businesses. If we do not have good businesses within the country Kilimo Kwanza is doomed to fail because production will increase but farmers will have no market to sell their produce.

Q. What do you think should be done to improve the standards of agriculture as the country embarks on implementing Kilimo Kwanza?

A. I think appropriate technologies are needed to process crop and livestock products so as to increase value in the market.

For instance a coffee farmer ought to know how to make profit from his produce and the market options available. They have to know that processing your produce before exportation increases value than exporting it unprocessed.

The same applies to cotton, where a farmer should to an extent process cotton instead of selling unprocessed cotton which still has fibre and oil mixed together.

Instead, they can process it and extract oil and fibre and sell the two separately.

To us it is a matter of providing education to such farmers that they may learn how to increase the value of their produce

in the market.

When Mkurabita formalizes your business it means that we have provided you with legal power. But the value chain cannot be complete if only an individual farmer is empowered rather than having small farmers organizing themselves in form of formal groupings and process different products and sell them.

With them being registered and recognized, small farmers will increase their economic means and may decide to buy their own produce and process them so that they could be easily accepted in the market.

Q. But in order to formalize the entire 89 percent of unsurveyed land you talked about, you need technical resources and technology. Do you have that capacity?

A. We first need to ask ourselves if we have people who are ready to have their lands formalized. I think people should be the ones demanding for it and Mkurabita will provide the experts to help them.

Even if they do not have enough money, we first want to see their commitment because the government is committed to doing that.

In terms of expertise, of course experts are available but very few. It is however not a big task to recruit more. For example a

form four leaver can become a licensed surveyor after two weeks of training.

It is however true that we need money for almost everything but the most important thing is commitment.

If at all people are eager to take part in what we are doing they will definitely contribute money to benefit from our services. For instance, People in Njombe have shown their willingness and that they are ready to benefit from our services without waiting for the government to do it for them. To me, having such committed people is a huge achievement.

Q. How big is the shortage of licensed surveyors?

A. I do not have exact statistics but of course we don’t have enough experts in the area. The important thing is how to make use of these few available ones to get maximum input.

We should not tire our minds expecting the number of licensed surveyors to increase but work with what we have. It’s not just about the shortage of licensed surveyors but also the land planners, which is a huge challenge to us. All we need is organizing ourselves properly.

Q. One of the hotly debated issued before the signing of the East Africa common market protocol was that land ownership should be subjected to the governing laws of each country for fear that foreigners would take land.

Did you share similar views?

A. Business in East Africa is fast growing and every country has its own governing laws. In that case each country’s policies must be put in order.

That is why it is important for Tanzania to implement Mkurabita programme.

But before formalization, laws must be harmonized. Therefore we need to create systems that will facilitate us doing so.

We asked the land and housing minister if we need to improve the 1995 land law so as to meet the common market demand, knowing what the East African market needs were.

But the problem is that Tanzanians do not own land and when investor come and ask Tanzanians who own land so that he can do business with them, they say that the government is the one that owns it.

Q. If all the challenges you have mentioned get solved, how long would it take to survey the entire country?

A. I think we would take about ten years to survey 30 percent of land.

But I think we need to do it soonest because according to the report title: “Making the law work for everyone”, which was produced by the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor aiming at focusing on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law, property formalization is key to reducing poverty. And that is what Mkurabita wants to achieve.

wita Kicheere, a resident of Kigamboni was excited when he received news from his local government authorities that his locality would benefit from the Ministry of Lands project aimed at issuing residential permits for residences in unplanned areas in 2005.

He was further informed that the purpose of the exercise was meant not only to recognize ownership of such residences but also to enable owners to use the residential permits as collateral for credit application.

At the back of his mind, Kicheere says, he started thinking of borrowing money from the bank to finish building a small business centre he had started constructing some months before but couldn’t finish it due to lack of money.

“It was an exciting project and I immediately started processing all requirements to get the permit and apply for the loan immediately,” says Kicheere.

Kicheere who is a lawyer by profession says the project was named Property and Business Formalisation Programme (PBFP) popularly known as Mkurabita in Kiswahili and it was conducted in collaboration with the ministry of lands.

Before the project took off, Kicheere had heard about the project during President Benjamin Mkapa’s tenure in office when the president commissioned the Peruvian economist, Professor Hernando de Soto to review legislation governing property ownership and compiling data on the patterns of movable and fixed assets ownership.

De Soto’s team proposed that lack of title deeds and other documentation meant that many Tanzanians were unable to use their property as collateral to obtain loans for business or agricultural activities. The proposals led to the formulization the Property and Business Formalisation Programme. The move was meant to “unlock” the development of the informal sector.

One of the aims of the project was to bring about change to property and business entities in the informal sector, into legally held and formally operated entities in the formal sector of the economy. Before he was given his permit, Kicheere and other residents in his area had to fill out application forms at the local government office, which were forwarded to the council before he was awarded his permit.

“We were told that aerial photographs of our areas had been taken and were used to identify our plots to prepare maps of our areas,” he recalls.

Kicheere says he paid Shs5, 560 as a fee for acquiring the permit for the plot which measures 620 square metres. “I successfully acquired a residential permit not only for my Kigamboni plot but also for another plot that I own in Ubungo area.”

With his two residential permits, Kicheere thought he was finally on the way to formal business and eventually, the big time. He started going to the banks but he was disappointed to learn that most banks did not accept the permits because they were valid for only two years, on renewable basis. Only one bank recognised the permits but didn’t like his project proposal.

“I was told that banks didn’t like the permits due to the fact that they were only

REGISTRATION NOT ENOUGH: Frustrated Dar resident, Mr Kicheere, narrates to The Guardian the ordeal he went through trying to get some additional capital to develop his registered property . The banks were not interested in his two-years certificates, and said they could only deal with him if he produced a real title deed. He lost interest in renewing the 2-year registration when it expired

valid for two years, which was not long enough for repayment of the entire loan,” he says. But Ladislaus Salema, Program Coordinator at Mkurabita distances his office from the programme, saying that it is under the Ministry of Lands and Human Settlements although the idea of setting up Mkurabita was almost similar.

Salema says Mkurabita helps people register their property so that it can be legally recognized and the title deeds used to secure loans from commercial banks.

But he says the plan of the exercise to issue residential permits was aimed at preparing such areas for proper planning because they were not planned and prepare the permit holders to get title deeds in future.

“But again you could apply for title deeds and if the government says your property should be demolished in public inetrest, you can be given another plot else-

where,” he says.

From his experience, Salema wonders if banks could provide development loans on the strength of a two-year document.

Even if they did, the holder can only borrow a small amount of money that they can repay in such a small time. “The cost of administering a two years loan is quite high and that remains a big challenge.”

He says that banks usually, don’t should provide loans to the people just because they have collateral but rather if the proposal presented to the bank is strong enough to be able to generate enough money to repay the loan. “Banks don’t want their clients to fail repaying the loan and that is why collateral should be the last thing banks look at as security after being satisfied with the presented project plan,” he says.

But According to Salema, Mkurabita

programme has realized that people who own or run small businesses don’t know how to write good proposals and the programme was in the process of setting up an exercise of helping small business people write good business proposals which banks cannot reject.

Generally, it is Mkurabita programme’s wish to link formalized assets to financial facilities title deeds but has not yet reached to that stage. That is the reason why, he says they consider residential permits as the start of the property formalization process because it entails identifying the owner but not adequately offering required property rights.

Salema happily talks about one of the recent successful Mkurabita project as being an exercise to issue title deeds to 800 residents of Hannanasif ward in Kinondoni district.

“This place was unplanned and there were plans to issue residential permits to the residents but we said why not give them title deeds. So to avoid some houses being demolished they organized themselves and agreed which houses to be demolished without compensation. We gave them title deeds and this is the model we want to use in Njombe district,” says Salema.

But Kicheere’s concern remains that the residential permits are “useless since ordinary people cannot use them to access loans” from commercial banks. He is also concerned with lack of coordination between the banks and the authorities issuing the residential permits to make the permits useful to the owners. He has now renewed his permits but he says he is too discouraged to renew them when they expire again in two years.

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA 6

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

OPINIONS/STRATEGY

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Agriculture first, but with industry as well

By Theo Mushi

because it can easily be repaired and most farmers or groups of farmers can afford it.

griculture is the largest sector in the economy accounting for over 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It also employs over 60 percent of the population labour force in the rural areas and accounts for about 40 percent of foreign exchange earnings.

The agricultural sector has been growing at an average of 4 percent for the past four years and the population has been growing at a rate of 2.9 percent. This means the agricultural sector must grow at a higher rate in order to ensure there is food security.

According to the new World Bank definition the agricultural sector in its broadest sense must include crop farming, livestock, fisheries and forestry and strategies and policies must be laid to develop these subsectors. The establishment of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries is a step in the right direction because there is a need to increase the contribution of livestock and fisheries sub-sectors to the national economy.

AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIALISATION In a symposium held in November last year to mark Africa Industrialization Day the Minister for Industries, Trade and Marketing Dr. Mary Nagu remarked that there will not be industrialization without agricultural development or Kilimo Kwanza. For the two sectors to develop there is need for complementary growth and use of backward and forward linkages.

On the demand side agriculture needs tractors, ploughs, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides. Except for the seeds most of the agricultural inputs are imported. On the demand supply side farmers ‘products need to be processed in order to add value and reduce post-harvest losses. There is therefore a need to attract investors to produce and assemble tractors and produce fertilizers, pesticides and improved seed for farmers.

On the other hand agriculture, fisheries and livestock products need to be processed on order to add value and increase shelf life.

There is a need to end importation of canned beef, fish, leather and other animal products. Investors need to be attracted to invest in beef canning, dairy plants, leather tanning, fish processing and agro-processing especially food processing. Agro-processing should be attracted in the rural areas depending on rural electrification in order to reduce rural unemployment and under-employment.

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GENESIS OF KILIMO KWANZA Since independence agriculture has been said to be the backbone of the economy or in Kiswahili Kilimo ni Uti wa Mgongo.

Until independence was attained in Tanzania and for some years later crop farming was dominated by Europeanowned largescale commercial farming for coffee, tea, dairy farms, wheat and sisal plantations. It must be recalled that Tanzania was in early 1960s a net exporter of wheat to Kenya and this came from West Kilimanjaro but the trend has now been reversed.

In 1967 Ujamaa villages were introduced and cash crop and food production was left to the collective farms and there were no extension officers to ensure that there were good farming practices.

Production of both food and cash crops started to plummet despite the investment made by the government by ensuring nearly all villages had tractors which in the final analysis could not be repaired and maintained and were discarded with the continued use of the hand hoes.

The last blow was nationalisation of all commercial farms in 1972 and they were put under state management of National Food and Agricultural Corporation (NAFCO) which did not have managers conversant with agro-practices and there was plundering of funds and vandalisation of farm equipments and machinery including lorries to transport crops.

Other slogans included “Siasa ni Kilimo”,“Kilimo cha Kufa na Kupona” and now Kilimo Kwanza.

Enter ASDP Three years ago the Agriculture Sector Development Programme was launched with a planned budget of $2 billion over a period of 7 years to be implemented at district level by District Councils. There are two plans; one is the District Agricultural Sector Development Programme (DASDP) and District Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (DASIP). Under both programme farmers are expected to participate in the planning of new projects including irrigation schemes and it appears the District Councils are not well equipped to conceptualize the plans and farmers are not sensitized on ASDP. The other shortcoming of ASDP is lack of capacity at district level to implement the plan even if the budget of the agricultural sector budget allocation reaches the targeted 10 percent of the National Budget. Over and above other aspects

the development partners (donors) both bilateral and multilateral did not disburse the promised funds to finance the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (strategy).

It was against this background that the private sector and the government decided to forma a task force of agricultural lead ministries to prepare the Kilimo Kwanza programme. The joint coordinators of preparation of Kilimo Kwanza were Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) and Tanzania National Business Council who prioritized the ten pillars of Kilimo Kwanza.

The most important factor is availability of land which is accessible to be used by local and foreign investors in large scale commercial farming which will increase output of cash and food crops and create employment in the rural areas.

The other aspect is access to credit especially for small scale farmers in order to

expand areas under cultivation and to afford to buy subsidized seeds and farm inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and veterinary medicine. SACCOs and commercial bank have their financial limitation to extend the loans to all the farmers in the country. The government has established a window in the Tanzania Investment Bank to lend to farms but farmers need to be educated by the existence of this facility.

Plans are underway to establish Agricultural Development Bank and this should have branches in all the regions and eventually all districts.

The cornerstone of Kilimo Kwanza is Irrigation and Agricultural mechanization.

As far as irrigation is concerned there is substantial progress that has been made by establishing the National Irrigation Fund and District Irrigation Funds for small irrigation schemes in the districts but there is a long way to go in terms of budget allocation to large and small irrigation

schemes. The Tanzania Government has received a loan of $40 million from India to import tractors which are to be imported and assembled by SUMA-JKT and Tanzania Automotive Technology Centre (TATC) at Kibaha (NYUMBU).

There are about three questions that need to be answered. First it is planned to give the tractors to the districts so that they can be hired by farmers and past experience shows that there were government fund district “Tractor Hiring Centers which were plundered and mismanaged and eventually went bankrupt. How many small scale farmers have been empowered to hire let alone to afford to buy the tractors?

Have technicians been prepared to service and repair the imported tractors? In the 1960s a French Agronomist Prof.

Professor Rene Dumont wrote a book called “False start in Africa” in which he recommended the use of appropriate technology or intermediate use of the ox-driven plough

BACK TO THE BASICS For Kilimo Kwanza to succeed there is a need for well-planned irrigation schemes and agricultural mechanization. The capacity of district councils needs to be built to plan and implement agricultural projects.

There is also need to increase the member of extension officers to start demonstration farms to train farmers and educate them on availability of subsidized fertilizers and how to apply them. There is a need to for investment in rural roads to ease transport of crops and food to urban markets.

Farmers need reliable markets and market structures. Farmers need high prices and fair returns for their investment in agribusiness.

There is a need to regulate the cartels of crops buyers who exploit farmers and cooperatives should be empowered to buy farmers crops and sell inputs to them. The established Agency should be well funded to buy farmers crops at competitive prices as those offered by smugglers who sell food crops to the neighbouring countries and there will be no need to ban food exports.

Above all loans extended to farmers should be well managed and a follow up should be made so that the money is recovered for lending to others. Otherwise the Agricultural Development Bank may collapse like the defunct Agricultural Credit Agency of 1970s which failed to recover loans extended to farmers.

Irrigation is the way forward – no other way The government has for long focused some of its attention on irrigation as a way to move the country from depending on rain fed farming. But after 50 years of trying Tanzania has so far failed to utilize available water resources to any significant degree.

The most important component of agriculture is water. All other inputs can be improvised, improved, substituted, but not water.

That is why other countries that have

succeeded in agriculture more than Tanzania did so by tapping sufficient water for farming. Surprisingly though, Tanzania has much more and easier to tap fresh water than such countries.

Egypt has for example been developing its irrigation practices and technologies over the years and is now an agricultural power, despite being a real hot desert.

Although the world mostly knows about Egyptian agriculture mostly depending on the waters of the River Nile, a lot of the

From The Ground

Angel Navuri

Email: angelnavuri@yahoo.com

farming in that country depends on borehole water from under the ground. The Aswan High Dam may be an imposing structure but the les visible boreholes do an equally important job in feeding Egypt and making it rich.

What may come as a surprise to most Tanzanians is to learn that it is ten times more difficult to tap underground water in Egypt that it is in Tanzania.

There, you need to drill from 100 to 150 metres of more to reach water. But here un-

derground water can be reached by ‘scratching’ a mere ten to 15 metres.

In such a situation like our country that is trying to improve agriculture it has to fix several major problems in the sector: These include water, productivity regarding technology and soil fertility, finance and policy bottlenecks.

But water is paramount. The country has considerable potential for increasing the agricultural output and quality by addressing these and course, outdated cultur-

al practices.

To achieve more benefits of the free market, there must be changes in the way irrigation water is tapped, delivered and allocated to farmers for meeting the real crop water needs.

Water deliveries in the present irrigation systems are terribly inefficient, wasteful and in some respects even unsafe.

Continuous improvements of the irrigation system are not just essential, they must start taking place now.

The Guardian and Nipashe Kilimo Kwanza are committed to supporting all the promoters and stakeholders of Tanzania’s Green Revolution.

To get your organisation or business activities covered in this supplement, Contact: 0787 571308 0655 571308 0754 571308

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA 8

Tuesday 9 March, 2010

WHAT OTHERS SAY

Japan’s Ambassador to Tanzania, His Excellency Hiroshi Nakagawa on the weekend discussed his country’s involvement in Tanzania’s development with Angel Navuri.

Below are excerpts of the interview: Question: What is the nature of Japan’s engagement with Tanzania?

Answer: Japan has developed a good relationship with Tanzania and since 1964 Tanzania has enjoyed more Japanese assistance than other African countries. We promote efficiency in Agriculture so as to enhance food security as it is important to many countries, especially to developing countries. Japan has a population of 136 million people and about 10 percent of Japan land is used for farming while 80 percent is mountains. We don’t produce enough food to feed the population but we import food because only 4.6 million hectares is used for Agriculture.

In Tanzania, The economic share of the Agriculture sector is 25 percent of the GDP, while 75 percent of the total population are living in the rural areas and most of them are engaged in farming. Tanzanians live on one dollar per day and most of them are living in the rural areas. So unless the countryside develops, we cannot expect that income will grow. Even if we develop mining, the number of beneficiaries to get jobs here is limited. To make people gain higher living standards, the only way is to develop agriculture.

This is normal and was done in many newly developed countries. Agriculture plays a big role under these circumstances, These two go together as farmers in the rural could harvest maize and failed to transport it because of poor infrastructure.

Although in Japan we don’t have enough land but we don’t neglect agriculture. And irrigation is applied a lot by making sure that rain water is utilized before it flows to the sea.

Q: What is the size of Japan Government assistance to Agriculture sector in Tanzania?

A: We have been supporting agricul-

Japan’s Ambassador to Tanzania, His Excellency Hiroshi Nakagawa

Japan vows to boost rice production in Tanzania ture in Tanzania since 1970s, when we started a project in the southern part of Moshi, concentrating on promoting growing rice since it is our staple food. We developed 2300 hectares and the construction of canals costing 33 million US Dollars. But we also have agriculture experts from Japan at the Kilimanjaro Training centre and they train farmers then the farmers becomes trainers for others too.

We had set it for five years but we found that it is not enough. So we will extend for another five years for the trainings.

Japan government supports the idea of Kilimo Kwanza but it should be developed properly.

What is the trend of your country’s assistance to Tanzania’s Agriculture sector; is it growing, decreasing or stagnant?

The Japanese government will continue supporting the agriculture sector as we have been, providing agricultural inputs and during the Tokyo International Conference of Africa Development Japan expressed its commitment to double the Official Development Assistance to Africa by 2012. Tanzania will benefit from this increase and it should be used wisely in of its projects.

Currently Tanzania has been getting assistance of USD80-90 million from Japan so by 2012 it will be an estimated USD 200 million, of which USD20 million goes to the Government General Budget Support while the remaining will go to other important projects.

Q: In what specific area is Japanese assistance channeled?

A: Our assistance in agriculture it is channeled on the side of rice cultivation because Japan has a comparative advantage of knowledge in rice sector. From now on we are going to concentrate on Agriculture, particularly on the side of rice because the demand of rice in Tanzania has grown and the country imports rice from other countries now. It has to be self sufficient by making sure the production is doubled.

Q: Is this assistance really effective?

A: If Agriculture develops then it will boost the economy of the country.

Q: What advice do you have for Tanzania to develop Agriculture?

A: In order for the economy to develop properly, it is imperative to have agriculture developed. In this regard, irrigation should take the top priority. This is the fundamental way to have a high level of stable production; because even if we have fertilizer and seeds but no water you cant do anything.

In any case to develop the agriculture sector costs so much; the country is lacking domestic investment and even if development partners are supportive, Tanzania should not depend too much on external assistance, but rather on mining and tourism sectors as the driving force to increase do-

mestic revenue. The mining sector is an inherently exploitative activity because once you extract the resource, you cannot retrieve them twice. We need to use them wisely. Most of the profit is gained by foreign companies as government fails to spot much of the revenue, it should try to have more revenue and invest in the agriculture sector Agriculture is of vital importance for the economic growth of Tanzania given that about 30% of GDP, 30% of total exports and about 80% of labour forces are all from this sector. However, significant improvement in agricultural productivity has not been observed due to the rain-fed and extensive agriculture.

In response to this situation, Japan has been providing technical support for irrigated rice production through technical cooperation in supporting service delivery systems of irrigated agriculture and, in addition, capacity development for irrigationrelated technology at the level of local government.

Japan has also been actively participating in policy discussion along with providing financial contribution to the ASDP Basket Fund. Japan has been supporting the improvement of infrastructure in Tanzania. 20% of paved trunk roads, 40% of electrification network and 30% of telephone circuits in Dar es Salaam have been constructed by Japan’s assistance and we have also given support for power transmission and distribution in the city.

Ongoing projects and programmes assistance (US million, $1=120 Japanese Yen) Loan Assistance, Arusha-NamangaAthi River Road Development Project (57.14) Poverty Reduction Support Credit 5 (16.7) Debt Relief. Commercial Debt Cancellation (533.0) Grant Assistance Basket Funding, Grant Aid for Poverty Reduction Strategy (5.25), ASDP Basket Fund (2.71) ,PFMRP Basket Fund (0.42),PRS Monitoring Pooled Fund (1.29),LGCDG Basket Fund (0.83) Agriculture Sector, Food Aid (5.92),Transport Sector, Project for Widening of Kilwa Road (22.1,Project for Upgrading Masasi-Mangaka Road (5.8),Water Sector, Project for Zanzibar Urban Water Supply Development (17.3),Project for Water Supply Development around the Metropolitan Area (6.8) Energy Sector, Project for Reinforcement of Transmission and Distribution Facilities in Oysterbay Substation (the detailed design) (0.2) Health Sector,HIV/AIDS Control Project (2.93) Technical Assistance Agriculture Sector, Supporting Service Delivery Systems of Irrigated Agriculture

(6.6),Formulation and Training of the DADP Guidelines on Irrigation Scheme Development (3.4) Transport Sector, Capacity Building for Road Works Project Management, Capacity Strengthening on Labour Based Technology Training (2.6) Water Sector, Project for Training on Rural Water Supply Implementation (2.8) ,Project for Strengthening for Water Supply Management in Urban Area in Zanzibar (2.8) Energy Sector, Support Project for the Stable Power Supply System (4.9) Health Sector, Technical Cooperation in Capacity Development of Regional Referral Health Management (3.5) ,Project for Institutional Capacity Strengthening for HIV Prevention (3.7) Local Government, Capacity Development in Participatory Planning at Local Government (3.5), Project for Capacity Development for Local Government Training, Public Financial Management Reform, Capacity Development Programme for Internal Audit (2.0).

Japan started to provide financial assistance to the Poverty Reduction Budget Support (PRBS) applying debt relief in FY2001. Since FY2003 Japan has annually provided 545 million Japanese Yen ($4.54 million) to PRBS and 55 million Japanese Yen ($0.46 million) to the Poverty Monitoring System Pooled Fund under the scheme of non-project grant aid, which was the first operation of Japan’s ODA to put our grant to the Budget Support. Japan has provided 2 billion Japanese Yen ($16.7 million) for co-financing for the Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) of the World Bank since FY2006. In FY2008, Japan extended JPY 630 million ($ 6.16 million) to four basket funds in total under the scheme of Grant Aid for Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), namely Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP): JPY 325 million, Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PFMRP): JPY 50 million, PRS Monitoring: JPY 155 million and Local Government Capital Development Grant (LGCDG): JPY 100 million.