Tuesday 23 November, 2010
SUPPORTING THE PROMOTERS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
kilimokwanza@guardian.co.tz
Second chance for
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Kilimo Kwanza?
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 23 November, 2010
EDITORIAL
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inside
Turkish farmers welcome, but so are the Tanzanians
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veryday, any day, these days; there are teams of Turkish investors touring Tanzania, prospecting for land. They are searching for large tracts of land suitable for large scale, commercial farms on which a variety of crops can be grown. Elsewhere in this edition, the Turkish Ambassador to Tanzania lists some crops including mangoes and cotton, which are on high demand in his country and which can be produced with relative ease in Tanzania. The Turks are welcome to bring their capital and technical knowledge in producing crops like cotton, which has made their country famous and wealthy due to the successful fabric industry it supports. It is hoped that in the course of their operations, they will generate a lot of revenue for the Tanzanian government and employment for Tanzanian farmers The appearance of such communities determined to make the best of Tanzania’s soil should mark the beginning of the search for ways to modernise Tanzania’s agriculture. There is still one more crucial community that must be persuaded to join the new scramble for Tanzania’s lucrative land. That is the community of people called Tanzanians. There are several reasons why Tanzanian’s should get interested and involved in the commercialization and modernisation of Tanzanian agriculture. First, it has been established that it is the commercialization of our agriculture that will transform the peasantry from its abject poverty to decent living levels in the shortest possible time. For example, if half of all the milk produced by our livestock keepers did not go to waste due to lack of cooling facilities, it would all be bought on local market, which currently depends on imported milk to satisfy more than half of the demand in our urban households. The wasted milk in question amounts to about two million litres everyday. Its entering the market would fetch the Tanzanian cattle keepers some Sh2billion per day, over sh700billion a year. That is before any increase in output, but just through preserving and taking all that is already being produced to the market. Secondly, the Tanzanians happen to be here already, they do not to apply for visas and work permits to engage in commercial farming in Tanzania. We do not need to dispatch officials from the Tanzania Investment Centre, top government officials and diplomats to woo them to Tanzania. With a minimum of bureaucracy, the Tanzanians who would rise to the call of Kilimo Kwanza can simply start working at their commercial agricultural ventures. Thirdly, there already exists a wealth of scientific agri-
Artwork
& Design: KN Mayunga
culture knowledge that has been developed over the decades, thanks to the founding father’s foresight to invest in agricultural training and research. The Sokoine University of Agriculture has so far produced close to 200 Tanzanian PhDs, hundreds of Masters and uncountable Bachelors of in different branches of Agriculture. So while we welcome generous Agriculture studies scholarships offered by friendly countries, we need to put to use the high level expertise already available with the Tanzanian citizens, who have been trained by our own taxpayer. Forth, the foreign commercial farmers are looking for raw material for their industries, depending on their traditional needs and expertise. But Tanzanian farmers would be looking at everything, and their produce should be an important basis for industrial development. The Kilimo Kwanza initiative is about a total development of the sector, complete with its backward and forward linkages. This should see the minimization of post harvest losses, the growth of input industries for tools, fertilisers, packaging material, infrastructure, processing industries and support services like finance, marketing and warehousing. Fifth, encouraging Tanzanians to join in the race for commercialisation of Tanzania’s farmland would see the culture spreading all over the country. Unlike foreign investors who look for the area that best suits their activities, the nationals would be investing in and commercializing activities on the land where they are, which is everywhere in Tanzania. The authorities and experts should help different area to identify the crops and animals best suited for each district, for we can not afford to continue having everybody growing maize, even in those places where its potential yield is dismally low. That way, each area would have its high value crops, which should speed up the income growth of the residents there. And above all, by getting more people into commercial farming, their increased incomes would increase the aggregate demand in the economy, stimulating further growth and employment in all other sectors. Surely then, convincing more Tanzanians to get into commercial farming is not such a bad idea, after all.
Agro-dealer Training Project to improve food security
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GLOBAL: Food could cost more in 2011
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By Miki Tasseni
Vast opportunities for Cotton and Mango farmers in Turkey
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Wallace Mauggo Editor
8 To have your organisation promoted in Kilimo Kwanza, Call: 0787 571308, 0655 571308 0754 571308
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 23 November, 2010
N his first parliament address since re-election last week, President Jakaya Kikwete reaffirmed his government’s commitment to the ‘Kilimo Kwanza’ green revolution. Political will is one of the ten pillars on which the success of Kilimo Kwanza depends. The President’s address to parliament was largely a recap of the broad targets for the agriculture first strategy, which among other things includes increasing the allocated government budget for agriculture to 10% of the national budget. The current allocation to the sector is only 7%. Pledges made by the President to parliament included increasing support for agricultural research and training, irrigation and modernization of the farming practice and the improvement of agriculture markets and infrastructure. Others are to introduce a special program for livestock keeping, to introduce and support special agricultural zones and promote contract farming, develop the fishing industry and to increase support for cooperatives, saccos and launching of a farmers’ bank. The re-appointment of Hon. Mizengo Kayanza Pinda as Prime Minister also poses interesting possibilities for the development of Kilimo Kwanza agrarian revolution. Hon. Pinda, the self proclaimed son of a farmer takes his second term against a backdrop of citizens’ growing exhaustion with government. Tanzanians want more action oriented leadership and this was reflected in the just ended polls. “I would be so happy if we (legislators) spend out time and energy debating and digesting modalities of improving the lives of Tanzanians in rural settings, most of whom are engaged in agriculture, livestock keeping and fishing,” the Prime Minister said in his acceptance speech. Obviously the premier also recognizes that any kind of parliamentary debate is good only when it ends with enough food on table for the rest of the country to digest. It is difficult to conduct a healthy debate on empty stomachs. It is also an insult for farmers to produce bumper harvests only for tonnes of hard earned food to rot to waste due to lack of proper storage and ready markets. This happened in the last harvest season in Rukwa region, the Prime Minister’s birth place. Key stakeholders of the Kilimo Kwanza policy appear to have reached their optimal level of satisfaction just to get it off the ground. They don’t seem to have demanded noticeable or substantive activism during the campaign period. If anything it was right that little was said about the matter. After a price fall that put payment on the tenterhooks and threatened bank sector instability, Kilimo Kwanza’s fiscal drive was tied up with compensating buyers of cotton and the banks lending them money. Mapping a way out of that mess provided an opportunity for a Keynesian drive into financing Kilimo Kwanza, which according to some pundits, was also tied up with election financing. The implementation of Kilimo Kwanza is not a task for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security alone. It encompasses all government ministries and departments that have been assigned specific and measurable tasks to execute. Sadly most of these ministries are still pussy-footing on implementa-
POLICY
Fresh focus on Kilimo Kwanza?
Fresh mandate, commitment to Kilmo Kwanza. President Kikwete votes on October 31 tion. With each passing day it seems less and less likely that any of them will achieve their set goals within the stipulated timeframes. The final responsibility however still weighs heavily on the Prime Minister’s office. It is in recognition of this that the gist of Hon Pinda’s acceptance speech stressed on the need for government (including the opposition figures) and the country in general to embrace Kilimo Kwanza and to take it seriously. The newly elected government needs to take a more proactive lead in this. The Prime Minister acknowledged that many of our farmers still depend on traditional and outdated methods of agriculture. But acknowledgement alone will not move the hundreds of tractors that are currently collecting rust and dust in JKT yards in Dar es Salaam. Action is required to ensure that the desperately needed mechanization reaches the districts and farmers on time, before the December cultivation and planting season begins. Election campaigns have a rather far reaching effect of ‘winnowing’ policy ideas circulating in public sentiments without any specific structure. The effect is similar to someone attending a seminar, listening to what each participant thinks and viewing it as quite important, auxiliary or irrelevant. When leading candidates take their
impressions of what is important to specific audiences, no doubt can arise at that point as to what was important and what is secondary. It is in that framework that one can look back at Kilimo Kwanza policy. While the campaigns were going on, two ‘disturbances’ occurred, none of them in the direction of lifting ‘Kilimo Kwanza’ to prominence. This assuming of course that perhaps Kilimo wasn’t quite prominent in the first place. The first disturbance was collective in character. Despite their ‘Byzantine’ areas of emphasis in the polls run, a number of activist organizations put up a ‘children’s rights agenda’ and got candidates to endorse it. Many of the poll contestants duly signed up. Were these candidates the conscientious and fit to be elected, or was this just an advertising fad? The Tanzania Gender Networking Project (TGNP) then circulated a poster campaign in the various newsrooms. The poster questioned whether the specific policies floated by the candidates (presumably first and foremost the presidential candidates) target and reach ‘marginalized women.’ It was unclear how in TGNP parlance these could be distinguished from ‘poor’ women, and whether there was need for a program (outside health care or hospital services per se) that could specifically target ‘the marginalized
women’ and at the same time differentiate them from ‘the poor’ women. Can a hospital policy for example target ‘marginalized expectant mothers’ and differentiate them from ‘women’ in general, or malaria, HIV/Aids and other health issues for that matter? That is for the experts to chew on. The problems facing the TGNP poster campaign, or any other NGO’s attempt to position certain agendas at the top of electoral pledges are similar to issues facing Kilimo Kwanza, their status differences notwithstanding. Both proceed from a ‘static’ situation. This was reflected in the term ‘status quo’, which despite its momentary character became a centralizing analytical notion in the post- 1970 debate arising from Issa Shivji’s essay, ‘The Silent Class Struggle.’ Contrary to popular perception, Kilimo Kwanza is touted as a product of critical thinking into what is needed to fight the crippling poverty facing a majority of the country’s citizenry. We all depend on agriculture for our livelihoods, over 80% of us directly. Was Kilimo Kwanza directed at problems confronting agriculture in mid 2009 or shall it always remain true? Kilimo Kwanza is tied to its 1972 precedent of ‘Siasa ni Kilimo’ (Politics is Agriculture). It basically seeks to solve the same problem, but in structurally different environments. In 1972 the
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problem was drought. The late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s government knew it did not have the foreign exchange to import grain during food shortages. However it couldn’t rely on the then rapid global response to emergencies, as this was contrary to the ujamaa philosophy of ‘self reliance,’ which was translated in part as ‘national dignity.’ The situation in 2009 however provided a healthier mix in terms of rising global food prices in 2007/08. The government had to think ahead in case a grain crunch arose in the country. There was also the pressing issue of poverty eradication. But unlike in 1972 where famine fears were the singular mainstay of policy, the 2009 situation had a silver lining; it was less of an effort to stem grain shortage without placing stability and national dignity in peril. More substantially it was also viewed as an attempt to cash in on rising grain and raw material prices around the world. Exporting raw materials was suddenly as profitable as minerals or services like tourism. In this case a minimum of investment in agriculture of say one trillion shillings would in a few years reap rich dividends. Pundits say that it also helps to build a local class of farmers comprising chiefly of retirees. It can be said that the overall logic of the retirees’ empowerment scheme more or less has ended for the civil service. It however remained in part for the military and to an extent, the police. This owes to the fact that they did not have enough purchase-able houses in barracks to form a borrowing base. The civilian cadre of the first phase government and some of the second phase inherited their living quarters in prime areas of Dar es Salaam. Despite not having freehold titles, it was enough to sublet the properties to developers and share out the rent thereof, or to obtain bank loans for recasting. In some cases the limitations were pushed aside and the plots were redeveloped into business parks along major roads. In terms of policy continuity, the Kilimo Kwanza initiative was a rehash of a policy dating back to 2004 that was then picked up later in 2006. It is shorn of the central element developed by the third phase administration, that of ‘empowering’ retirees to go into farming. This policy outlook was among the proposals that were being circulated at the time. Programs were drawn and being implemented in much the same way the military implemented the Meremeta and Mwananchi Gold projects, or how after getting its fingers burnt, the military abandoned the Nyumbu technology. Cooperative mechanisms, public sector ventures are costly. There needs to be more continuity between policy and implementation. Kilimo Kwanza gets stuck in the same mud as all other electoral pledges if it is translated into mass politics of election pledges rather than the niftygritty of applying existing policy details or already voted for financing. It scarcely survives as a clear strategy when it is addressed to quasi-parasitic sectors of society whose demands are at times the loudest. For instance the city ranks of unemployed or poorly employed are often also disdainful of farming. They form the core of the anti-Kilimo Kwanza sentiment that is also noisily enthusiastic about the vague opposition camps programs for ‘jobs’. Continues on page 7
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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POLICY
Tuesday 23 November, 2010
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 23 November, 2010
POLICY
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Implementation of the Fourth Pillar of Kilimo Kwanza lags behind HE launch of Kilimo Kwanza in August 2009 is part of the government's poverty reduction efforts that are also geared towards the achievement of food security. Agriculture is the mainstay of Tanzania's economy with over 80% of the country's population of over 42 million dependent on it for their livelihood. Agriculture contributes 40% to the country's GDP and currently contributes over 30% of the total value of exports, 70% of employment opportunities and provides for 65% of the raw material used in Tanzania's manufacturing industries. Tanzania has 44 million hectares of land suitable for crop production out of which only about 10.8 million are under cultivation. The country also has about 66 million hectares of land suitable for livestock keeping. Generally, there is ample land suitable for crop and animal production which is under utilized. Land holdings average 0.2 to 2 hectares per house and limitation in availability and access to modern technology is a major obstacle to expansion of land under crop cultivation. Irrigation also remains a major hurdle with most farmers depending on rain fed cultivation. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation admits that huge budget constraints continue to hamper even the minimal development of 30,000 hectares annually proposed in the National Irrigation Master Plan, putting to doubt the country's ability to meet the projected 7million hectares under irrigation by 2015. The Fourth Pillar of Kilimo Kwanza is supposed to provide the paradigm shift to the strategic framework for the green revolution. The framework is almost wholly to be constructed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives (MAFC), which being the core ministry for agriculture is best placed to lead the development of this pillar. It ought to have been the best developed pillar so far, since it is in the hands of those who did not require persuasion or sensitization on the importance of agriculture. The pillar focuses specifically on which crops, how and where they should be produced for the quickest strategic benefits in terms of increasing food production and revenue earnings both from the domestic and external markets. This obviously is knowledge that was already in the possession of the Agriculture authorities and it was a matter of rolling it out to the other implementers and the public. However even as the program is in
its second year since inception, some of the key areas have been implemented while others remain under planned activities. An evaluation report by the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) shows what has been done in achieving the 4th pillar by early this year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Cooperatives as a key player in this pillar is charged with leading other collaborators in seriously executing the pillar. In an interview with Kilimo Kwanza, Richard Kasuga, a spokesperson for the ministry said that as part of implementing the pillar, his office has been helping farmers with capacity building by providing loans to buy tractors and supplying fertilizers through the voucher system. Currently the hand hoe still dominates Tanzania farming system, with over 70 percent of farmers still using the hand hoe for tilling land, 20 percent use animal drawn ploughs and only 10 percent use tractors. “We are also supporting farmers to develop their own projects at district level through Agricultural Sector Development Program (ASDP),” said Kasuga, adding that out of 2.5 trillion of budget directed to ASDP, 75 percent of the budget is directed to local government authorities to practice projects initiated by farmers. However the TNBC implementation report shows that up to February 2010, most of MAFC's areas of implementation are still categorized under planned activities, whose realization is in the 2009/2010 approved budget. These include some actions that were supposed to start in August 2009, like the identification and development of strategic crops like maize, cassava, rice, legumes, meat, fish, meat and dairy products, wheat beans, bananas, potatoes, sorghum and millet for which a development budget of TSH 100bn had been proposed. The ministry confirmed that of these crops, maize production targets were realized with Rukwa region being one region that realized surplus production of maize to the extent of creating a mini-market crisis. The MAFC spokesperson stressed that the production surplus was as a direct result of the ministry's effort to sensitize farmers and develop capacity building through extension officers. The Ministry has also already put in place its set performance targets for extension officers as basis for evaluation. More planned prescribed areas include the introduction of cassava blending in both maize and wheat milling (currently in inceptions stages with
support from international research and donor institutions), financing production of cotton, sunflower, sesame, palm oil and production of high labour intensive crops requiring limited investment for potential foreign exchange like onions, mangoes, bananas, grapes, avocados, pineapples, tomatoes, vegetables and spices. The national service (JKT) is also making some inroads to increase agricultural production in various JKT bases across the country. In 2008/09 the service had over 1300 acres under maize, 20 acres under cassava, 200 acres under rice, 100 acres under beans, 60 under wheat and 200 under soya beans. Sorghum, millet, potatoes, bananas and fish production are yet to take off, although the Oljoro JKT farm has over 300 cattle for meat production. It is expected that JKT will meet its need for more tractors through the hundreds of recently acquired tractors from India. The question of high value additional potentials in crops like fibers and bio-energy where the arrangement was in producing sisal, sugar cane, oilseed and sweat sorghum for energy and other added products has remained in planned activities to be fulfilled by the MAFC in 2009/2010. There are no details of what has been achieved so far. The country has about 60 million hectares suitable for livestock production. Other collaborators like Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MLDF) have so far managed to encourage exportation of fish and fish products from the vast natural water bodies that Tanzania is endowed with. Most of exported fish products are from Lakes Tanganyika, Victoria, Nyasa and the Indian Ocean. Encouraging exports goes hand in hand with facilitation and capacity building among fishermen through their newly formed association, Tanzania Industrial Fish Processors Association (TIFPA) which is already taking efforts to eradicate fishing of immature Nile perch. Along the Indian Ocean the ministry together with the association has temporarily banned commercial fishing of certain types of shrimp. Amongst the challenges that the fisheries ministry is facing include illegal fishing done on the country’s water bodies, with specific issues like dynamite fishing, poison fishing and the use of illegal fishing nets that plunder fish stocks mainly Lake Victoria now under consideration. The Ministry is undertaking efforts to discourage illegal fishing and illegal exports of fish and fish products, including any other auxiliary activities
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that threaten the development of a vibrant and profitable fishing industry. The ministry is also exploring ways to encourage the formation of cooperatives among small scale fishermen as a way of improving their economic livelihood. In a bid to stem over fishing, illegal fishing and illegal fish exports, the Ministry in 2009 had already introduced 433 Beach Management Units (BMU) at Lake Victoria, 16 BMU's along the Indian Ocean. 173 other BMU's are expected to be introduced soon including 20 BMU's at Bwawa la Mungu and 29 BMU's that will be opened at Mtera and 11 along Ruhuhu
The ministry responsible for Land, Housing and Human Settlement has its prepared report submitted to the Presidential Office-Public Service for 2010/2011 implementation
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By Lazaro Felix
• Reflecting on pillar number four
River. Question marks however hang over Lake Tanganyika which despite being an important fishing zone, is not mentioned as among fishing centers to benefit from the BMU's. The BMU is a participatory mechanism which aims at maintaining safety and security in fishing areas. The Livestock and Fisheries ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Constitutional affairs and Justice are also exploring avenues of drafting a bill to oversee the contract farming system among the livestock owners. On its part the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) implements Kilimo Kwanza through Regional Secretariat (RS) and Local Government Authorities (LGAs). It has realized some achievements like the disburse-
ment of over TSH 35bn to LGAs out of the TSH 100bn Agricultural Development Budget for the 2009/2010 financial year. The PMOs office has also organized a one day workshop by the government and private sectors aimed at establishing Private Sector owned Agricultural equipment Hiring Centers in Regions. The premier's office is at the final stage to establish Agricultural Equipment and Machinery Hiring Centers, the Prime Ministers Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PRO-RALG) has given directives to RS and LGAs to supervise efficient use of Agricultural input voucher system, Promote Sector Participation in importing and distribution of high quality low-cost fertilizers. Furthermore they (RS and LGAs) have been directed to promote the use of Minjingu Rock Phosphate fertilizers and to insure its availability to farmers. On the side of developing capacity building among District Land Officers and empower District Councils to execute their tasks, the ministry responsible for Land, Housing and Human Settlement (MLHHS) has its prepared report submitted to the Presidential Office-Public Service for 2010/2011 implementation. The Ministry in 2010/2011 will be recruiting district land officers direct from colleges. Currently the district councils are provided with facilities and training so as to support them in exercising their duties. Though the ministry admits to financial limitations, it is undertaking land survey, issuing title deeds and educating the public on how title deeds can be used as collateral to secure credit. With regard to a report from the ministry responsible for irrigation, most implementation areas have remained largely on paper. The specific implantation plan for 2009/2010 includes rehabilitation and construction of irrigation infrastructure to irrigate 24,000 hectares, facilitating short technical training for 20 staff and long training for 10 staff, training 20 irrigation technical staff and sensitizing private sectors to participate in irrigation development. The rehabilitation of 24 schemes to cover 20,000 hectares, construction of 8 dams to cover 3,5000 hectares and facilitation of preparation of technical studies, designs and tender documents for 50 small holder irrigation schemes to cover 160,000 sectors are also part of the plans yet to be implemented. The current slow pace of various actors to actualize the plans envisioned in Kilimo Kwanza casts serious doubts on whether the green revolution will be realized within the previously stipulated time limits.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 23 November, 2010
EXPORT OPPORTUNITY
By Angel Navuri
ANGO and cotton farmers in the country can now benefit from huge market opportunities available in Turkey. There is a ready market for Tanzanian cotton in the country. Mangoes and passion fruits which Tanzania has in plentiful supply also do not grow in Turkey and this provides a unique export opportunity. Turkey also wants to cultivate cotton in Tanzania for export to feed its ever expanding textile industry. According to the Turkish Ambassador Dr Sander Gurbuz, Turkish cotton production is currently unable to satisfy the needs of its growing textile industry. The country is now importing cotton from Tanzania. Still the industry demands remain higher than current supply, and so Turkey wants to invest in cotton farming in Tanzania to boost exports. Plans are currently underway to find suitable land for the project. Every week the Turkish embassy receives upwards of 20 Turkish businessmen looking for areas to invest in agriculture and other sectors of the Tanzanian economy. Some of the businessmen are in contact with the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) for investment assistance while others are already looking for suitable land for cotton farming in Shinyanga Region.
Ready market “This initiative could help both countries to strengthen the business links and revamp the economies of the two countries,” the Ambassador said. He added that investing cotton would help Tanzania farmers to learn from their Turkish counterparts on how to cultivate high quality cotton that meets international market standards. As many as 500,000 Tanzanian farmers cultivate about 485,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of cotton in the country's northern, coastal and western regions. Cotton is crucial to the country’s wider economy since it provides the fiber for textiles, a leading category of Turkish exports. In Turkey, cotton is primarily grown on the coastal plains of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, in the south and southwest. Turkey is projected to produce about 500,000 tons of cotton this year. Only 10 percent of Turkish cotton is exported in raw form, while the rest feeds the domestic textile industry. Tanzania will this year produce only about 90,000 tons of cotton, with 80% of this slotted for export. The Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) projects that lint cotton output will reach 260,000 tons in 2014 – 15, as the country implements a programme to increase cotton production capacity to 1,500,000 bales by the year 2015, from the current 700,000 bales. Global cotton production forecasts stand at 23.6 million tons this year. There are still significant opportunities for purchasing Tanzanian grown cotton and transforming it into yarns and fabrics locally. Commenting on this on a recent visit to cotton producing areas, President Jakaya Kikwete noted that while a kilo of cotton costs only 460 shillings, it produces two shirts that fetch a much higher price at the market. The history of textile production in
Vast Opportunities for Cotton and Mango Farmers in Turkey
Turkey Ammbassador to Tanzania Dr Sander Gurbuz
Turkey dates back to the Ottoman period in the 16th and 17th century where textile production was already at an advanced level. There are nearly 7500 textile manufacturers producing for the export market alone in Turkey. The industry is one of the most important component of the Turkish economy earning the country an estimated $ 5.4billion last year. The total export earnings from textiles has increased five fold in the last 20 years. Tanzania’s garment manufacturing industry is relatively small. Developed in the 1970s as part of a state drive to industrialise the country, out of the 30 textile mills in existence about 80% were state-owned. In the 1980s these mills consumed about a third of Tanzania produced lint. However after the privatisation programme of the late 1990s many of these mills closed altogether. Tanzania is Africa's fifth-largest lint-cotton producer, after Egypt, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Benin, and the world’s 20th largest producer. Fruit Because of its different climatic zones, Turkey is one of the seven countries in the world that is self sufficient on basic foods. Perishable fruit and vegetables are also important to the Turkish economy.
Out of the 140 perishables grown in the world, the country produces 80 varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables and exports 30 kinds of vegetable and 20 kinds of fruit. These include grapes, citrus fruit, melons, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers. These exports are worth over US$1 billion annually to Turkey. However a ready market exists for fresh mangoes and passion fruit from Tanzania and the Ambassador urged local farmers and business men to exploit this opportunity. “Turkey is prominent too in the world trade of edible nuts and dried fruits with hazelnuts, pistachios, sultanas, dried apricots, and dried figs as important exports,” the Ambassador noted. Agriculture with Industrial development Agriculture may be the backbone of the economy in many developing countries, but this alone is not enough. It has to be backed by value addition and the production of industrial goods. It is in cognizance of this that the Turkish economy tries to balance agriculture with industrial growth. Historically, the agriculture sector has been Turkey's largest employer and a major contributor to the country's GDP. |Fifty percent of the country’s
manufactured exports originate from the agricultural sector (primarily textiles and clothing). Of Turkey's agricultural sector, crops account for 55 percent of the gross value, livestock represents 34 percent, and forestry and fishing make up the rest. Although the sector has grown over time, the growth has been only about 1 percent faster than the country's population and much slower than that of the industrial and services sectors. Just as in Tanzania, many Turkish farmers have been slow to adopt modern techniques and much of the potential land and water resources are still managed inefficiently. However the country's fertile soil, access to sufficient water, a suitable climate, and hard-working farmers all make for a successful agricultural sector. A broad range of crops can be grown because of the variety of different climates throughout the country. This has allowed Turkey to become the largest producer and exporter of agricultural products in the Near East and North African regions. Exports Giving an overview of his country’s achievements, the Ambassador said that Turkey is one of the top 10 producers of fruit, wheat, and cotton in the world. More impressively it ranks
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 23 November, 2010
FOOD SECURITY
Fresh focus on Kilimo Kwanza?
among the top 5 producers of vegetables, tea, and raw wool. As a result of this massive production base, Turkey enjoys a comparative advantage in many agricultural products, and a positive trade balance in agriculture that contributes significant relief to its overall trade deficit The country's main export markets are the EU and the United States, to which Turkey exports dried fruit and nuts, cotton, and tobacco. Another major export market is the Middle East which buys fresh fruit, vegetables and meats from Turkey.
From page 3
Grain and vegetables Vegetable production in Turkey is primarily made up of cereals, pulses (edible seeds of various pod-bearing plants such as peas, beans, or lentils), industrial crops, and perishables. Of these, cereal crops occupy more than half of the cultivated land. The main species of cereal crops produced in Turkey are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, millet, and rice. These crops are produced in most parts of the country, with a heavier concentration in the central regions. “Of all these wheat has a special place in the Turkish economy. Turkey is both a top 10 producer and a top 10 consumer of wheat in the world. It is the essential food element in the Turkish diet, generally eaten in the form of bread,” Ambassador Gurbuz explained. Wheat production increases in the late 1970s enabled the country to become a wheat exporter and although the output slowed down in the early 1980s, renewed efforts have seen wheat production continue to expand. Turkey is also the main pulse producer in the Middle East and one of the leading producers in the world. Since the mid-1990s, over 60 countries import Turkish pulses, primarily chickpeas and lentils. Tobacco Tobacco has been grown in Turkey for many centuries, and the tobacco industry is a major player in the Turkish economy, contributing 18 percent of total agricultural exports. Turkey ranks as the fifth largest tobacco-producing country in the world, and is the number-one producer of Oriental tobacco, of which it grows over half of the world's supply. The country is also the world's fourth largest tobacco exporter. FACT FILE Turkey is situated in Anatolia and the Balkans, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria. Total land area is about 783,562 square kilometres of which 756,816 sq km are in Asia and 23,764 sq km are in Europe. Tanzania is 945,087 square kilometres. The Anatolian part of Turkey accounts for 97% of the country's area. It is also known as Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey or the Anatolian Plateau. The term Anatolia is most frequently used in specific reference to the large, semiarid central plateau, which is rimmed by hills and mountains that in many places limit access to the fertile, densely settled coastal regions.
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Farmers at work on a small peri-urban horticultural plot
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Agro Dealer Training project to improve incomes, food security
By Kilimo Kwanza Reporter
new partnership called the Agro-dealer Training (ADT) Project is working to improve incomes and food security for 550,000 of Tanzania’s smallholder farmers. Agro-dealers are one-stop shops that provide a variety of agricultural inputs and services. They play a critical role in agricultural input distribution infrastructure. The program is jointly run by Citizens Network Foreign Affairs
(CNFA) and the Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives, and is funded through the World Bank’s Accelerated Food Security Project. It is in direct support of Kilimo Kwanza through the National Agricultural Inputs Voucher Scheme (NAIVS) being rolled out in the targeted districts to enhance food security. NAIVS issues vouchers that provide a 50 percent subsidy on the cost of a one acre package of improved seed and fertilizers to eligible maize and rice producers.
The agro-inputs distributed through private enterprise agro-dealers trained and certified by CNFA. Operating in 39 districts, the sixmonth ADT project will train and certify 50 commercial trainers and 1,025 agro-dealers in business management and technical skills. It will also conduct agro-dealer business clinics, establish 140 demand creation demonstration plots with associated farmer field days and promote the development of 9 district-level agro-dealer associations. The main geographic focus is in Kagera, Mwanza, Shinyanga and
Mara regions. Training will also be conducted for select agro-dealers in Tabora, Tanga, Mtwara, Singida, Lindi, Dodoma and Coast Regions. With access to these improved products and services, smallholder farmers will be able to increase their farm productivity and household food security. ADT builds on CNFA’s strong record in the country, both through AGRA’s Tanzania Agrodealer Strengthening Program, which has trained and certified over 2,700 agrodealers and USAID’s Farmer-toFarmer Program.
Was Kilimo the vote winner? Compared with the opposition camp’s versions of Kilimo Kwanza, it was evident that President Jakaya Kikwete was far more careful in what he proposed. That is why perhaps it made sense to a broad class of voters right down to grassroots level of cooperative unions. The unemployed in the city however wanted something a lot more vigorous, that is; simplistic in terms of policy potential. But it was still a vote winner in major urban centres as the typical populist outlook call. There is now a need to focus beyond the production of raw materials alone and move further to value addition. An active industrial and manufacturing sector linked to agriculture will not only create the much needed employment opportunities, it will also ensure that the country earns optimal value for its agricultural produce. At the moment Tanzania exports raw materials like cotton for a pittance, only to re-import finished products at much higher price. The depth of the incapacity to grasp Kilimo Kwanza as strategy, especially when it is presented as policy or fiscal action proposal to unemployed urban dwellers is clear. Take an unemployed bus conductor for example (his is an informal sector job rather than the much sought after monthly salaried jobs). At one point in a conversation in a bus, a young adult bus conductor asks his age-mate driver, “(President) Kikwete says he will bring 3,000 tractors; but how many Tanzanians are we?” As if to say, who needs the few tractors? It was clear the conductor was incapable of grasping precisely how this translated into regional allocation for tractors. If there are say 25 regions, each will get 120 tractors. The effect of this on village access to tractors, farmed acreage, time, bill settlements and payments, SACCOS or other cooperative mechanisms was lost to the conductor. The conductor more or less suggested that JK should have promised each voter a tractor. Seen from this perspective, the conductor may have voted for a different candidate, no? Information is the key to change of attitude and perception. As a centrally placed stakeholder in the process recently admitted, very few people in the very government ministries and departments that are supposed to drive Kilimo understand or are seriously trying to understand the policy. The same goes for the ‘wanachi’. There is an urgent need for the implementers to take seriously the role of the media as important players in communication and education. At the moment there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation and at times pure ignorance on this key policy. Sensitization of government and citizenry to understand and participate in the implementation of the initiative is required. This calls for increased and clear government and private support for those performing the key role of communication and education. The electioneering period is effectively over. There has been enough talk and debate already. We want to see action.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
8
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Tuesday 23 November, 2010
FOOD SECURITY
GLOBAL: Food could cost more in 2011
f wheat and maize production do not rise substantially in 2011, global food security could be uncertain for the next two years, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned. Wheat and maize prices have shot past their 2009 highs, with FAO adding that international food import bills could surpass one trillion US dollars in 2010. Food imports last topped the trillion dollar mark during the 2007/08 food price crisis. The organization anticipates that world cereals stocks will shrink by seven percent, with barley declining 35 percent, maize by 12 percent and wheat by 10 percent. Cereal stocks are not as low as they were in 2007/08, "but we are being slightly alarmist in our outlook to get production figures up next year," said Abdolreza Abbassian, secretary of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains at FAO. "Stocks of yellow maize, which is used largely for animal feed, are getting to the low level they were in 2007/2008." Six percent more maize will have to be produced in 2011 than in 2010, while wheat stocks need to rise by more than 3.5 percent to ensure the world has enough reserves to tide it over 2011, said the FAO Food Outlook, released on 17 November. “We not only need to replenish our stocks in 2011 but we need to do better than that to ensure we have stocks to last us in 2012,” said Abbassian. FAO calculations have not taken into account the possibility of unfavourable weather conditions next year. "We are assuming we will have normal growing conditions, but if we have heavy rains or drought in some of the cereal-producing countries we could be in trouble, or if we have great growing conditions production could go up by more than expected levels," Abbassian said. Global wheat and barley stocks de-
World farming to get $200 million in climate aid
Wheat could become even more expensive next year clined in 2010 as severe drought and fires slashed production in Russia and Ukraine two of the world's largest producers. The news drove up wheat prices by 45 percent and even 80 percent in the second half of 2010, with an export ban imposed by Russia adding impetus. Canada, another major wheat producer, was also hit by bad weather. World wheat inventories are forecast to fall to 181 million tonnes, 10 percent below the 2010 level but still 25 percent above the critically low level of
2008, the Outlook said. Maize stocks are already low as production slipped in the United States, the world's largest producer, while demand continued to grow. "With soya beans fetching good prices at the moment, many farmers in the US tended to devote more of their land to soya beans, which affected maize yields," said Abbassian. The pressure on wheat prices affected maize, forcing prices up 50 percent from 2009 levels.
Fortunately, stocks of rice - the staple consumed by more than half the world's population - are adequate, but prices could come under pressure if other cereals become more expensive in 2011, according to FAO's Outlook. Global cereal prices were not going to come down at any time soon, Abbassian commented, and "It is still very early to predict how much farmers will plant in 2011 - so still a lot of unknowns." Irin
Food security fears rise as attacks increase in Central African Republic A rise in armed incursions is restricting people’s movements, reducing their ability to farm and increasing food security concerns in the Haut-Mbomou and Mbomou regions in the southeast Central African Republic (CAR), says an international humanitarian agency. “There is plenty of fertile land in the region but violence is interfering with traditional ways of life such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, with farmers often afraid to stray far from town to work their fields for fear of attack. This has reduced production, pushing up prices to the point at which not everyone can afford to buy food, even when it's available,” said Christa Utiger, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) economic securi-
ty coordinator for the CAR. The ICRC reported on 11 November that regular attacks by armed groups had resulted in the doubling of the populations of Obo, Mboki, Rafai and Zemio in Haut-Mbomou and Mbomou, near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan borders, as civilians sought safety. “While the increase in population drove up demand for food, over-used fields lost productivity, making produce scarce and expensive. Some food is certainly still being produced in the region but the violence has made farmers unwilling to stay far from the towns to tend their fields, making food security more and more fragile,” the ICRC told IRIN.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 6,000 Congolese refugees fled to the towns in the past 12 months. The ICRC will distribute food to about 55,000 people there until midDecember. “We are planning to distribute seeds to affected communities in advance of the spring 2011 sowing season, with a view to ensuring reasonable harvests in the autumn. The aim is to make communities self-sufficient and alleviate pressures facing communities as a result of armed group presence in eastern CAR,” said ICRC. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), rebels with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have killed at least 2,385 civilians and
abducted another 3,054 since September 2008 in the Central African Republic. “With the LRA attacking villages in remote areas with limited communications, roads, and other infrastructure, the actual number of victims is probably far higher,” HRW said in a statement. Chronic poverty, violence by local armed groups or the LRA, lack of public health, education and infrastructure have resulted in 16 percent of children under five being acutely malnourished, while 6.6 percent are severely acutely malnourished, according to the UN Children’s Fund. The country has an estimated population of 4.4 million. Irin
DEVELOPMENT worldwide are joining forces to spend $200 million in a 10-year programme to help the agriculture sector prepare for climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions, farm research groups said on Wednesday. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, the funding will go to research on how to feed a growing, more affluent world population in the face of expectations of worsening floods and droughts. By 2050 as a result of climate change, global "potential to produce food" could decline by 5 to 10 percent, after an average increase through 2020, said Andy Jarvis, an agriculture policy expert at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture,. Higher temperatures and more variable rainfall will produce agricultural winners and losers, especially favoring cooler, northern hemisphere countries that do not suffer food shortages. "It shows globally there'll be greater inequity in production," said Bruce Campbell, head of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which will help direct the new research programme. The programme will use an Australian climate model to look at how rising temperatures and rainfall changes affect 50 major crops worldwide including sorghum, millet, sweet potato, wheat, rice and maize. Climate models point to accelerating declines in production of rainfed wheat worldwide of 2.2 percent by 2020, 4 percent by 2050 and 18.6 percent by 2080, unless climate change is curbed or effective adaptive measures are put in place, scientists told reporters. Early work shows that West Africa could see declines in soybean, wheat, potato and sorghum production, but some gains - at least initially - in crops such as sugarcane and sweet potato. In one example of how to increase production and cut greenhouse gases at the same time, herders could curb emissions of methane from their livestock and as much as triple milk and meat production by grazing animals on specialized grass species rather than wild pasture. Agriculture produces between 20 and 33 percent of the world's carbon emissions, depending on whether the conversion of forests to farmland is included, scientists say. The project aimed to reduce poverty by 10 percent by 2050 in targeted "hot spot" regions in Africa and India, and reduce the number of malnourished poor in those areas by 25 percent, as well as curb greenhouse gas emissions by "millions of tonnes," Campbell said.