Mostly grown in Mwanza, Mtwara and Coast regions, cassava is a
staple that supports 37 per cent of rural farmers while cotton remains
among the leading agricultural products that earns the country millions
of foreign currency.
This was said by Prof Reuben Kadigi from the Sokoine University of
Agriculture (SUA) when presenting findings of a study on dairy, cotton
and cassava at the launch of the Tanzania country report on ‘Promoting
Sustainable Rural Development in Africa’ that took place in Dar es
Salaam yesterday.
The launching event was attended by stakeholders from the central
government, private sector, farmer organisations, development partners,
civil society, researchers and academicians. The research was conducted
with the support from the African Centre for Economic Transformation
(ACET) together with the Tanzania Markets Policy Action Node (TM-PAN)
and BRITEN (Building Rural Incomes through Enterprise).
According to Prof Kadigi Tanzania is ranked fourth in Africa for
cassava production but it is unfortunate that it lacks standards while
its processing is only done by rudimentary tools.
He was of the view that once the government is able to set
standards for cassava and enable farmers to process and pack it using
modern ways for its market to expand internationally.
“Most of the farmers lack improved varieties thus ending up
harvesting less than 10 tons per acre…using improved varieties would
enable them harvest between 18 and 25 tons per acre,” he said adding
that cassava exports are still very low.
Prof Kadigi noted that most of the cotton farmers lack capital. He
said the government has to embrace contract farming to enable them get
the targeted benefit.
He said that Tanzania’s cotton sales at the world market were very
high in previous year but it had dropped in recent years due to poor
quality.
For his part, Deputy Executive Secretary, President’s Office
(Planning Commission) Maduka Kessy applauded the organisation for its
study findings saying the government will consider their recommendations
when preparing the agricultural strategic plan for the next five years.
Kessy said the commission is now finalising with the current plan
that expires in next financial year. He said the current plan they
selected three crops namely, sugarcane, rice and maize whereas the
outcome has been great as the country can now produce at least 25 per
cent of extra food.
“We appreciate the efforts done by private sector in the
agriculture, these findings on cotton and cassava shows the crops have
economic potential…weare likely to consider them in the next five years
plan,” he said.
He explained that the only challenge that now farmers face is
market and preservation methods. He said the government plans to build
extra warehouses to store the extra food and help farmers secure markets
in neighbouring countries.
0 comments:
Post a Comment