An Action Plan for Developing Agricultural Input Markets in Tanzania

Foreword
The agriculture sector plays an important role in providing livelihood and social support to millions of people in
sub-Saharan Africa. Yet due to low productivity and poor resource management, many people who depend on
agriculture suffer from poverty and hunger, and the soils used for crop production are becoming depleted of the
most important nutrients. To confront the twin challenges of hunger and malnutrition and natural resource degradation,
African agriculture should be modernized and the use of modern inputs, such as mineral fertilizers, improved
seeds, crop protection products (CPPs), and other agronomic practices, should be increased. However,
the use of these inputs cannot be increased unless well-functioning agricultural input markets (AIMs) are developed
and operational.
To aid in understanding the dynamics of market development, IFDC prepared a Strategic Framework in
1999 and tested it by preparing action plans for AIMs development in six countries: Ghana and Nigeria in West
Africa, Malawi and Zambia in Southern Africa, and Uganda and Tanzania in Eastern Africa. This action plan is
the last one under Phase I of action plan development work funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), Sasakawa-Global 2000 (SG 2000), and other donors. Like its counterparts, this action plan
provides a blueprint for an orderly development of AIMs in Tanzania. It recommends a holistic approach based on
the five pillars of market development and supporting conditions to be nurtured by public-private partnership.
I hope that policymakers, donors, the private sector and other stakeholders will find it useful to improve input
supply in Tanzania and other African countries and thereby make a difference in the livelihood of the people in
rural and urban areas of Africa.
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Amit H. Roy
IFDC President and
Chief Executive Officer