Poverty and Human Development Report 2009 - UNDP in Tanzania

Chapter I CLUSter 1 GOaL 4 & 5
proportion of their incomes on food (particularly staple foods); and (ii) the sector provides a
reliable market for local non-agricultural activities.
Modernisation of the agricultural sector – in which 95% of tanzania’s food is grown under
traditional rain-fed agriculture – is an ongoing challenge facing the country. Production is
vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, and the sector is characterised by over-reliance
on primary agriculture, low fertility soils, minimal use of external farm inputs, environmental
degradation, significant food crop loss (both pre- and post- harvest), minimal value addition and
product differentiation, and inadequate food storage and preservation that result in significant
commodity price fluctuation. access to markets is a further hurdle that smallholders have to
overcome. this problem is multi-faceted. Producers are commonly faced with poor infrastructure
to reach markets, barriers in penetrating markets due to limited resources, lack of information,
few support mechanisms and restrictive policies.
despite a clear government commitment to free internal trade in agricultural produce, regional
and district authorities often use their residual powers to declare their jurisdictions as “food
insecure” so as to restrict or ban movement of maize, wheat or rice. this practice penalises local
producers and traders, who are unable to take advantage of higher market prices elsewhere,
and inhibits the development of trade in staple foods. Moreover, farmers typically respond by
growing smaller volumes, thus leaving the locality less food secure in the long run. the net effect
is to reduce commercial agriculture at all scales of operation, and therefore, to reduce growth in
incomes and productivity.
these issues equally apply to external trade. the official prohibition on export of food crops
inhibits production and restricts farmers’ incomes in areas of the country which have closer
infrastructural connections with neighbouring states than with parts of the country which are
short of food. the overall costs of this policy – in transportation, lost production and stagnant
household income – may well not be balanced by the benefits of satisfying national food
requirements from domestic production.
opportunities therefore exist, nationally and internationally, which could promote increased
production, productivity and incomes from food agriculture. to take advantage of these
opportunities, staple foods must be considered as commercial crops, as well as safeguards for
domestic food security. the co-existence of relatively low levels of smallholder productivity in
tanzania yet widespread use of technical knowledge and productivity-enhancing inputs in many
other parts of the world indicates the need to remove barriers to the distribution of information
and inputs. agricultural transformation – and consequently economic structural transformation – can
only be realised if key actors in technology generation, institution building and policy formulation
work collaboratively and in a coordinated fashion.
Policies are needed that go beyond liberalisation to include incentives for smallholder farmers
to engage in new productive patterns of investment and exchange. this implies a major role for
future research in identifying organisational arrangements that can facilitate smallholder access
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