Tanzania to open up farming land

Agri-Business 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 

EAST AFRICAN BUSINESS WEEK, KAMPALA, UGANDA

BY KENAN KALAGHO,

THE HOE: Some 70% of the population is involved with agriculture, but mostly use traditional and inefficient methods of farming.

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The government has said it will start identifying and surveying potential arable land for large scale food crop farming. 
Officials say this will boost agricultural production and later translate to faster economic growth.
In spite of Tanzania having 94.3 million hectares of surface land, just under half or 44 million hectares is arable and only 25 % is being presently used.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam during the Agrictech 2014 workshop with the theme ‘Leverage technology in agriculture transformation’, the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development Dr. Titus Kamani said there is a huge untapped potential.
“Only 450,392 hectares are currently under irrigation out of the 29.4 million hectares suitable for irrigation in the country,” Dr. Kamani said.
The vent brought together different participants from more than 10 countries from around the world.
He said the government wants to see that the available 29.4 million hectares is irrigated in order to boost agriculture production.
Dr. Kamani said there is also need to ensure that more youth and women are encouraged to participate in the agricultural sector as they form the largest percentage of the population.
Some 70% of the population is involved with agriculture, but mostly using traditional and inefficient methods of farming.
He insisted the government is transforming agriculture in order to allow it generate income to a wider number of rural Tanzanians.
Currently the Tanzania agriculture sector contributes 26.8 % to the nations GDP employing around 75.5 % of the population and the production is low mainly because it is determined by rainfall with very few irrigated areas.
The country’s wide sector approach of ASDP programs including the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and the Green Revolution has of recent accelerated agriculture sectors’ development in rural areas leading to boosting its production.
The former Chairman of the Confederation Tanzania of Industries, Felix Mosha said the future of Africa’s development depended much on the future of agriculture development.
However, he said there has been an encouraging signs of young people participating in agriculture in Tanzania.