Tanzania needs to value and support its farmers more

By Florence Mugarula*

Although 80% of Tanzanians practice farming it is a shame to say that agriculture is the backbone of Tanzania's economy. One just needs to visit Kiziba, Muleba, Bukoba and Kibumbilo to realize that unless remedial action is taken, farming may become obsolete.

It is a pity that since independence in 1961, the Tanzanian farmer is still using the hand held hoe. He still plants farm saved seeds and receives no agricultural extension services. Year in year out, his life rotates around lifting the hand-held hoe, and bringing it down. Even after garnering produce, someone else fixes the price. The cashewnut growers in Mtwara are engaged in perpetual price wars with buyers. Farming officers are meanwhile locked up in big cities.

Consider a coffee farmer in Kagera province. He is paid Tsh 530 (US 42 cents) for each kilo of coffee. He tends the coffee plant, harvests, airs, sieves and transports it to a cooperative society. At the society, he lifts it up and puts it on the weighing machine. He is not paid the same day. He is not told when to expect his payment. After six months or one year, he comes back to the society, registers his name and joins the long line of farmers, to receive his dues. Farmers line up as early as 7 o'clock in the morning but leave without pay at the end of the day for such dubious reasons as the paying clerk getting tired. The farmers are entitled to Tsh 67 (five cents) per kilo of coffee as bonus. Can you imagine that it is in July 2007 that they received arrears dating back to 2004?

Is this the incentive that farmers deserve? Do they have to bribe in order to receive what is rightfully theirs? Ironically, most leaders (politicians) are board members in farmers' cooperatives. Why are farmers' societies led by people who are not farmers? They live in towns and congregate in big hotels to design farming policies that are not practical on the ground. The farmer, on the other hand, languishes in misery. It is no surprise that with this top-down approach, agricultural investment is largely uncoordinated. Crop farmers end up being given hooks as loans while fishermen are given hoes. Who cares any way? The project is sealed and accomplished!

What is Tanzania lacking-that other countries have? Business people from Uganda go from village to village in Tanzania looking for coffee berries. They buy all types of coffee berries, both green and dry- even those that have not been plucked, and pay instantly. Yet the government is against such traders and does not want to license them. They are referred to as illicit traders. Shouldn't such initiatives be encouraged? Does the government want to see farmers in perpetual misery?

If legal practices are being penalized, should farmers resort to the illegal? Currently, illicit (alcohol) brew is proving more profitable than farming and pays instantly. Is that where Tanzanians should head?

The Tanzanian coffee farmer has to sell two and a half kilograms of coffee to be able to buy 1 kilogram of sugar, which costs Tsh 1300 (one US dollar). If a kilogram of coffee is sold at Tsh 530, will he be able to build a modest house considering that a bag of cement is sold at Tsh 18,000 ($14) while a bundle of iron (roofing) sheets goes at Tsh 280,000 ($220)? Will he be able to transport his goods with fares being hiked depending on the vehicle owner's mood?

Countries such as Germany, China and the USA value their farmers. What is wrong with Tanzania? It is time that private businesses were allowed to run farming with a view of reviving the sector. The government should also provide a condusive environment for farming to thrive. It is time farmers united, articulated their woes, stopped putting all their eggs in one basket and liased with the rest of the farmers in East Africa with a view of imbibing technologies that will boost productivity, instead of the back-breaking methods.

*The author is a recent graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam

African Executive