IT’S nice that we have reached the last week of the year 2022. Something befitting of offering thanksgivings to God for helping us reach this far. But some may hold back from doing that.
Taking estimations from United Nations, almost 66 million people are anticipated to die by the end of this year. Still, sticking to being an ingrate?
No, it shouldn’t be. As a nation, we have been able to register a lot of achievements never seen in decades.
Of course, being inhabitants of this imperfect planet, mishaps and near-misses are always expected, but the fact that there were no major disasters like floods, drought or famine should alone be enough to make us raise our heads and express our gratitude.
The agriculture sector in Tanzania had its best times on many fronts but today we shall have a look at one, policy. Tanzania allocated a total of 751 billion Shillings, the biggest amount for the first time in years. This is more than double compared to last year’s, which stood at 294 billion Shillings.
Maybe to get a bigger picture of how this deserves to highlight this year’s most important sector one needs to do a comparison with nearby countries. The ratio of budget allocated for agriculture to the general budget was the biggest compared to Kenya and Uganda, other giants in the East African Community.
Investment in agriculture is the biggest determinant in the progress of the sector anywhere in the world. Probably this explains why Malabo Declaration urged African countries to set aside 10 per cent of their budgets for agriculture.
Investment in the sector stands to be a major reason why in this year’s Global Food Security Index – prepared by The Economist, which does an annual assessment of food security by ranking 113 countries around the world, among other important issues – the top thirty (30) countries in the ranking are all developed countries, with little exception to Costa Rica and China.
These countries have big economic muscles enough to invest heavily in agriculture. Like any meaningful business, the serious agricultural practice needs capital.
When companies go to the bank for loans or list in Capital Markets, they do so out of the sheer need of expanding their capital base for further investments.
Agriculture too is not a mere practice, it’s a wager that demands attention, care and providence, neglecting to invest in it underscore the reason why our sector has been performing below its potential for ages.
Allocation of 361 billion Shillings – about half of an entire agriculture budget – to irrigation was also impactful. This will help increase the irrigated area from the current 727,280.6 hectares to 1.2 million hectares by 2025. In an era that is bedevilled by unpredictable rainfalls, sickening droughts and the shrinking size of land, coupled with an ever-increasing population, alternative sources of water have to be created, and this is what this budget has tried to do.
The purpose of writing all this is to encourage all the decision-makers responsible for steering this sector forward that they have done a commendable job and that as we approach the year 2023 the goal should be to invest more and more.
Next year, however, to make sure that international markets for our agricultural products are secured and protected, the Government of Tanzania needs to recall that it has homework to be finished. And that homework is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on pulses with India. Last time we checked, Tanzania was done with her part (signing the document) and waiting for her counterpart to do the same.
The fact that there are no more updates on the matter, gives an assumption that there is no bilateral agreement yet. The status quo is sickening because, currently, the pulses sub-sector is the leading income earner than Coffee, Tea, Tobacco, Horticulture, Cotton and so many other celebrated cash crops.
There is no sane animal keeper who will take so much care of a cow whose milk production is less and desert one that gives more.
While it is appreciated that commendable efforts were made on our part to reach the current stage it is also good to be cognizant of the fact that an incomplete task is no task at all.
We look at the year 2022 with gratitude and 2023 with hope, may the coming year be fruitful to us all.
