DAR ES SALAAM, 28 JANUARY, 2014
Honourable Eng. Christopher Chiza, (MP), Minister of Agriculture, Food
Security and Cooperatives,
Mr. Salum Shamte, Chairman of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania,
Distinguished Delegates; Resource Persons,
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to Tanzania and to Dar es
Salaam in particular. I hope you have been received well by your host.
Please feel at home and enjoy the traditional Tanzanian hospitality. We
will do our best to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Let me
remind those who have come here for the first time that the city offers a
lot to explore and see. Besides, Dar es Salaam is not far from the famous
spice Islands of Zanzibar. Please find time after this meeting to explore
what is in the offing in the ultimate paradise on the Indian Ocean.
Honourable Minister;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I thank the organisers for choosing Tanzania to play host to this important
meeting: the Agribusiness Congress East Africa. I also commend them for
organising the Congress so well and for choosing the theme “Driving
Innovation for Agricultural Development in East Africa”. It is very
pertinent and timely because embracing innovation in agriculture is a
vehicle for transformation and growth of agriculture in our region. For
sure, it is lack of innovation which has made our agriculture less
productive and overall production low. As a result, many people in the
region whose livelihood depends on agriculture remain poor. Indeed, the
consequence of our failure to embrace innovation has made the food security
situation in our region to remain precarious for quite some time.
This state of affairs is largely attributed to limited application of
modern science and technology in the production processes. There is little
use of irrigation, low use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and
pesticides. For example, whereas our friends in Asia and Latin America have
been able to irrigate 37 percent and 14 percent, of their cultivated area
respectively, Africa has been able to irrigate only 5 percent of its
cultivated land. As regards the use of fertilizer, Africa lags behind too.
The average use of fertilizer in Africa is only 8 kg per hectare. This
amount is just too low when compared with the Netherlands where fertilizer
use is 477 kg per hectare.
Mechanisation is minimal hence traditional tools predominate. Most farmers
use the hand hoe, machete and axe and at the same time lack modern
agricultural skills and knowledge. They continue to apply old methods of
farming and animal husbandry. Under such circumstances, therefore,
innovation will make a huge difference in improving agricultural
productivity and production among small holder farmers in the region.
Compared to other continents, productivity in Africa leaves much to be
desired. Taking an example of maize, productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa is
1.9 tons per hectare, whereas in China it is 5.7 tons per hectare and in
Canada it is 10 tons per hectare.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Embracing and anchoring innovation is the overarching matter in our
endeavour to transform Africa’s agriculture. An endeavours which when
successful implemented will translate into increased productivity and
production, more incomes to farmers, food and nutrition security, raw
materials for agro based industries, more incomes to people involved in
agribusiness and increased foreign exchange earnings for our countries.
Three key things need to be done by nations. First, is to develop visions,
plans and programmes to anchor innovation in agriculture. Secondly, is to
provide adequate financial, human and technological resources needed to
implement the plans and programmes. And, last but not least empower farmers
to participate effectively in the implementation of the plans and
programmes of innovation in agriculture.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is heartwarming, indeed, to note that African countries are moving on
the right direction in this regard. All countries have visions, plans and
programmes to develop their agriculture with innovation being at the heart
of it all. At the Continental level there is awareness and commitment to
take action to implement a green revolution. One such example is the 2003
decision by African Union leaders to adopt the Maputo Declaration on Food
Security which committed African countries to allocate 10 percent of their
national budgets to agricultural development. It was at the same Summit
when leaders adopted the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP) under NEPAD with the aim of increasing agricultural
growth rates to 6 percent per year.
Thereafter, in 2004, African leaders adopted the Sirte Declaration on
Agriculture and Water; later, in 2006, the AU Member States adopted the
Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution resolving
to increase the use of fertilizer from 8 kg to 50 kg per hectare by 2015.
Countries are at different levels of implementing these decisions. Some
have achieved more than others. However, the most important thing is that
all nations are aware of the importance of innovation and they are taking
actions. Being at different levels of resource endowment and facing
different challenges is what has contributed to the differences in
implementation. Political will has never been wanting.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
At regional and national levels, countries are taking various measures to
transform their agriculture and ensure food security. I know within
Regional Economic Communities there are regional programmes. This is true
of the EAC, SADC and other REC’s on the Continent. Many countries in Africa
are now aware of the importance of it and, are indeed, investing more
resources in research with the view of introducing new and innovative
technologies and farming methods. They are expanding extension services in
order to educate farmers on the importance and application of innovations.
The good thing is that the benefits of innovation are being felt wherever
they are undertaken. As a result, many farmers have shown readiness to
adopt innovative technologies and techniques in farming and putting
pressure on governments with regard to scaling up.
The main challenge facing our governments in Africa is the fact that they
are financially constrained hence unable to meet farmer’s needs with regard
to high yielding seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, irrigation
etc. In this regard, governments need to do more in terms of budgetary
allocations for agriculture and look for innovative ways of mobilizing more
resources for the sector. Involvement of other players including
development partners, private sector and civil society is also important.
Distinguished Delegates;
We, in Tanzania, just like other African countries, have made several
attempts to develop our agriculture. The most recent attempt is the
adoption of the 2006 Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP). This
is a 14 year programme aimed at transforming Tanzania’s agriculture through
innovations to overcome obstacles besetting agricultural growth.
Specifically the ASDP is intended to increase mechanization, irrigation and
the use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The ASDP is
also meant to address the shortage of extension services to farmers,
inadequacy in rural infrastructure, problem of crop marketing to ensure
reliable markets and good prices for farmers produce. The ASDP underscores
the importance of agribusiness in the sense of promoting value addition and
agricultural value chain.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
A lot of ground has been covered in implementing the objectives of ASDP. We
are beginning to reap its benefits. There is all round increase in
production in almost all crops and food security situation is relatively
stable. Let me hasten to say, there is no reason to be complacent about
these achievements because there is a lot more to do on the transformation
agenda. Tanzania’s agriculture remains predominantly traditional. We must
do more to promote innovation. One of the things we agreed to do is to
increase the participation of the private sector in agriculture. This was
the outcome of the 2008 joint study undertaken by government and private
sector through the Tanzania Business Council which I chair. We all agreed
to give agriculture top most priority hence the catch praise “Kilimo
Kwanza”.
Ladies and gentlemen;
In 2010, we decided to involve the international private sector as well.
The idea was to accelerate the pace of agricultural transformation in the
country. Again this was very much informed by the discussions on
agriculture at the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa held here in Dar es
Salaam. It was agreed that their involvement must be strategic in the sense
of leveraging modern science and technology and management skills in
agricultural production and the agricultural value chain. We also agreed
that their involvement should be focused on enhancing food production to
meet national and regional needs.
In this regard we decided to concentrate our efforts in the regions of
Iringa, Morogoro, Ruvuma, Mbeya and Rukwa because of their comparative
advantage in terms of climate condition and availability of water. This
decision lead to the birth of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor
(SAGCOT). The ultimate goal of SAGCOT is to turn 350,000 hectares of land
into profitable use and create 420,000 new jobs and an annual income of 1.2
billion dollars.
It is envisaged that some 2.4 billion dollars will be invested over a
period of 20 years. This investment is expected to come from our
government, development partners, the private sector and the farmers. At
World Economic Forum in January 2011 the SAGCOT initiative was endorsed as
a new model worthy developing and promoting. WEF christened it the Grow
Africa Initiative. To date, seven countries have adopted the model by
adapting it to their own environment. As a result, the Grow Africa
Partnership was established.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The response of private sector and development partners has been
encouraging. The support of the G8 at the Camp David Summit opened the way
for support from many donors. It also bolstered the involvement of
international private sector. So far 19 companies have made commitment to
invest in the SAGCOT area. Some have already come to invest and many others
have indicated their willingness to invest in the near future. On the whole
we are seeing increased interest in investing in agriculture elsewhere in
Tanzania. Our pre-occupation now is to improve business environment, a task
which we have started to do. In this regard we are taking various policy
actions that would address factors which hinder investment in agriculture.
In the meantime, we in government continue with our role of regulating and
providing public resources for the agricultural sector. More important, we
are striving to improve rural infrastructure; roads, water and electricity
supply with a view to expediting modernization of rural economy and enhance
productivity of farmers.
Likewise we have designed various microfinance schemes to enable farmers
access funds more easily. Furthermore, we are finalising the process of
establishing the Bank that will be solely responsible for agriculture
development in the country. We are doing all that because we believe that
if farmers are empowered, they can innovate.
Distinguished delegates;
In our experience, we have learned an important lesson that it is possible
to transform agriculture in our lifetime. We have three major opportunities
to make it happen. First, advances in science and technology offer our
region new tools and techniques needed to modernize our agriculture. For
example by using science and technology we can improve soil and crop
productivity, enhance pests control and fortify seeds. Furthermore farmers
can use low cost pumps for irrigation purposes instead of waiting for
nature to cooperate and bring rain.
Second, efforts to create regional markets provide new incentives for
agricultural production and trade. Indeed this will facilitate the
expansion of market and movement of goods including crops and
agro-processing goods. Furthermore, it will enhance interaction between
research centers, farmers and entrepreneurs thus accelerate knowledge
sharing and dissemination of information. The East African Common Market
and other regional preferential trade arrangements is a good case in point.
Third is the growing global interest and momentum to support initiatives
and partnerships which help the region to focus on long term strategies of
transforming agriculture. Indeed, in recent years, African agriculture has
been a persistent agenda in almost all major meetings and debates. Our task
is to translate that goodwill into real gains; to make our farmers go far
beyond subsistence farming. We should enable them gain new skills and
access new technologies and support that will enable them to move to
commercial production. We all know very well that it is the only way they
can improve their household income and offer their children a prosperous
future. We, leaders, policy makers and experts gathered here, should share
this vision and ensure their dreams come true.
In conclusion, I thank the organisers once again for choosing my country to
host this important meeting. We eagerly wait for the outcome of the meeting.
I now have the pleasure to declare that the Agribusiness Congress East
Africa is officially open. I wish you all fruitful deliberation.
Thank you for your kind attention.