A Speech by Hon. Charles Tizeba (MP), Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives during the 14th Sokoine Memorial Lecture, Delivered at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro on 12th April 2017
Regional Commissioner for Morogoro, Hon. Dr. Kebwe Steven Kebwe
Chancellor of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Hon. Judge Joseph Sinde Warioba
Chairman of Council, Hon. MR. Philemon Luhanjo
Vice Chancellor, Prof. Gerald Monela
SUA staff and Students
Distinguished Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First and foremost, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Management of Sokoine University of Agriculture for inviting me to this very special event when we remember the life and work of the late Edward Moringe Sokoine, who dedicated his entire adult life to serving this country with utmost dedication and patriotism. I understand today marks the 14th time you have organized the Sokoine memorial lectures, and I am glad to be part of this remembrance.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Late Hon. Edward Moringe Sokoine as the Prime Minister of Tanzania led this country with a sense of responsibility, accountability and a very high level of commitment. He was among the greatest patriots this country has ever produced, a man of great character and a leader dedicated to the development of his people and the country as a whole. It is about 33 years today since we lost this true son of our soil. In commemorating him we have all reasons to reflect on his thoughts which contributed to building the foundation for economic development in the country.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The late Sokoine led this country during times of great economic crisis. Yet, he espoused a clear political vision while grappling with the operational problems of development with determination. While he embodied the virtues of integrity, simplicity and dedication, he was also known to be a no-nonsense man when it came to defending the rights of every citizen. He insisted on good and accountable leadership; he fought corruption and impunity; he advocated equality and the rule of law. Most of all, he strove for the development of the masses and fought against the creation of a class of a few privileged people.
Like the first President of this country, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, the late Sokoine sacrificed much of his life for the betterment of his country. His character, modest lifestyle and integrity made him one of the most loved and respected Tanzanian political figures.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we remember Sokoine today, we are mindful of the fact that the struggles he led are still important today. We are still grappling with problems of corruption, negligence, lack of accountability and, most importantly, problems of poverty of our people, particularly those living in the rural areas. What our nation is striving to achieve today reflects what our great patriotic leader, the late Hon. Edward Moringe Sokoine desired to achieve. It is for this reason that we are honouring him by remembering his initiatives, and it is for this reason that I have chosen to address the 17th commemoration of our great leader through a key note address titled “Agricultural Mechanisation as a Strategic Industrial Development Response towards Tanzania Becoming a Middle Economy Country”. The choice of this subject for this memorial speech is based on Sokoine’s determination and contribution to achieving broad-based development in Tanzania through modernization of agriculture, and our current focus on promoting industrialization as a strategy for economic transformation and for achieving our National Development Vision of becoming a middle income country by 2025.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Industrialization and modernization of agriculture go hand in hand; to achieve industrialization you must have a modern agricultural sector that provides the necessary quantity and quality of raw materials to feed the industries. And modernization of the agricultural sector requires a vibrant industrial sector that will create demand for the agricultural products. Agricultural mechanization is an important component in our strategy of bringing about agricultural modernization to achieve our objective of industrialization, and eventually to reach our goal of becoming a middle income country.
Mr. Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Agriculture is important in our industrialization strategy because it is the source of food and raw materials for the industries; its exports will generate foreign exchange which is necessary for importation of industrial machinery; it can generate savings that can be used for capital to finance industrialization; and a growing agricultural sector will create a large local market for industrial goods.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of Tanzania. This is so despite the declining contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product (GDP), for example from 45% in 2005 to about 23% in 2015. The agricultural sector in Tanzania provides about 66.9% of employment and accounts for 30% of exports and 65% of inputs to the industrial sector.
The agricultural sector is therefore a key in our efforts at reducing poverty in our country. Indeed we require an annual growth rate of 6 to 8 percent of the sector for effective eradication of absolute poverty. However, the average annual growth rate of the sector has so far been around 3 per cent, which is not enough to lift he majority of our people out of poverty.
Mr. Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Among the reasons for the slow growth of the agricultural sector are low utilization of farm machinery and implements and dependency on rainfall by our farmers. Currently, many of our farmers (about 64%) still depend on the hand hoe, while only about 24% use draught animal power and about 12% use tractors. Currently, only about 1.6 per cent of the land with irrigation potential is actually irrigated. The low capacity for agro-processing in the country has also contributed to the slow growth of the sector, as most of the agricultural products are marketed and sold in raw forms with little or no value addition, which results in low incomes to our farmers.
Mr. Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As expected, the slow growth of the agricultural sector has led to persistence of poverty, especially in rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity. For example, as documented in the 2011/12 Household Budget Survey, the incidence of basic needs poverty deceased from 39.4% in 2007 to 33.3% in 2011 of the Tanzania Mainland rural population, while in urban areas other than Dar es Salaam it increased from 22.7% in 2007 to 21.7% in 2011. Overall, basic needs poverty declined from 34.4% in 2007 to 28.2% in 2011 in the Tanzania Mainland population. All this means that without tackling the issue of agricultural mechanization, we may not achieve the objective of transforming our economy or that of significant reducing the poverty of our people.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Tanzania Development Vision (TDV) 2025 stipulates, among others, that by year 2025 “….The economy will have been transformed from a low productivity agricultural economy to a semi-industrialized one led by modernized and highly productive agricultural activities.”
The Fifth Government of the United Republic of Tanzania is therefore aware of the role of agriculture in development and of the constraints to agriculture’s contribution to development. Hence, the Government is determined to make agriculture contribute substantially to development towards enabling Tanzania to become a middle economy country by 2025 in line with our Development Vision 2025.
The commitment of the Government to agricultural development, is also reflected in Chama cha Mapinduzi’s 2015 Election Manifesto which sates, among other things, that:
“Katika kipindi cha mwaka 2015 – 2020, Chama cha Mapinduzi kitaielekeza Serikali kutilia mkazo utekelezaji wa Awamu ya Pili ya Programu ya Kuendeleza Kilimo…. ili kufikia malengo makuu ya kukifanya kilimo kuwa cha kisasa na cha biashara; chenye tija na ambacho mazao yake yatakuwa yameongezewa thamani…… Kuhamasisha sekta binafsi kuanzisha viwanda vya nyama na mazao mengine yatokanayo na mifugo ikiwemo jibini na ngozi hususan katika maeneo yenye mifugo mingi ili kuongeza thamani…… na kushirikiana na Mashirika ya Umma yenye dhamana ya uvuvi nchini kuwavutia wawekezaji kuanzisha viwanda vya kuongeza thamani ya mazao ya uvuvi, vyombo na zana za uvuvi.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Informed by achievements and implementation challenges of previous strategies and plans for development, particularly the Second Phase National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA II) (2010/11 – 2014/15) and the National Five Year Development Plan of 2011/12 – 2015/16 (FYDP I) whose motto was “Unleashing Tanzania’s Latent Growth Potentials”, the Government formulated the Second National Five Year Development Plan of 2016/17 – 2020/21 (FYDP II) whose motto is Nurturing Industrialization for Economic Transformation and Human Development”.
This Development Plan is expected to successfully deliver on the Development vision 2025; that is, transforming Tanzania into a semi-industrialized, middle economy country. It outlines new interventions to enable Tanzania industrialise in a way that will transform its economy and its society, agricultural mechanization being one among the areas of main focus for industrialization.#
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the time of implementation of FYDP I and MKUKUTA II in 2010/11 – 2015/16, Tanzania’s economy recorded an annual average growth rate of 7% and per capita income rose from US$ 749.3 in 2010 to US$ 1,043 in 2014, which implies that Tanzania is almost becoming a middle economy country. But besides monetary indicators for attaining the status of a middle economy country, Tanzania is well on its way on other indictors of becoming a middle income country, which are: high quality and sustainable livelihoods; peace, stability and unity; good governance and the rule of law; and educated and learning society; and strong and competitive economy.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Having elaborated on the vision of the government with respect to agricultural development and industrialization, let me now dwell a bit on past efforts of agricultural mechanization so as to draw lessons for our present and future efforts.
In Tanzania, efforts to mechanise agriculture can be described according to the three phases of the country’s historical evolution, i.e. the colonial period before 1960, the first two and a half decades after independence (1960-85), and the structural adjustment and globalization periods (1985 to 2015).
Agricultural Mechanization during the Colonial Period
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Agricultural mechanization was introduced in Tanganyika during the colonial period before independence in 1961. During this period there was also an evolution of the adoption of agricultural mechanization, starting with the predominance of hand-tool technology before the 1930s, both on the German and later British settle farms, as well as on subsistence farms of the Africans (i.e. the natives). The settler farmers used various methods to get the natives to work on their farms using the hand-tool technology. This was followed by the adoption of draught animal technology from 1930 to 1945, whereby advances in the control of livestock diseases, in particular the control of tsetse flies through bush clearing, made it possible for pastoral tribes in the North-West Tanzania to live and settle in new areas where they could not do so before. They also adopted the ox-ploughing and started crop production, including cash crops like cotton. After 1945 to the time of independence in 1961, the British Colonial Authorities established various mechanized commercial farming schemes in several parts of the country, including the sisal and coffee settler farmers and the famous groundnut schemes. African medium scale farmers (5 to 100 hectares) also adopted the use of tractors and started growing commercial crops like wheat, maize and beans in areas like Babati, Oldeani, Ismani, etc.
Agricultural Mechanization after Independence: First phase – 1960-85
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The first twenty five years after independence can be divided into two distinct periods: the first period was the decade after Tanzania attained independence in 1961 (i.e. between 1961 and 1970), when the Government implemented a World Bank recommendation to transform the rural areas to, among other things, make them more amenable to mechanization. During that period, a number of what were then regarded as modern settlements were established where villagers and urban unemployed people were settled and provided with capital intensive machinery and implements to transform the rural areas and increase production and productivity. Over fifty years such settlements, modelled on the Kibutz of Israel, were established all over the country at a comparatively high cost to the government. However, the settlements did not succeed and were subsequently transformed into model Ujamaa villages following the Arusha Declaration of 1967 by which Tanzania adopted the socialist policy. This donor-supported pilot programme on mechanized agriculture failed, and the tractors and implements were sold to operators and progressive farmers who offered tractor hire services to small-scale farmers all the way from Mwanza through Arusha/Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania and sometimes to Eastern and Western Kenya.
The second period was during 1970 to 1985, which may be called the Ujamaa period. It was the period when major social engineering initiatives were undertaken, and thirteen million peasants living in scattered hamlets all over Tanzania Mainland were moved and re-settled in about 8,000 Ujamaa villages with the main objective of, among other things, providing them with social services in more effective and efficient ways. The services included education, health and water services as well as agricultural inputs, including mechanization services to produce communally and/or individually. The Government made several attempts to specifically come up with a policy and strategy for agricultural mechanization and also initiated several programmes to support the development of agricultural mechanization in the country. The initiatives included: (a) policy shifting from emphasis on tractors to draught animal technology (DAT); (b) establishing centres across the country for training draught animals (oxen and donkeys); (c) establishing factories to manufacture both hand tools and animal drawn implements (e.g. Ubungo and Mbeya Farm Implements factories, and a factory to assemble FALMET tractors in Kibaha); and (d) many of the international agricultural machinery companies reducing their operations in the country with the Government nationalizing some of them; (e) many commodity authorities, regional and district authorities and some cooperatives offering tractor hire services; (f) the establishment of the Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation and Rural Technology (CAMARTEC) and (h) establishing institutions for training agricultural mechanization experts such as the University of Dar es Salaam in the Faculty of Engineering, and Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Despite the many initiatives taken by the government to promote agricultural mechanization, the uptake of mechanization was not up to expectations. There was too much reliance on public funding, with hardly any private sector financing. Little attention was paid to efficiency and profitability of the various initiatives, which means that many of them could not sustain themselves without continuous injection of government funds. In the long run this was not sustainable.
Agricultural Mechanization after Independence: Second phase
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The second phase of agricultural mechanization after independence can be divided into the period from 1985 to 2005 when Tanzania was implementing the Structural Adjustment Programs and the period after 2005 when the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP 1) was being implemented.
The implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) from 1985 to 2005 greatly influenced social and economic development policies of Tanzania. The hallmark of the SAPs was, among other things, economic liberalization through reducing the role of the public sector in production and in provision of services, and encouragement of private commercial activities including the agricultural sector alongside smallholder agriculture. These had significant effects on agriculture and agricultural mechanisation as follows: sudden withdrawal from offering mechanization services by commodity authorities and government departments including the regional, district and local councils adversely affected the sector, as there were no immediately available alternative arrangements. Although new suppliers of agricultural machinery and implements emerged from Asia and Latin America offering their tractors and implements at lower price than the rational suppliers who were based in North America and Europe, these new suppliers did not have local franchises for the supply chains for the machinery and spare parts within the country.
For a while Tanzania experienced a vacuum as far as agricultural mechanization is concerned, with donors supporting so-called appropriate technologies, like draught animal technology, but without much impact. As a result of this vacuum, FAO supported the country to develop the Tanzania Agricultural Mechanization Strategy (TAMS) in 2006, which provided a longer term strategic framework for the development of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) specifically stipulated that agricultural mechanization services will be provided largely by the private sector. The role of the public sector was confined to the creation of an enabling environment for the private sector to be able to efficiently and effectively provide the mechanization services. During this time agricultural mechanization was then handled by a small unit under the Division of Irrigation and Technical Services where irrigation matters were accorded higher priority. At the same time agricultural mechanization was largely left in the hands of the private sector, while the Government took a back seat.
After 2005, even with the implementation of the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDP I) with the support of several development agencies, there has been no specific attention, or allocation of resources for agricultural mechanization.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The development and approval of TAMS was a major milestone for agricultural mechanization in Tanzania. For the first time in its history, Tanzania formulated a strategy, through a very consultative process, to guide short, medium and long term development of the agricultural mechanization sub-sector. The strategy provided a framework to guide the development of agricultural mechanization to contribute to the national aspiration of poverty reduction and economic growth as spelt out in ASDS and other national policies and strategies such as the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA-II). According to the then Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFS):
“The thrust of TAMS is to improve agricultural production and productivity through commercialized crop and livestock production by increasing accessibility and availability of appropriate farm machinery and implements as well as value addition through agro-processing and rural based agro-industries”.
In spite of concerted efforts to mechanise agriculture, the numbers of tractors in Tanzania has been fluctuating from 9,000 in 1975, to 15,500 by 1980 and peaking at 18,533 in 1985. From 1985, the numbers declined to 7,210 in 2005 before climbing again to 8,466 by 2010. In 2015, the number of tractors (four-wheel tractors, excluding two-wheel tractors) was 13,146.
Current Efforts to Improve Agriculture
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The current efforts to improve agriculture are documented in the National Agriculture Policy and in the Second National Five Year Development Plan FYDP II), among other documents. The National Agriculture Policy (URT, 2013), notes, among other concerns, that the utilization of farm machinery and implements in the country is very low, and proposes that:
Moreover, the National Agriculture Policy gives importance to agro-processing. It analyses the agro-processing issues, among other things, to be that: “most of crops in the country are marketed in raw form with little or no value addition…”, and hence “development of agro-enterprises has the potential for providing employment through such activities as handling, packaging, processing, transportation and marketing of food and agricultural produce”. Accordingly, the following six policy proposals on agro-processing are in place:
Realization of TDV 2015 through Agricultural Mechanisation
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Second Five Year Development Plan, 2016/17 – 2010/21 is the principal tool for the realization of the TDV 2025 objectives. The theme of FYDP II is “Nurturing Industrialization for Economic Transformation and Human Development” with the main objective of enhancing the pace of progress towards the Tanzania Development Vision 2015. Despite Tanzania doing well in terms of the rate of economic growth, much more needs to be done particularly for economic growth to translate into poverty reduction for the majority of Tanzanians. Therefore, efforts need to be made to scale up mobilization of resources, improve availability of supportive infrastructure and social services, and to diversify sources of growth, particularly to include the sectors that employ the majority of the poor, like agriculture.
As Tanzania sets to nurture industrialization, there are enormous opportunities, some of which are already captured in specific sector value chains and markets. What is required at this particular phase is to start moving from a shallow process of industrial and agro-mechanisation growth towards an inclusive and sustainable structural transformation process. This calls for, among other things, decisive actions in the following areas:
Conclusion
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you may have noted from my previous account, Tanzania has tried various models and strategies for promoting agricultural mechanization, with varying results. The Government is determined to see that agriculture is modernized, through the use of improved practices including a higher degree of mechanization, from production to processing. If agricultural mechanization, including agro-processing, is done optimally for production and processing food crop products, cash crop products, livestock products and by-products, fisheries and marine products, and forest products; it will enhance productivity in those areas and increase farm household incomes, improve food and nutrition security, and create jobs for rural and urban people-men, women and youth—among other things—and hence contribute substantially to enabling Tanzania to become a middle income country by 2025.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To achieve our objective, we must develop an effective strategy that clearly denies the role of the Government and that of the private sector sets priority areas of interventions and clearly defines the incentives for all stakeholders for them to play their part. We must identify or develop technologies for the various agricultural operations that are suited to our context and the scale of production of our farmers. We must be mindful of the need to improve the wellbeing of the small scale farmers who form the majority of our population. And we must make agricultural mechanization the pillar of our industrialization strategy, if we are to achieve economic transformation and human development.
Mr. Chancellor,
Distinguished Participants,
Invested Guests,
Scholars,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are gathered here today to remember the Late Hon. Edward Moringe Sokoine in whose honour this university is named. It is indeed an important occasion, given his big contribution to the social, economic and political development of this country during his short life. The only way to continue to hour him is to continue his good work and to uphold his ideals. We must continue his struggle to see this country transforms into a middle income country. The Government has put in place the Second Five Year National Development Plan 2016/2017 to 2020/2021 which focuses on industrialization. If we all play our part to achieve the objectives of the Plan, we shall have honoured the Late Sokoine in the best possible way.
Mr. Chancellor,
Your University, bearing the name of the late Sokoine, has a special role to play in continuing the struggle to lift our people out of poverty which he started. I, therefore, call upon the distinguished professors and other staff in this university to play an active part in ensuring that our development targets are achieved, through the work you do in teaching, research and advisory service. The Government will be looking to you for ideas, innovations, and skills to help push the industrialization agenda forward. As the oldest agricultural university in the country, we expect your leadership in working with all stakeholders to bring our dream, and I am sure Sokoine’s dream, to fruition. You have the full support of the Government.
Thank you all for your kind attention.