Tanzania: The Challenge of Moving from Subsistence to Profit

Tanzania could be a major food-exporting country but its dependence on rainfall, poor transport and marketing infrastructures, as well as low access to technology, lead to persistent food security problems. The Tanzanian government has decided to focus its Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) on irrigation. However, even though the importance of irrigation to reduce Tanzania’s dependency on rainfall is undisputed, it would have been better to have a two-fold programme with one part focusing on production-related investments such as irrigation and the other fostering commercial agriculture and the private sector. While donor commitments to agriculture show a mixed trend, Tanzania is one of the few African countries with a basket fund in agriculture. The Tanzanian government aims to establish the ASDP as the sector programme to which all donor interventions should be aligned. First reviews of the ASDP reveal that capacity to implement the programme is lacking at all levels. A lot of capacity building and a change of mindset in Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are needed to make farmer empowerment and private sector involvement a reality. Furthermore, rural and agricultural development efforts should be better co-ordinated as both draw on the same limited capacities at the local level.