The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
21 August 2008
editorial
Africa's future prosperity hinges on its commitment to engage in robust exploitation of its farming to boost production. This is what the continent has the comparative advantage for and readily available resources.
A thriving agricultural sector is strategic to economies like ours, which are technologically backward, lack capital, and are not blessed with resources such as oil.
Serious efforts are needed that will greatly contribute to growth levels required to tame poverty and mitigate the impact of the raging global food crisis.
Had Tanzania and others foreseen the unprecedented global demand for food, having put its farming in order, we could today be doing brisk business exporting cereals and grains that are selling like hot cakes in the world market. Arable land we have, water is plentiful and before the climate change effects came in, we were always assured of abundant rainfall.
African agriculture has so far been let down by limited investment, shoddy management of resources and lack of the political will to modernise it.
And unless this neglect of the sector changes, poverty will remain part and parcel of life in the country. Our policy-makers, development planners and growth strategists must push for productivity on the farm.
A recent study says that the East African economies require nearly $4 billion annually to meet the global target of reducing poverty and hunger by 2015 and ward off the global food crisis. This means the Government should allocate more than the Sh460 billion it set aside for the sector in this year's Budget and the sector must be made to grow above 4.4 per cent, its average growth rate between 2001 and last year.
The required spending will only have a big impact if investments are directed towards enhancing efficiency and productivity in agricultural administration, research, extension services, building of rural roads and irrigation.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
