The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
22 October 2008
editorial
The right strategies and policies are the key to sound and productive actions. Without proper strategies, it is difficult to achieve anything. But policies and strategies alone, without tangible actions are useless.
Some 12 months have passed since reports of the global food crisis broke. Food prices started skyrocketing due to drought or floods, partly as a result of global warming, and as food crops were increasingly being used to make biofuels.
Agricultural experts were quick to point out that Tanzania, being a primarily agricultural country, stood to gain in the wake of the increasing food prices if it could take advantage of this to boost agricultural production.
But with no appropriate policies or implementation strategies, Tanzania itself might soon become the victim of higher food prices.
The country, the experts say, has failed to benefit from the global food prices due to improper policies and strategies. They say the Government takes a general approach to the issue with no specific productive targets. It is, therefore, almost impossible to help all farmers increase production.
It is unfortunate for country such as Tanzania that has ample arable land, plenty of water resources and adequate rainfall to fail even to feed itself adequately. What are our politicians doing?
It is time the politicians came up with concrete strategies to enable large-scale cultivation of selected food crops and create right the pricing mechanism to take advantage of the high global prices.
We should not wait for foreign investors who don't have a keen interest in putting their capital in agriculture. We urgently need quick, appropriate strategies now.
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