Tanzania: Farming – Plenty of Jobs, No Takers

Maize Farm

A longstanding outcry among peasants over numeral challenges facing agriculture has apparently contributed to reluctance among youth to grab abundant opportunities the sector has in store for them.

Cooperative unions are shrouded in red tape, nuisance taxes are robbing farmers of their incomes, farming inputs are not timely distributed, poor roads make it hard for crops to reach the markets and the markets themselves are shortchanging farmers.

These are but few of the challenges which compelled retired President Jakaya Kikwete to concede failure of his ambitious Agriculture First initiative he strongly believed would relieve Tanzanians of unemployment and abject poverty.

Unemployment is real

Findings of a research the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) conducted recently reveal that 71 per cent of Tanzanians spend most of their time engaging in activities which are neither productive to themselves nor to the nation at large.

This is despite experts in agriculture claiming that the sector, which touches lives of 75 per cent of rural households, abounds with ready-made employment opportunities for them.

According to the Tanzania Warehouse Licensing Board, agriculture contributes 26 per cent of the national gross domestic product, 95 per cent of foodstuff demand, 30 per cent of exports, 65 per cent of raw materials for local manufacturers and above all, 70 per cent of Tanzanians eke out a ling through the sector.

The CEOs’ Roundtable chairman, Mr Ali Mufuruki, does not see the reason for Tanzanians to complain over the shortage of sugar while the country abounds with agricultural opportunities.

Mr Mufuruki said unlike in other sectors, agriculture could recruit a big number of Tanzanian youth regardless of their education background.

Agricultural opportunities

Citing the shortage of sugar rocking the country, Mr Mufuruki said youth could turn it into opportunity if they engaged in sugar cane cultivation to meet the demand of the sweetener throughout a year.

“I once visited Kagera Sugar plant and learnt that it recruited 50,000 permanent workers and 15,000 labourers to produce only about60,000 tonnes of sugar, while the country falls short of 100,000 tonnes a year,” observed the economist, wondering:

“The factory has to employ over 7,000 permanent workers and 22,000 labourers to fill the deficit of sugar, yet people are complaining of unemployment.”

Mr Mufuruki believes Tanzania could avoid importing foodstuff if it opens up food production, employment and economic opportunities available in the sector that is a sleeping giant.

The Kariakoo Market Corporation manager, Mr Florence Seiya, said most of the agricultural opportunities currently were in horticulture, particularly the production of yams, potato, onions and various types of fruits.

“Kenya is importing some potatoes and onions to the marker (Kariakoo) while South Africa is importing some fruits,” the manager of the largest market in East and Central Africa said, stressing that the demand for horticultural produce was high and ever growing.

The director of the Agricultural Non State Actors forum, Mr Audax Rukonge, said employment opportunities in agriculture were fivefold, namely production, harvesting and storage, processing, packaging and distribution and retailing.

“For example, if we decide to tap in animal skins, we can create employment in selling, slaughtering, processing and packaging and leather factories. And so is the case with diary,” he explained.

President John Magufuli stressed along similar lines recently when he directed social security funds to invest in the manufacturing sector in a bid to process raw material and to employ many Tanzanians.

Challenges

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Tanzania boasts having 43 million hectares of arable land of which only 10.8 million hectares are cultivated mostly because a small number of youth join the agricultural sector annually.

Statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Employment shows that about 400,000 youth enter the labour market each year as opposed to the government’s ability to recruit only between 80,000 and 100,000.

Prof Prosper Ngowi from the Department of Economics of the University of Dar es Salaam said the biggest challenge was inability among the majority of Tanzanians to identify and grab employment opportunities at their disposals because they lacked entrepreneurial skills.

“But there are those who can identify employment opportunities and raise capital, but they are not courageous enough to venture into those opportunities,” he said.

Prof Ngowi said another challenge, which was beyond the ability of Tanzanians themselves, was the harsh environment of investing in the opportunities.

A youth could identify an employment opportunity and raise capital required for implementing his business plan, but the government failed him through its unfriendly policies. “

The government had, for instance, pledged long ago that it would establish a youth development bank to no avail, the problem is most of the plans end up in talk shows only,” he observed.

Maswa East Member of Parliament, Mr Stanslaus Nyongo, said when contributing to financial plan for this fiscal year of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Parliament that the government ought to invest in the production of cotton, observing that the demand of the raw materials for textile factories was higher than what was available.

The member of the Parliamentary Committee on Industry and Trade cited many trucks he saw waiting for cargo at Urafiki Textile Mills in Dar es Salaam, stressing: “I would like to urge the government to embark on a a special programme for enhancing cotton production and crating employment opportunities.