Predicaments in Africa Agritransformation : Some Reflections from Tanzania

Tanzania, like many other African countries, has formulated a number of strategies and policies for charting out a path for its development. A number of structural reforms so far implemented across all economic sectors have led to improved confidence about the economy and with this improvement have come improvement, among others, in the flow of official development assistance and foreign direct investments in Tanzania. A central aim of reformation is to improve economic efficiency and to make the benefits available to local citizens in the form of increased output, service delivery and improved livelihoods. In agricultural fronts, many projects and programmes have been initiated with the aim of scaling up productivity in the sector whose contribution to economic growth, jobs and income creation is considered significant to levels that could eradicate suffering in the livelihoods of poor farmers who are the majority in the sector. But has this occurred on a scale sufficient to justify the cost of these agricultural initiatives? Comprehensive data on answering this question is lacking but scattered information from eye view confirms the general deteriorating livelihoods conditions. Many, including myself, are still at standstill in concluding the extent to which these progammes have helped the intended “traditional farmers” to graduate out of their poverty circles! many studies – from individuals and institutions – have identified what Africa needs to do, as this volume does. But nothing much has changed in africa agritransformation, and some would argue that the situation has regressed further