Browsing: agriculture in Tanzania

An African woman assessing her crops on farmland

Tanzania is building irrigation schemes for rice production and encourages efficient use of fertilizers via its 10-year National Rice Development Strategy Phase II (NRDS-II).  “The NRDS-II purpose is to double the area under rice cultivation from 1.1 to 2.2 million hectares from 2018 to 2030, double on-farm rice productivity from two t/ha to four t/ha by 2030, and reduce post-harvest loss from 30 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030,” according to ITA.

The exportation of goods is a numbers game. Numbers give a unique perspective on the trend of agro-product exportation across potential and competitive markets in the region and abroad.

ITA shows that the exportation of corn has faced setbacks in the financial year 2021/2022 as forecasted to decrease by 20 per cent, equivalent to 80 million metric tonnes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting supply chains. The decrease is attributed to reports of truck drivers’ screenings, lockdowns and curfews in neighbouring countries.

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan with United States Vice President Kamala Harris. Americans investing in Tanzania stand to gain from a US$1 billion investment opportunity in Tanzania. www.theexchange.africa

President Suluhu Hassan has welcomed American investors in her bid to “set the tone for creating the safe lending for investors”.

By 2021, Tanzania led in East Africa in the number of FDI attracted from the US to Tanzania, followed by Kenya and Uganda.

Over the past years, there was deterioration in Tanzania’s business and investment sector that marred the nation’s attractiveness.

The latter brought Tanzania to rank 141 out of 190 countries on the 2020 World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report, which the International Trade Administration argued to be the lowest among the nation’s peers.

Hence, President Suluhu Hassan’s administration is addressing the latter. Her government has now substantially improved cross border trading with its neighbouring nations, dealing with unrealistic taxes, unnecessary bureaucracy, delayed refunds and unfriendly administration of taxes.

Detailing on the source of the funding and its uses, the president said the US$100 million  (over TShs230 billion) is from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a loan to Tanzania, and another US$100 million is for the Isles.

“The IMF fund will be directed to health, education, water and power sectors, as well as economically empowering wananchi (citizens/the public),” local media quoted President Mwinyi.

The president went ahead and gave a very detailed explanation of the planned use of the funding detailing each sector and the allocated amount and then he got to the part about funding to support businesses.