By Macharia Kamau
Tanzanian Government says it will allow its farmers to freely export maize and other grains to neighbouring countries — including Kenya — in the future.
This is a departure from the stand adopted in the past where Tanzania placed repeated and regular bans on maize exports to its neighbours.
In many instances, the bans have been interpreted as efforts to frustrate the actualising major East African Community Goals.
Tanzania has previously banned exports of maize to Kenya, arguing that the exports would jeopardise the country food security. To bridge the gap between demand and supplier, Kenya was forced to import the grains from far-flung markets like South Africa, a move that inflated its import bill grow, and exhausted its foreign exchange reserves.
But Tanzania’s ministry of agriculture said on Wednesday the country wants to be a major producer of agricultural commodities and attain the position of a breadbasket for the region. To meet this goal, the ministry said it would intensify production to meet local demand as well as surplus for sale to the region.
Eng Christopher Chiza, Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives said the country is putting significant efforts towards increasing production so as to ensure enough production for local consumption and surplus for trading with its neighbours.
“As a country, we have huge potential, given the agricultural resources that Tanzania has and see ourselves being a bread basket for the region in the coming years,” he said.
Intensifying production
“We have also noted that putting bans in places is not the answer to our problems as a country and the region, intensifying production and capitalising on demand from our neighbours.”
Tanzania plans to use the huge chunks of arable land it has, compared to Kenya, to meet its goal. For starters, the country is mapping out zones where the Government will increase investments in agriculture. He also said the country would allocate 10 per cent of national spending to agriculture.
Chiza was speaking on Wednesday in Arusha at an agricultural forum organised by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The forum will be officially opened today (Thursday) by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kiwkete.
Last year, Kenya consumed 43 million bags of maize, against a supply of 30 million bags, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The difference is usually bridged by imports. In addition to volatility in weather patterns that has seen poor production in agricultural commodities, this year Kenya has to grapple with a maize disease that has seen the country reduce its projections for maize production.
Bridge a gap
The disease that resulted in the withering of crop is expected to see production go down by 20 per cent. This will exacerbate the Kenyan maize production situation where imports usually have to bridge a gap between production and consumption.
The Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers (KENFAP) recently estimated that the country would experience a deficit of about 10 million bags of dried maize — up from the earlier projected four million this year — as a result of the disease.
