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KEYNOTE
ADDRESS BY H.E. JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC
OF TANZANIA, AT THE AGRIBUSINESS CONGRESS EAST AFRICA IN DAR ES SALAAM,
28 JANUARY, 2014
Honourable Eng. Christopher Chiza, (MP), Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives,
Mr. Salum Shamte, Chairman of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania,
Distinguished Delegates; Resource Persons,
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to Tanzania and to Dar es Salaam in particular. I hope you have
Honourable Eng. Christopher Chiza, (MP), Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives,
Mr. Salum Shamte, Chairman of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania,
Distinguished Delegates; Resource Persons,
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to Tanzania and to Dar es Salaam in particular. I hope you have
been
received well by your host. Please feel at home and enjoy the
traditional Tanzanian hospitality. We will do our best to make your
stay as comfortable as possible. Let me remind those who have come here
for the first time that the city offers a lot to explore and
see. Besides, Dar es Salaam is not far from the famous spice Islands of
Zanzibar. Please find time after this meeting to explore what is in
the offing in the ultimate paradise on the Indian Ocean.
Honourable Minister;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I thank the organisers for choosing Tanzania to play host to this important meeting: the Agribusiness Congress East Africa. I also commend them for organising the Congress so well and for choosing the theme “Driving Innovation for Agricultural Development in East Africa”. It is very pertinent and timely because embracing innovation in agriculture is a vehicle for transformation and growth of agriculture in our region. For sure, it is lack of innovation which has made our agriculture less productive and overall production low. As a result, many people in the region whose livelihood depends on agriculture remain poor. Indeed, the consequence of our failure to embrace innovation has made the food security situation in our region to remain precarious for quite some time.
This state of affairs is largely attributed to limited application of modern science and technology in the production processes. There is little use of irrigation, low use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. For example, whereas our friends in Asia and Latin America have been able to irrigate 37 percent and 14 percent, of their cultivated area respectively, Africa has been able to irrigate only 5 percent of its cultivated land. As regards the use of fertilizer, Africa lags behind too. The average use of fertilizer in Africa is only 8 kg per hectare. This amount is just too low when compared with the Netherlands where fertilizer use is 477 kg per hectare.
Mechanisation is minimal hence traditional tools predominate. Most farmers use the hand hoe, machete and axe and at the same time lack modern agricultural skills and knowledge. They continue to apply old methods of farming and animal husbandry. Under such circumstances, therefore, innovation will make a huge difference in improving agricultural productivity and production among small holder farmers in the region. Compared to other continents, productivity in Africa leaves much to be desired. Taking an example of maize, productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa is 1.9 tons per hectare, whereas in China it is 5.7 tons per hectare and in Canada it is 10 tons per hectare.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Embracing and anchoring innovation is the overarching matter in our endeavour to transform Africa’s agriculture. An endeavours which when successful implemented will translate into increased productivity and production, more incomes to farmers, food and nutrition security, raw materials for agro based industries, more incomes to people involved in agribusiness and increased foreign exchange earnings for our countries.
Three key things need to be done by nations. First, is to develop visions, plans and programmes to anchor innovation in agriculture. Secondly, is to provide adequate financial, human and technological resources needed to implement the plans and programmes. And, last but not least empower farmers to participate effectively in the implementation of the plans and programmes of innovation in agriculture.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is heartwarming, indeed, to note that African countries are moving on the right direction in this regard. All countries have visions, plans and programmes to develop their agriculture with innovation being at the heart of it all. At the Continental level there is awareness and commitment to take action to implement a green revolution. One such example is the 2003 decision by African Union leaders to adopt the Maputo Declaration on Food Security which committed African countries to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to agricultural development. It was at the same Summit when leaders adopted the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) under NEPAD with the aim of increasing agricultural growth rates to 6 percent per year.
Thereafter, in 2004, African leaders adopted the Sirte Declaration on Agriculture and Water; later, in 2006, the AU Member States adopted the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution resolving to increase the use of fertilizer from 8 kg to 50 kg per hectare by 2015. Countries are at different levels of implementing these decisions. Some have achieved more than others. However, the most important thing is that all nations are aware of the importance of innovation and they are taking actions. Being at different levels of resource endowment and facing different challenges is what has contributed to the differences in implementation. Political will has never been wanting.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
At regional and national levels, countries are taking various measures to transform their agriculture and ensure food security. I know within Regional Economic Communities there are regional programmes. This is true of the EAC, SADC and other REC’s on the Continent. Many countries in Africa are now aware of the importance of it and, are indeed, investing more resources in research with the view of introducing new and innovative technologies and farming methods. They are expanding extension services in order to educate farmers on the importance and application of innovations. The good thing is that the benefits of innovation are being felt wherever they are undertaken. As a result, many farmers have shown readiness to adopt innovative technologies and techniques in farming and putting pressure on governments with regard to scaling up.
The main challenge facing our governments in Africa is the fact that they are financially constrained hence unable to meet farmer’s needs with regard to high yielding seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, irrigation etc. In this regard, governments need to do more in terms of budgetary allocations for agriculture and look for innovative ways of mobilizing more resources for the sector. Involvement of other players including development partners, private sector and civil society is also important.
Distinguished Delegates;
We, in Tanzania, just like other African countries, have made several attempts to develop our agriculture. The most recent attempt is the adoption of the 2006Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP). This is a 14 year programme aimed at transforming Tanzania’s agriculture through innovations to overcome obstacles besetting agricultural growth. Specifically the ASDP is intended to increase mechanization, irrigation and the use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The ASDP is also meant to address the shortage of extension services to farmers, inadequacy in rural infrastructure, problem of crop marketing to ensure reliable markets and good prices for farmers produce. The ASDP underscores the importance of agribusiness in the sense of promoting value addition and agricultural value chain.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
A lot of ground has been covered in implementing the objectives of ASDP. We are beginning to reap its benefits. There is all round increase in production in almost all crops and food security situation is relatively stable. Let me hasten to say, there is no reason to be complacent about these achievements because there is a lot more to do on the transformation agenda. Tanzania’s agriculture remains predominantly traditional. We must do more to promote innovation. One of the things we agreed to do is to increase the participation of the private sector in agriculture. This was the outcome of the 2008 joint study undertaken by government and private sector through the Tanzania Business Council which I chair. We all agreed to give agriculture top most priority hence the catch praise “Kilimo Kwanza”.
Ladies and gentlemen;
In 2010, we decided to involve the international private sector as well. The idea was to accelerate the pace of agricultural transformation in the country. Again this was very much informed by the discussions on agriculture at the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa held here in Dar es Salaam. It was agreed that their involvement must be strategic in the sense of leveraging modern science and technology and management skills in agricultural production and the agricultural value chain. We also agreed that their involvement should be focused on enhancing food production to meet national and regional needs.
In this regard we decided to concentrate our efforts in the regions of Iringa, Morogoro, Ruvuma, Mbeya and Rukwa because of their comparative advantage in terms of climate condition and availability of water. This decision lead to the birth of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor (SAGCOT). The ultimate goal of SAGCOT is to turn 350,000hectares of land into profitable use and create 420,000 new jobs and an annual income of 1.2 billion dollars.
It is envisaged that some 2.4 billion dollars will be invested over a period of 20 years. This investment is expected to come from our government, development partners, the private sector and the farmers. At World Economic Forum in January 2011 the SAGCOT initiative was endorsed as a new model worthy developing and promoting. WEF christened it the Grow Africa Initiative. To date, seven countries have adopted the model by adapting it to their own environment. As a result, the Grow Africa Partnership was established.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The response of private sector and development partners has been encouraging. The support of the G8 at the Camp David Summit opened the way for support from many donors. It also bolstered the involvement of international private sector. So far 19 companies have made commitment to invest in the SAGCOT area. Some have already come to invest and many others have indicated their willingness to invest in the near future. On the whole we are seeing increased interest in investing in agriculture elsewhere in Tanzania. Our pre-occupation now is to improve business environment, a task which we have started to do. In this regard we are taking various policy actions that would address factors which hinder investment in agriculture. In the meantime, we in government continue with our role of regulating and providing public resources for the agricultural sector. More important, we are striving to improve rural infrastructure; roads, water and electricity supply with a view to expediting modernization of rural economy and enhance productivity of farmers.
Likewise we have designed various microfinance schemes to enable farmers access funds more easily. Furthermore, we are finalising the process of establishing the Bank that will be solely responsible for agriculture development in the country. We are doing all that because we believe that if farmers are empowered, they can innovate.
Distinguished delegates;
In our experience, we have learned an important lesson that it is possible to transform agriculture in our lifetime. We have three major opportunities to make it happen. First, advances in science and technology offer our region new tools and techniques needed to modernize our agriculture. For example by using science and technology we can improve soil and crop productivity, enhance pests control and fortify seeds. Furthermore farmers can use low cost pumps for irrigation purposes instead of waiting for nature to cooperate and bring rain.
Second, efforts to create regional markets provide new incentives for agricultural production and trade. Indeed this will facilitate the expansion of market and movement of goods including crops and agro-processing goods. Furthermore, it will enhance interaction between research centers, farmers and entrepreneurs thus accelerate knowledge sharing and dissemination of information. The East African Common Market and other regional preferential trade arrangements is a good case in point.
Third is the growing global interest and momentum to support initiatives and partnerships which help the region to focus on long term strategies of transforming agriculture. Indeed, in recent years, African agriculture has been a persistent agenda in almost all major meetings and debates. Our task is to translate that goodwill into real gains; to make our farmers go far beyond subsistence farming. We should enable them gain new skills and access new technologies and support that will enable them to move to commercial production. We all know very well that it is the only way they can improve their household income and offer their children a prosperous future. We, leaders, policy makers and experts gathered here, should share this vision and ensure their dreams come true.
In conclusion, I thank the organisers once again for choosing my country to host this important meeting. We eagerly wait for the outcome of the meeting.
I now have the pleasure to declare that the Agribusiness Congress East Africa is officially open. I wish you all fruitful deliberation.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Honourable Minister;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I thank the organisers for choosing Tanzania to play host to this important meeting: the Agribusiness Congress East Africa. I also commend them for organising the Congress so well and for choosing the theme “Driving Innovation for Agricultural Development in East Africa”. It is very pertinent and timely because embracing innovation in agriculture is a vehicle for transformation and growth of agriculture in our region. For sure, it is lack of innovation which has made our agriculture less productive and overall production low. As a result, many people in the region whose livelihood depends on agriculture remain poor. Indeed, the consequence of our failure to embrace innovation has made the food security situation in our region to remain precarious for quite some time.
This state of affairs is largely attributed to limited application of modern science and technology in the production processes. There is little use of irrigation, low use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. For example, whereas our friends in Asia and Latin America have been able to irrigate 37 percent and 14 percent, of their cultivated area respectively, Africa has been able to irrigate only 5 percent of its cultivated land. As regards the use of fertilizer, Africa lags behind too. The average use of fertilizer in Africa is only 8 kg per hectare. This amount is just too low when compared with the Netherlands where fertilizer use is 477 kg per hectare.
Mechanisation is minimal hence traditional tools predominate. Most farmers use the hand hoe, machete and axe and at the same time lack modern agricultural skills and knowledge. They continue to apply old methods of farming and animal husbandry. Under such circumstances, therefore, innovation will make a huge difference in improving agricultural productivity and production among small holder farmers in the region. Compared to other continents, productivity in Africa leaves much to be desired. Taking an example of maize, productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa is 1.9 tons per hectare, whereas in China it is 5.7 tons per hectare and in Canada it is 10 tons per hectare.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Embracing and anchoring innovation is the overarching matter in our endeavour to transform Africa’s agriculture. An endeavours which when successful implemented will translate into increased productivity and production, more incomes to farmers, food and nutrition security, raw materials for agro based industries, more incomes to people involved in agribusiness and increased foreign exchange earnings for our countries.
Three key things need to be done by nations. First, is to develop visions, plans and programmes to anchor innovation in agriculture. Secondly, is to provide adequate financial, human and technological resources needed to implement the plans and programmes. And, last but not least empower farmers to participate effectively in the implementation of the plans and programmes of innovation in agriculture.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is heartwarming, indeed, to note that African countries are moving on the right direction in this regard. All countries have visions, plans and programmes to develop their agriculture with innovation being at the heart of it all. At the Continental level there is awareness and commitment to take action to implement a green revolution. One such example is the 2003 decision by African Union leaders to adopt the Maputo Declaration on Food Security which committed African countries to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to agricultural development. It was at the same Summit when leaders adopted the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) under NEPAD with the aim of increasing agricultural growth rates to 6 percent per year.
Thereafter, in 2004, African leaders adopted the Sirte Declaration on Agriculture and Water; later, in 2006, the AU Member States adopted the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution resolving to increase the use of fertilizer from 8 kg to 50 kg per hectare by 2015. Countries are at different levels of implementing these decisions. Some have achieved more than others. However, the most important thing is that all nations are aware of the importance of innovation and they are taking actions. Being at different levels of resource endowment and facing different challenges is what has contributed to the differences in implementation. Political will has never been wanting.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
At regional and national levels, countries are taking various measures to transform their agriculture and ensure food security. I know within Regional Economic Communities there are regional programmes. This is true of the EAC, SADC and other REC’s on the Continent. Many countries in Africa are now aware of the importance of it and, are indeed, investing more resources in research with the view of introducing new and innovative technologies and farming methods. They are expanding extension services in order to educate farmers on the importance and application of innovations. The good thing is that the benefits of innovation are being felt wherever they are undertaken. As a result, many farmers have shown readiness to adopt innovative technologies and techniques in farming and putting pressure on governments with regard to scaling up.
The main challenge facing our governments in Africa is the fact that they are financially constrained hence unable to meet farmer’s needs with regard to high yielding seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, irrigation etc. In this regard, governments need to do more in terms of budgetary allocations for agriculture and look for innovative ways of mobilizing more resources for the sector. Involvement of other players including development partners, private sector and civil society is also important.
Distinguished Delegates;
We, in Tanzania, just like other African countries, have made several attempts to develop our agriculture. The most recent attempt is the adoption of the 2006Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP). This is a 14 year programme aimed at transforming Tanzania’s agriculture through innovations to overcome obstacles besetting agricultural growth. Specifically the ASDP is intended to increase mechanization, irrigation and the use of high yielding seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The ASDP is also meant to address the shortage of extension services to farmers, inadequacy in rural infrastructure, problem of crop marketing to ensure reliable markets and good prices for farmers produce. The ASDP underscores the importance of agribusiness in the sense of promoting value addition and agricultural value chain.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
A lot of ground has been covered in implementing the objectives of ASDP. We are beginning to reap its benefits. There is all round increase in production in almost all crops and food security situation is relatively stable. Let me hasten to say, there is no reason to be complacent about these achievements because there is a lot more to do on the transformation agenda. Tanzania’s agriculture remains predominantly traditional. We must do more to promote innovation. One of the things we agreed to do is to increase the participation of the private sector in agriculture. This was the outcome of the 2008 joint study undertaken by government and private sector through the Tanzania Business Council which I chair. We all agreed to give agriculture top most priority hence the catch praise “Kilimo Kwanza”.
Ladies and gentlemen;
In 2010, we decided to involve the international private sector as well. The idea was to accelerate the pace of agricultural transformation in the country. Again this was very much informed by the discussions on agriculture at the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa held here in Dar es Salaam. It was agreed that their involvement must be strategic in the sense of leveraging modern science and technology and management skills in agricultural production and the agricultural value chain. We also agreed that their involvement should be focused on enhancing food production to meet national and regional needs.
In this regard we decided to concentrate our efforts in the regions of Iringa, Morogoro, Ruvuma, Mbeya and Rukwa because of their comparative advantage in terms of climate condition and availability of water. This decision lead to the birth of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor (SAGCOT). The ultimate goal of SAGCOT is to turn 350,000hectares of land into profitable use and create 420,000 new jobs and an annual income of 1.2 billion dollars.
It is envisaged that some 2.4 billion dollars will be invested over a period of 20 years. This investment is expected to come from our government, development partners, the private sector and the farmers. At World Economic Forum in January 2011 the SAGCOT initiative was endorsed as a new model worthy developing and promoting. WEF christened it the Grow Africa Initiative. To date, seven countries have adopted the model by adapting it to their own environment. As a result, the Grow Africa Partnership was established.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The response of private sector and development partners has been encouraging. The support of the G8 at the Camp David Summit opened the way for support from many donors. It also bolstered the involvement of international private sector. So far 19 companies have made commitment to invest in the SAGCOT area. Some have already come to invest and many others have indicated their willingness to invest in the near future. On the whole we are seeing increased interest in investing in agriculture elsewhere in Tanzania. Our pre-occupation now is to improve business environment, a task which we have started to do. In this regard we are taking various policy actions that would address factors which hinder investment in agriculture. In the meantime, we in government continue with our role of regulating and providing public resources for the agricultural sector. More important, we are striving to improve rural infrastructure; roads, water and electricity supply with a view to expediting modernization of rural economy and enhance productivity of farmers.
Likewise we have designed various microfinance schemes to enable farmers access funds more easily. Furthermore, we are finalising the process of establishing the Bank that will be solely responsible for agriculture development in the country. We are doing all that because we believe that if farmers are empowered, they can innovate.
Distinguished delegates;
In our experience, we have learned an important lesson that it is possible to transform agriculture in our lifetime. We have three major opportunities to make it happen. First, advances in science and technology offer our region new tools and techniques needed to modernize our agriculture. For example by using science and technology we can improve soil and crop productivity, enhance pests control and fortify seeds. Furthermore farmers can use low cost pumps for irrigation purposes instead of waiting for nature to cooperate and bring rain.
Second, efforts to create regional markets provide new incentives for agricultural production and trade. Indeed this will facilitate the expansion of market and movement of goods including crops and agro-processing goods. Furthermore, it will enhance interaction between research centers, farmers and entrepreneurs thus accelerate knowledge sharing and dissemination of information. The East African Common Market and other regional preferential trade arrangements is a good case in point.
Third is the growing global interest and momentum to support initiatives and partnerships which help the region to focus on long term strategies of transforming agriculture. Indeed, in recent years, African agriculture has been a persistent agenda in almost all major meetings and debates. Our task is to translate that goodwill into real gains; to make our farmers go far beyond subsistence farming. We should enable them gain new skills and access new technologies and support that will enable them to move to commercial production. We all know very well that it is the only way they can improve their household income and offer their children a prosperous future. We, leaders, policy makers and experts gathered here, should share this vision and ensure their dreams come true.
In conclusion, I thank the organisers once again for choosing my country to host this important meeting. We eagerly wait for the outcome of the meeting.
I now have the pleasure to declare that the Agribusiness Congress East Africa is officially open. I wish you all fruitful deliberation.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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