Expanding agriculture through the youth: The Tanzanian experience |10 July 2023
The President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, speaks at the start of the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s 53rd Plenary Assembly Session in Arusha, Tanzania on July 3, 2023 (Photo: Deonisius Simba)
The government of the Republic of Tanzania is extensively investing in promoting agri-businesses to entice more youths into agriculture under a flagship programme that aims to grow the sector.
The President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said this when she officially opened the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s 53rdPlenary Assembly Session that got underway in Arusha, Tanzania on July 3, 2023.
Twelve of the 15 SADC national parliaments that are members of the SADC PF attended the Plenary which ended on July 8, 2023.
It was held under the theme: ‘Modernising Agriculture for Food Security and Youth Employment in SADC: Role of Parliaments.’
Hassan, the first female President of the Republic of Tanzania, told the Plenary that her country’s initiative, called ‘Building a Better Tomorrow’ (BBT), is intended to optimise the use of untapped potential of the agricultural value chain.
She said that currently, agriculture is the main source of employment and income for about 65% of the population of the SADC region.
“The tourism sector, of which our government should afford appropriate attention in order to realise the SADC Vision 2050, the AU (African Union) Agenda 2063 and the UN (United Nations) 2030 Agenda, also has potential,” she said.
She highlighted that SADC is among the regions with the youngest populations in the world, hence the need for the region to create up to 12 million jobs every year over the next 20 years to absorb new entrants to the labour market.
The President said recent statistics had shown that the youth in Tanzania aged 18-35 years, constitute 60% of the total population.
“It is, therefore, imperative that we invest in our youth and to this end we have devised a number of strategies to attract the youth into the agriculture sector. For us, agriculture comprises crop farming, aqua farming, fisheries, livestock keeping and also honey production,” she said.
She said her government was investing in promoting agri-businesses for youths under its BBT programme.
“It is a flagship programme to attract the youth to indulge and invest in working in agriculture. As a government we are facilitating access to land as the youths will be given their own land. We are facilitating financial support, technology, market opportunity and capacity enhancement,” she said.
The President said when these opportunities were announced, there was an overwhelming request from the youth but only 812 youths who are now undergoing training were recruited.
“When they finish this training they will be enrolled in 13 incubation centres for hands-on skills and go into agri-business under block systems,” she said and added that after including the youths, the sector was expected to grow by 10% from the present 3,6% and create 1,5 million job opportunities in eight years from 2022 to 2030.
She revealed that her country had increased the budget of the agricultural sector by four-fold and she urged delegates to visit one of the BBT youth incubation centres in Arusha.
Hassan said increased financial allocation to the agricultural sector over the years had put special emphasis on irrigation schemes and extension services.
This is in conformity with the 2004 Dar es Salaam Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in the SADC region which urges governments to allocate at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture as recommended by the Africa Union.
She said her government had established, also, an Agricultural Advisory Council to advise the presidency on agricultural best practices and the most effective approaches to expedite agricultural transformation in the country.
The President explained that the council included personalities with requisite skills and experience in agriculture and other sectors relevant to agricultural development and as such it is expected to contribute significantly towards the agricultural sector development in Tanzania.
She highlighted that the SADC region, with a total population of about 380 million people, has about 51.3 million food insecure people as shown by 2020-2021 estimates, representing an increase of 25,7% from those of 2019-2020.
“Just in one year, there has been an increase of food insecure people by 25,7% in the SADC region. This is unacceptable,” she said, adding that the situation has been worsened by global conflicts and climate change that negatively impact the agricultural sector in the majority of SADC countries.
Hassan said it was ironic that there were so many food-insecure people in SADC “yet we have a total of 9.85 million square kilometres of land which could make the region a food basket for Africa and beyond if effectively and properly leveraged”.
She contended that with vast land for agriculture, the region must do whatever it has to increase food production and end hunger. She suggested coping mechanisms to make food available and accessible to everyone in the region.
Such interventions, she reckoned, might include a total commitment to the implementation of various policies and strategies adopted from time to time such as the 2014 SADC Regional Agriculture Policy, food production through input support programmes, intra-SADC trade, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area protocol, the blue economy and agriculture to build resilience.
She challenged the region’s lawmakers to walk the talk on strengthening the agriculture sector.
“We are good at coming up with so many policies and policy programmes but we do not implement them. It is time we started to implement our own policies for food production,” she said.
She suggested: “We must commit to the implementation of Agenda 2063, particularly Goal Number 5 on modern agriculture to increase productivity and production as well as Sustainable Development Goals Goal 2 that intends curtailing hunger by 2030.”
Hassan stressed that national parliaments have a critical role to play in the oversight, enactment of much needed laws and policies as well as ratification of regional and global protocols that encourage agricultural development and also speaking to the people they represent in parliaments.
“MPs have a vital role to play in agricultural transformation,” she said.
She informed the plenary that Tanzania would be hosting the 2024 Africa Food Systems forum under the theme “Recover, regenerate, act” as a strategy for food systems transformation in the first week of September 2023 in Dar es Salaam.
“We hope it will be another platform for us to come up with practical contextualisation of the agricultural and food security issues,” she stated.
On gender equity and gender equality, the President urged all women parliamentarians and professional groups to continue joining efforts and raising voices to call for justice to be done.
“This is a long worn thought and changes are being seen because we presented ourselves on the battle field in 1995 (Beijing Women’s Conference) and much has changed without which Samia Suluhu Hassan would not be standing here today as the President of Tanzania,” she said to applause.
She said Tanzania would support domestication of SADC model laws and commended Honourable Dr Tulia Ackson, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania, for hosting the plenary.
She also congratulated SADC PF secretary general Boemo Sekgoma for implementing the Forum’s Strategic Plan (2019-2023).
From Moses Magadza in Arusha, Tanzania