News 

Sunday, January 19, 2014 

Tanzania in seeds deficit

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: Experts say a sustainable and reliable seeds supply chain is needed to ensure food security.

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Efforts to adopt new agricultural technologies in Tanzania has caused a shortage of seeds amounting to 30,000 metric tonnes.

“This is almost half of the actual demand which is needed by farmers,” George Mandepo, Principal Legal Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture Food, Security and Cooperatives said recently.

 He was presenting a paper at the ESAFF Seed Stakeholder’s workshop.

Mandepo was presenting a paper titled, ‘The regulatory framework for seed industry in Tanzania and position of smallholder farmers.’ 

He said seed produced locally is only 30,000 metric tonnes while actual demand is 60,000 metric tonnes.

The scarcity has also forced farmers to stay away from using improved seeds. He said more than 90% of farmers use seeds saved over from the last harvest.

He said the government is committed to ensuring putting in place both a policy and legally conducive environment for the development of seed industry. This includes attracting smallholder farmers to the industry.

“It is estimated that the potential demand for improved seed in Tanzania is about 120,000 metric tonnes per annum while the actual demand is estimated at 60,000 metric tonnes per annum,” he said. 

Only 28,600 metric tonnes were made available to farmers through formal seed system in 2011/2012 and out of this, 14,000 metric tonnes of seeds were produced locally and the rest of the demand made up of imports or use of farm saved seeds. 

However, availability of seeds from the private sector has increased in the recent past. This mostly comes from family or community production systems (informal seed system). 

According to Mussa Billegeya, the Programme Officer of the Eastern and Southern Africa small scale farmers’ Forum (ESSAF), not much work has been done by researchers to collect, evaluate and characterise these local varieties. 

There are various reasons behind this. Agriculture occupies a very important place in the lives of Tanzanians as well as the national economy. 

It is estimated that the country can be fully self-sufficient in food during good years and a net exporter of cereals if there is a reasonable environment for farmers including reliable and sustainable supply of seeds. 

“It should be noted that seeds are not only a strong symbol for food sovereignty and biodiversity, but also one of the important elements to strengthen small scale farming communities,” Billegeya said. 

In Tanzania there are two types of seed systems: the formal system, which is market-oriented and is developed by the public and/or private sectors, and the family or community production system which is based mainly on seed self-provisioning exchanges and gifts among neighbours, and the informal market. 

The latter is a result of many years of farmers’ selection and is rich in agribiodiversity. 

Agribiodiversity results from the interaction between the environment, genetic resources and the management systems and practices used by culturally diverse peoples resulting in the different ways land and water resources are used for production. 

Tanzania has a rich agribiodiversity which has not been tapped by researchers. Farmers are the owners of the agribiodiversity and its associated local knowledge. Unfortunately agricultural researchers have been trapped in the formal seed system and have forgotten the informal traditional varieties.

By Leonard Magomba, Sunday, January 19th, 2014