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International campaign strategy of pumping money into agriculture
2005-09-30 09:58:04
By Our Correspondent
In an endeavour to woo voters, one presidential aspiring candidate, whom I feel no urge to mention by name or his party, emphasized that Hon. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete’s pledge to create more employment opportunities was a non-starter and that it would benefit only those with education.
He believes the solution to the unemployment of thousands of primary school leavers, as he puts it in his own fluent way, would be ’’to pump money into the agricultural sector’’, presuming that people will trek to the rural areas and start farming on saccount of massive funds pumped in by the new government.
In this article, I intend first to stress the relevance of creating more employment opportunities, targeting graduates as well.
Secondly, I would like to alert the esteemed presidential candidate, over the notion that pumping money into agriculture results in economic improvement and finally, in a nutshell, I will point out the prerequisites for economic gtation is, of course, another permanent hindrance to the performance of the agricultural sector as produce cannot reach the markets.
At any rate, investment in agriculture can be sustainable if funds are well managed.
Many people presume that agriculture can successfully be undertaken by anybody, which is not the case. Many small business financing institutions at present are facing the problem of non-repayment of loans.
Loans are squandered and sometimes do lead to family disintegration.
Has he thought of a better modality of pumping in his money?As we are all aware, experienced farmers cultivating coffee, maize, cotton and tobacco face untold problems, notwithstanding that someone can literally open money pipes in the rural areas.
Now, how will a young school leaver from the town trek to the rural areas to embark on farming, an activity he/she might not have attempted in his or her lifetime?
Also, there is the problem of unpredictable climatic conditions. Suppose they don’t harvest, will he still pump money into that sector every year simply to appease those who voted him in?
On another extreme, our country depends on foreign trade for all our cash crops.
Prices fluctuate frequently depending on the world market situation, quality of produce, and competition – for example South American coffee pitted against African coffee, not forgetting the ’’I don’t want this, I don’t want that’ attitude of some developed countries, simply aiming to deliberately lower prices so as to exploit and harm the developing countries.
The soaring price of fuel will definitely have a devastating impact on the production and delivery of food crops in our country next year.
In other words, whether he becomes president or not, whether he pumps in money or not, prices of foodstuffs will skyrocket next year.
But he seems not to rationalise all these before considering the seemingly easy task of pumping in money. Equally important, before making such a novel promise, he ought to balance massive employment in the agricultural sector against the environmental degradation already witnessed in the Sangu valley, slopes of the Kilimanjaro and Uluguru mountains and a myriad of water catchment areas all over the country.
He ought to be aware of the extensive deforestation of areas surrounding Selous and along Ruvu and Rufiji rivers that sooner or later will render the city and coastal towns waterless.
Efforts to dislocate the invaders off the water catchment areas would, of course, be interpreted as abuse of human rights, and thus an admirable agenda for the opposition.
Leave alone the sweet vote enticing tactics of third world politicians, let us come to terms with the reality that Tanzania like many other African countries, has a long way to go: economic growth will be gradual, notwithstanding who comes to power. Many variables will make our economy fair well or badly.
For example, there are many mineral rich African countries whose economy is dwindling from day to day.
Reason: political instability. Again, there is the question of good governance, the need to ensure rule of law, and separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
The candidate ought to emphasize creating a conducive environment to private investment, which can be boosted by political stability. For example, Nigeria is an oil rich OPEN member.
Yet, for obvious reasons, it fairs in the 20 poorest countries in the world that lined up for debt cancellation, with all prospects that it would tumble further.
No one can doubt that the current promising economic growth in the country is the outcome of a harmonised legal framework that has created a favourable investment climate that has attracted foreign and local investors in the mining, tourism, banking, import/export, hotels and manufacturing sectors.
Besides, a slight improvement in the control of government funds and improved revenue collection has resulted in unanticipated results.
I expect someone to pledge to use this as a stepping-stone and seek more, instead of thinking of pumping in money. People can invest where they feel it is safe to invest.
Again there is the question of improved infrastructure. Others are, protection of local industries and the question of higher electricity tariffs.
As aforesaid, farmers and traders in Sumbawanga need to ferry their produce to Dar es Salaam and other places where they can fetch a good price and not money for farming.
By the way, does he know why investors don’t want to invest in agriculture despite all the incentives? After all the pumped money won’t be distributed in a brass band led manner.
The aspiring candidate ought to clarify his party’s position about the informal sector: when you invest in the informal sector you are directly investing in people.
In fact, urbanisation cannot be addressed without touching informal productivity.
People come to urban centres to stay and not as internal tourists. Small family businesses could contribute significantly to the economy if modalities are channeled to use informally owned properties as collateral to obtain loans.
He should have thought of modalities to finance homesteads through loans that they can manage to repay.
The most thorny issue on which the future of our country balances, but not frequently addressed by our politicians, is the status of the Unions. Others are, the relevance of the constitution and political tolerance.
For example, at present the Government is endeavoring to regularise unplanned settlements. Many progressive people anticipate this would be a landmark for fighting poverty.
However, for reasons best known to themselves, some opposition benefit obtaining a certificate of title to any landed property.
Third world political parties are like Yanga and Simba.
Each one prays that the other fails to deliver, not withstanding the fact that it’s the people who suffer.
There is the question of donor and investor confidence, international cooperation and relations with world financial institutions.
All these have a significant bearing to the future of our economic performance.
No nation can prosper outside this framework. We all know how the system buoyed out Uganda’s wrecked economy.
It is true that our education standard is still low, however, days have gone when a presidential candidate could tell people that if elected he would bring rain, there will be no road accidents since accidents are caused by the president’s bad luck, or we will win the soccer world cup in 10 years time etc.
This is the ’’dot com era’’. You simply can pledge the minimum wage would be 200,000 Tanzanian Shillings, the sweetest of all promises, but then come with facts and figures.
Just say, how you would finance that apart from taxing the poor.Lastly, Botswana has an impressive economy which was not brought about by a special formula.
Indeed, no one will come with a special formula to improve our economy. Any shortcuts will harm our economy, notwithstanding what our politicians promise.
There are dangerous promises made such as making our country a tax free country, which is impossible in any underdeveloped country. Therefore, let us beware: the sweeter the promise the bitter the outcome.
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