Farmers outline factors that hinder their development

Farmers outline factors that hinder their development

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 21:49

By Frank Aman The Citizen Correspondent Dar es Salaam. Lack of direct marketing, contract farming and poor participation of private sectors in agriculture sector have been cited as major challenges that hindering the fight of small farmers against poverty and development of the sector. Despite various initiatives that have been established by the government such as the Kilimo Kwanza (green revolution) initiative small farmers have not yet realized the potential of the sector.In addition the lack of accountability of local and district councils on managing funds allocated for agriculture initiatives and limited resources are other factors for the poor performance of the agriculture sector. Speaking during at a tour of the ministry of Agriculture, Food and Corporation yesterday the Vice chairman of the network of small farmers associations in Tanzania (MVIWATA) Veronica Sophu said the strategic plans of the government on agriculture do not help small farmers in the grassroots levels  “Beneficiaries of agricultural initiatives are rich people who have taken away land from peasants who do benefit from any initiatives,” she said. She said the government must realise that the development of agriculture should focus on small scale farmers.On his part, the director of policy and planning in the ministry Emmanuel Achayo said that in a bid to improve this sector and fighting against poverty in the country the growth of the sector need to be improved from four per cent to six per cent. He said that the government intends to increase its budget for agriculture sector from 6 per cent to reach 10 percent of the national budget to in future.“We understand that the agriculture sector faces various challenges the biggest being limited resources. That is why the government plans to extend its allocation so that it may improve the sector,” he said. from  http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/business/13-local-business/17924-farmers-outline-factors-that-hinder-their-development.html