Tanzania to seek China help on farming

Medium_picha no 4
Minister of Agriculture Christopher Chiza told the Chinese government that Tanzania has 44 million hectares of virgin land suitable for cultivation while only 10.1 million hectares have been used in the agriculture sector and the rest of the land was redundant
The Citizen Reporter | Monday, 25 June 2012

Tanzania to seek China help on farming  

By Mkinga Mkinga, The Citizen Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is planning to involve the Chinese government in its agriculture revolution strategy as well as establish value-adding small industries to boost agricultural products by local producers, this paper can report.

Speaking to this paper on Saturday, the minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr Christopher Chiza, said he has planned to meet the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Lu Youqing, and other experts to discuss how the country could benefit from the Asian giant’s vast experience in both areas.

Mr Chiza who attended the reception and assumption of office of the Chinese ambassador said Tanzania was thinking of producing more rice for local and international markets.

“Actually, we are producing enough for the local market but there is a huge demand from our neighbours and the horn of Africa….we need to think of acquiring hybrid from our colleagues in China, where farmers can produce more on the same size of land,” Mr Chiza said.

He said Tanzania has about 44 million hectares of virgin land suitable for cultivation while only 10.1 million hectares have been used in the agriculture sector. He noted that the rest of the land was redundant and the government was committed to using it wisely.

“We have about 29.4 million hectares suitable for irrigation... currently only 381,000 are under irrigation schemes countrywide. We need to basically use the rest of the land for contract farming to ensure more productivity,” Mr Chiza said.

However, he said the government has received a total of $898 million from the G8 summit for agriculture. Tanzania is among the countries to benefit from the new ten-year food security initiative for the African continent, dubbed ‘New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.’

To receive the funds, Tanzania and the other beneficiaries had convinced the international community through their own home-grown commitment and impressive achievable plans worth supporting.

In his comments, the Chinese ambassador, Mr Lu Youqing, said food security was a common challenge for every country in the world, adding that Africa was rich in agricultural resources with arable land of around 200 million hectares which translated to about 13 per cent of the world’s total land.

“But the continent’s agricultural development is undermined by a weak foundation and a large poor population…” he said.

He said the international community is deeply concerned about food security in Africa and it has come one of the important topics in G8 summit held in Washington in May this year. The envoy said America President Barack Obama announced a new plan at the meeting to ensure food security and promote agricultural production in Africa.

“About 45 large multinationals promised $3 billion investment in the next 10 years to African countries, to improve grain production and food security. President Obama also called on developed countries to fulfill the previous promise of aid to Africa,” ambassador Lu said

He said China has managed to provide food for 22 percent of the world population with only nine percent of agricultural acreage of world. It has also made her contribution to the world food security and has rich experiences in agriculture development and advanced planting technology.
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