Tanzania Agribusiness Water Solutions

Agriculture is a critical economic sector, representing 28.7% of Tanzania’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and almost over 70% of the productive workforce. And, it is the main source of food, industrial raw materials and foreign exchange earnings. Since Tanzania is endowed with a diversity of climatic and geographical zones, farmers grow a wide variety of annual and permanent crops. This includes food and cash crops as well as fruits, vegetables and spices. Even though agriculture has significant role in the national economy, its production and productivity are low because to a great extent it depends on rainfall which is seasonally erratic, unreliable and non–uniformly distributed. Only 5% of Tanzania arable land Is under irrigation, due to non–optimal availability of water for crop production, frequent food shortages have continued to be experienced in the country.

Due to the challenges facing the agriculture sector the government saw the need to have the National Irrigation Policy (NIP) 2010 which has been conceived from various government  policies and strategies like Tanzania Development Vision (TDV-2025) of 2000, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP-MKUKUTA) June 2005, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2002, National Irrigation Master Plan (NIMP) 2002, Agricultural  Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) 2001, the Agricultural Sector Development Programmed (ASDP) 2006 and Rural Development Strategy (RDS) December 2001 address irrigation interventions as having a vital input in crop production and productivity for ensuring food security and increased income.

The Tanzania government’s main strategy is to embark on irrigation development and practices. It is viewed as a strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate variability as well as one of the effective means in increasing and stabilizing crop productivity, minimizing food shortages and maximizing export of cash crop and its products. Large–scale irrigation schemes can assist farmers from dependence on food aid in times of crop failure and drought, small–scale irrigation is seen as key to improving agricultural productivity and resilience of rural livelihoods.

The government envision to have a modern, productive and productive agricultural sector by 2025 that utilizes natural resources in an overall sustainable manner and acts as an effective basis for inter-sectoral linkages. To actualize this, the National Irrigation Master Plan has identified potential area for irrigation development as 29.4 million hectares. Tanzania is currently implementing and planning to implement a number of irrigation projects, whereby US$106.26 million is allocated to the development of small scale irrigation systems, US$183 million to the rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation schemes and US$50 million to large scale irrigation development.

For more information on exporting to Tanzania visit -  Trade.gov/tanzania.