Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0365/03651.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 33KB | 539 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03651}
$Pretitle{262}
$Title{Tanzania
Chapter 4B.   Subsistence Farming}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{production
tons
percent
government
crop
year
domestic
manufacturing
million
areas}
$Date{1978}
$Log{Preparing Fields*0365102.scf
}
Country:     Tanzania
Book:        Tanzania, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1978

Chapter 4B.   Subsistence Farming

     Although villagization has introduced communal farming in varying
degrees, by the mid-1970s such farming was concerned largely with cash crops.
Most food crops continued to be produced by individual farm families on
private plots or farms that were legally part of a village but whose harvest
belonged to the cultivator.

     The major subsistence crops include maize, millet, sorghum, wheat, rice,
cassava, potatoes, plaintains, bananas, and beans. Maize, millet, and sorghum
are grown throughout much of the country, with heavier production of maize in
areas of better rainfall including particularly the Southern Highlands and the
northeastern and western parts of Tanzania. Wheat farming is more heavily
concentrated in the northeast, and rice, although rather widely grown, is
cultivated chiefly in the well-watered valley areas of Mbeya, Rukwa, and
Morogoro regions, along the coast, and in some areas near Lake Victoria. A
very large rice growing area of 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) has been
developed by technicians from the People's Republic of China (PRC) at Mbarali,
in Mtwara Region. Handed over to the Tanzanian government in September 1977,
the area will be operated as a state farm and is expected to produce about
12,000 tons of milled rice a year.

     Cassava, the principal edible root crop, is also widely grown and is easy
to cultivate. It is not as popular in the diet as grains, however, but can be
left stored in the ground for as long as twelve to eighteen months and is
relied on as food source during times or drought or of other crop failures.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) crop estimates,
production in the mid-1970s was about 3.5 million tons annually, an amount far
greater than that of any other staple. Along the coast and in the heavier
rainfall areas of the northeast and in the region west of Lake Victoria
bananas constitute a major staple.

     Drought conditions in 1973 and 1974 resulted in major decreases in
foodgrain production, forcing the importation of large quantities of grains to
avert a possible famine. In 1974 and 1975 the government and TANU carried out
a campaign to attain self-sufficiency in food production through a massive
propaganda effort based on the slogan "Farming-A Matter of Life and Death."
More tangible economic measures included increases in producer prices between
1974 and 1977. Before the drought the National Maize Project, begun in 1973,
provided free fertilizer and seeds to farmers during a two-year period as a
practical means to increase the acreage sown and raise production. This
program, which the government hailed as a success, has been continued, but in
1976 recipients of aid paid for part of the cost of the inputs, and in 1977
the government was subsidizing only half the cost as a measure to encourage
efficient use of the inputs.

Cash Crops

     Cash crops comprised not only those grown primarily for export-coffee,
cotton, cashew nuts, sisal, tea, tobacco, pyrethrum, and cloves-but also
sugarcane for domestic use and various food crops that were produced by
subsistence farmers in surpluses for sale in the domestic market (see table 5,
Appendix A). Included in the latter category were maize, wheat, rice, bananas,
and oil seeds. Wheat also was produced for internal consumption by a number of
large state farms established in sufficient size to use mechanized operations.

Sugarcane

     Sugarcane, produced almost entirely by four large sugar estates
supplemented by the output of outgrower villages and a number of small
outgrower estates, was turned into sugar for domestic use in the late 1970s,
although export was planned eventually. The oldest of these larger operations,
the Tanganyika Planting Company in the Arusha area, was privately owned by
Danish interests. The government had a majority interest in the Kagera Sugar
Company in West Lake Region and a 50 percent interest in the Mtiba Sugar
Estates in Morogoro Region. The Kilombero Sugar Company in the Kilombero
Valley, also in Morogoro Region, was completely owned by the government.

     In the mid-1960s sugar production at some 62,000 tons a year was about
equal to domestic consumption, then averaging over twenty-six kilograms
(twelve pounds) per person. Although production grew, by 1970 the domestic
demand considerably exceeded output requiring external purchases. Consumption
reached a high of forty-eight kilograms (twenty-two pounds) per person in
1972, and imports totaled 50,000 tons against a domestic production of 88,500
tons. Expansion of facilities has since increased output to over 100,000 tons
annually. A substantial boost in the price of sugar in 1974 as part of
measures to reduce foreign exchange expenditure, cut consumption to about
twenty-eight kilograms (thirteen pounds) per person in 1975, for a total
demand below domestic production in that year.

Sisal

     Sisal, introduced into Tanzania in the 1890s by German colonists, became
the major export commodity in the mid-1920s and in 1951 accounted for almost
three-fifths of the value of the country's total exports. It held its leading
position among commodities until the mid-1960s when greatly increased
production in Brazil and Angola and growing use of synthetic fiber substitutes
depressed world prices; these did not begin to recover until 1973. Sisal held
third place in value of exports until 1975, when its foreign exchange earnings
of TSh302 million (for value of the Tanzanian shilling-see Glossary) were next
only to those of coffee.

     As part of the nationalization program after the Arusha Declaration, in
October 1967 the government created the Tanzanian Sisal Corporation (TSC),
which took over control of about fifty plantations, constituting more than
two-thirds of the largest sisal producers. Six foreign-owned plantations were
completely nationalized, and 60 percent of the shares of locally owned
establishments were acquired. Eleven of the locally owned plantations were
subsequently denationalized in 1968, and the TSC also divested itself the same
year of two of the former foreign-owned operations. Estimates at the time were
that eventually the TSC would own or have a controlling interest in about
four-fifths of the sisal production capacity. The actual percent controlled in
late 1977 was not known.

     Sisal cultivation is almost exclusively a plantation operation because of
the great amount of raw material required in processing. Because of its bulk
adequate transportation facilities are also a requisite. For that reason the
first plantations were along waterways in present-day Tanga Region, and
later others were located on waterways near Mtwara. The extension of railroad
lines was followed in adjacent suitable areas by sisal cultivation, including
new large plantations in Tanga, at Morogoro and Kilosa, and even near Kigoma
in far western Tanzania. Land devoted to sisal totaled over 226,000 hectares
(558,446 acres) of mature plantings in 1964, with production reaching 233,540
tons. The depressed prices of the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a drop in
area under cultivation to some 211,500 hectares (522,616 acres) in 1971 and a
production that year of 181,100 tons. The decline continued thereafter with
production amounting to only 113,700 tons in 1976.

Coffee

     Coffee, the most important export crop in the mid-1970s, was grown by
both African smallholders and as an estate crop since German times. By the
late 1960s almost 50 percent of production was by smallholders. By then annual
production was c