THE Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mwigulu Nchemba said in Parliament on Tuesday that the growth rate of the sector, which employs most Tanzanians stood at 2.3 per cent last year, down from 3.4 per cent the previous year.
Presenting his ministry’s budget
estimates, the minister said that the growth rate for crop production in
2015 had declined to 2.2 from 4.0 per cent in 2014 and forestry
activities reached 2.6 per cent last year compared to 5.1 per cent in
the previous year.
However, despite the decline in the
growth rate the contribution of the sector to the national economy had
increased to 29.0 per cent up from 28.8 per cent of the previous year.
The sector dominated by small-scale
subsistence farming, employs about 65.5 per cent of Tanzanians and
contributes over 100 per cent of food requirements during bumper years,
the minister said.
According to analysts, the growth of
agriculture, which remains the largest sector in the economy, lagged
behind in the country’s overall economic growth, which was driven mainly
by fast-growing and relatively capital-intensive sectors like finance,
transport and communication.
Tanzania has maintained strong economic
growth despite global economic headwinds. International Monetary Fund
(IMF) preliminary estimates suggest that the economy grew by 7 per cent
in 2015, with activity particularly buoyant in the construction,
communication, finance and transportation sectors.
Economic growth is expected to remain
close to 7 percent in 2016. According to the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), the economy grew 7.1 per cent year-on-year in the
fourth quarter of last year compared with 4.1 per cent in the same
period a year before due to faster growth in communications, mining and
financial services.
The information and communications
sector grew 23 per cent in the final quarter, while public
administration and defence expanded 20 per cent. Financial services and
insurance grew 14 per cent and mining and quarrying grew by 11 per cent
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