By Khalifa Said
Dar
es Salaam — President John Magufuli said yesterday that challenges
facing African agriculture are exacerbated by shortage of industries
that would have ensured value-added agricultural produces, stressing
fixing the situation should now be a priority.
Speaking in
Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, where he arrived since Wednesday for a
two-day state visit following an invitation from his Malawian
counterpart, Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika, President Magufuli said price
volatility in the international market was a cause for concern for
African farmers.
Dr Magufuli, who
embarked on an eight-day tour of Mbeya Region yesterday,said in Lilongwe
when gracing the 2019 Tobacco Marketing Season in Malawi that it was
high time African countries addressed the challenges because majority of
their citizens depended on agriculture."Economies of most African
countries, including Tanzania's and Malawi's, largely depend on
agriculture. The sector contributes more to the GDP [Gross Domestic
Product] of most of our nations and employs more than half of our
populations."
President Magufuli
gave an example of Tanzania where he said the sector gives the country a
100 per cent assurance of food security, employing almost 70 per cent
of its young people, contributing 65 per cent of the highly needed raw
materials in industries, earning the country about 25 per cent of
foreign currency and almost a quarter of the country's GDP. "All this
proves that agriculture is the most sensitive sector on the continent,
but still, it faces a myriad challenges." said Dr Magufuli whose address
was live broadcast both in the local and Malawian media outlets.
Some of these
challenges, he said, include inadequate use of farm inputs, lack of
modern agricultural tools and equipment, poor use of best seeds and
fertiliser, insufficient capital among farmers and the poor
infrastructure that, he said, contributes by almost 40 per cent in
post-harvest waste.
"However, the most
biting among these challenges is lack of reliable markets for the
agricultural yields," said Dr Magufuli, adding "And this problem is
worsened by our over-reliance on the international market whose prices
are unpredictable." He said even Tanzania is a victim of this situation
as in 2016, the country struggled in finding a market for its tobacco
because the world price was not stable.
The President said
the situation was caused by shortage of processing industries in
Tanzania as is the case for the most of the African countries. Citing
statistics by the World Bank, Dr Magufuli said the African countries
import food valued at $35 billion on average per year while the current
continental food market value stands at $300 billion and is expected to
reach $1 trillion by 2030.
In his welcoming
address, President Mutharika said that farmers were the backbone of
Malawi's survival as they not only feed its population, but also earn
its government a significant chunk of foreign currencies
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