AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli administration released over 94bn/- in support of irrigation schemes that contributed 24 per cent of foodstuff produced in the country, deputy minister for agriculture, Mr Omary Mgumba has revealed.
According to the deputy minister, the government had also increased irrigation infrastructures from 475,000 hectares in 2015/16 to over 694,000 hectares in 2019/20.
The minister was speaking during the launch of national food week expo strategically organized as part of the World Food Day scheduled to be nationally hosted at Mjimwema exhibition grounds in Njombe Region.
A statement issued by the Ministry’s head of government communication unit, Mr Revocatus Kassimba, quoted the deputy minister saying “President Magufuli had helped improve the irrigation sector contributing over 94bn/- in infrastructure development for schemes across the country.”
The Deputy Minister said the government has also released over 5bn/- in support of the state Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) to intensify availability and timely access to improved seeds among farmers.
“Ministry of Agriculture has further issued 5bn/ to national agricultural research institutes to conduct studies on a variety of crops and help develop drought and disease tolerant seeds,” he explained.
Tanzania’s food self-sufficiency has ranged from 88 to 120 per cent over the past decade. An assessment conducted during the 2019/20 season shows food production will reach 17.7 42 million tonnes, of which 14.347 million tonnes is maize.
Production of maize and rice will be 6.388million tonnes and 2.942million tonnes respectively.
It is unfortunate, however, that the regions with higher food production are also recording high malnutrition cases, underweight, wasting and stunting for children below 5 years.
Njombe Region, which is placed to host this year’s World F ood Day in Tanzania, has 53 .6 per cent of children stunt but it has a self-sufficient ratio of 23 0 per cent, having produced 943,002 tonnes of food.
Iringa region which produces 470,7 50 tonnes reports 47.1 per cent of stunt under five-year children.
Other regions with high stunt rates include Rukwa (47.9 per cent), Songwe (43 .3 per cent), Kigoma (42.3 per cent) and Ruvuma (41.0 per cent).
