Agriculture, will furnish the manufacturing sector with the needed raw materials as the country seeks to become a middle income and semi-industrialised country by 2025, according to the coordinator for the department of rural economy and agriculture for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, Mr Komla Bissi.

 

During the financial year 2015/2016, Tanzania has allocated 4.9 per cent of its total budget to agriculture. In the 2014/2015 financial year, the allocation was 7.2 per cent of the budget.

 

This is below the 10 per cent goal which was recommended by leaders in the year 2003 during their Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.

 

"Africa must move out of the business as usual approach as it currently covers only 13 per cent of its needs," he said.

 

He stressed that African countries must increase productivity which can be achieved through increased investment in agriculture through both private and public sectors along the agricultural value chain. Africa, he said, has the potential to becoming a key contributor to food security in the world yet it remains a food insecure continent with a quarter of its population undernourished

Source : allafrica.com