Assessing Food Security Projects in Tanzania
This section evaluates the success of past and present projects aimed at improving food security in Tanzania. It provides a critical analysis of these Tanzania agriculture development projects and their impacts on the country's food security situation.
The Canada Wheat Project in Tanzania is presented as an example of a past project. While it was successful in producing about 60% of Tanzania's wheat by covering 26,400 hectares in northern Tanzania, it also had significant drawbacks:
Quote: "On the other hand, the project wasn't a success because the yield was mostly low. This means that it actually would've been cheaper to import the wheat from other countries."
This critique highlights the importance of efficiency and cost-effectiveness in agricultural development projects. Despite increasing wheat production, the project's low yields made it less economically viable than importing wheat, ultimately not improving food security as intended.
The document then introduces SAGCOT (Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania), a present-day project started in 2010. This large-scale initiative aims to improve farming in Tanzania through a growth corridor from east to west, connected to the port at Dar es Salaam by main road and the TAZARA railway.
Vocabulary: SAGCOT stands for Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania, a large-scale agricultural development project.
SAGCOT's approach includes:
- A hub and out-grower model
- Improving irrigation, seeds, local transport, and storage facilities
- Building processing facilities for crops like tobacco and sunflowers
While SAGCOT has seen some successes, such as increased farm incomes and the construction of processing facilities, it also faces challenges:
Highlight: Most of the money invested in SAGCOT benefits large commercial farms, while nomadic tribes have lost access to free water sources.
This critique of SAGCOT underscores the complex nature of large-scale agricultural development projects and their potential to create both positive and negative impacts on different segments of the population. It emphasizes the need for comprehensive and inclusive approaches to food security that consider the needs of all community members, including vulnerable groups like nomadic tribes.
