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Organic Farming: The Appropriate Agricultural Model For Tanzania

Telesphor R. Magobe - 6/2/2006

FOR a long time, conventional (or industrial) agriculture has been equated with sustainable agriculture to be implemented in Africa with a view that its optimal yields, competitiveness and efficiency outweigh far its disadvantages. It has been highly regarded by North America and Europe as the only agricultural model to enable the continent to cope with contemporary global trade demands, be self-sufficient in terms of food security and animal husbandry management. Its adoption in Africa also provides a stable market for industrial agricultural inputs that are produced abroad such as farm machinery, synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and fabricated seeds.1

Seemingly, as farmers turn to hybrids, indigenous crop varieties and traditional knowledge are lost for ever and farmers are confined in the cycle of dependency. It is thus practically impossible to reverse this large-scale commercially based technology, which aims at massive yields and surpluses. Should it be allowed to replace organic farming and traditional knowledge in Africa? Is it a sustainable model for the continent?

While conventional agriculture is highly extolled by the Agreement on Agriculture of the World Trade Organisation (1995), the US Trade and Development Act (2000) and the European Union (EU) Cotonou Agreement, “about 75 per cent of the world's malnourished children live in countries with net food surpluses.2

A few World Bank documents also promote conventional agriculture, saying it is an appropriate technology for Africa and that, indigenous forms of agriculture subject farmers to the use of indigenous seeds, low inputs of chemicals and productivity.3

Evidently, conventional agriculture is a more complex model than it appears on the surface and its side effects are mostly unruly for African fledgling economies. Thus, phenomenal increases in yields are not necessarily a viable solution to continuing food insecurity and other socio-economic challenges, for overproduction alone cannot adequately address pressing human welfare issues. You need also workable social arrangements, ethical considerations and the political will to do it.

Nowadays, however, there is a growing awareness that conventional agriculture is an inappropriate model of agriculture for Africa, for it best exploits energy and natural resources without replacing them, exhausts the soil and pollutes underground water through its extensive use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. Obviously, its highly automated nature, technical know-how and multifarious hybrids attract shadow doubts with regard to Africa's ability to cope with this challenging technology and consequent bio-diversity and ecological vagaries.

Thus, it is from an ecological perspective that Envirocare (Environmental, Human Rights Care and Gender Organisation), a local Tanzanian organisation whose Head Office is based in Makongo Juu, Dar es Salaam, has taken initiatives to advocate organic farming (and not conventional agriculture) in the country. Since its inception in 1993, the organisation has unequivocally embarked on awareness raising programmes with a view to encouraging organic farming from the grassroots level, particularly in Kilimanjaro region, in Hai, Moshi Rural, Mwanga and Rombo districts.4

Essentially, organic farming is a form of sustainable agriculture that applies non-synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and fabricated seeds. It is anti-genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and produces only organic products and processed food stuffs, fosters natural processes and enhances soil health.5

The organisation promotes environmentally friendly crop varieties, crop rotation, compost manure, mixed farming, the use of mulching, growing leguminous plants and botanical pesticides (plants that control pests). All of these are meant to maintain soil fertility, add nutrients to the soil, improve soil texture and control pests. This is what makes organic farming affordable and sustainable to rural populations.

Alongside encouraging organic farmers, Envirocare directs efforts towards assisting livestock, poultry and bee keepers to engage in organic production. It also promotes alternative energy saving technology to reduce dependence on charcoal and firewood. This creates more time for women to engage in family and development issues than to look for charcoal or firewood. In a long-term prospect, this will have a positive bearing on afforestation, environmental protection and conservation of water sources.

Tanzania has a population of about 36 million people, an area of 945,000 km², an extensive ecosystem that contains the highest peak in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro, which is 5,895 m high, a prominent National Park with a unique fauna and flora, Serengeti, the second largest Lake in the world, Lake Victoria, other lakes and rivers and beautiful arable land, large livestock resource base, forests and other natural resources.

Out of 88.6 million hectares of land resource, 60 million hectares are rangelands ideal for livestock grazing. However, due to tsetse infestation and other constraints, only 40 % of the 60 million are utilised for keeping 17.7 million cattle; 12.5 million goats and 3.5 million sheep.6

Agriculture, which accounts for nearly 50 per cent of GDP, employs more than 80 per cent of the work force and 85 per cent of exports.7 In spite of abundant natural wealth and human resources, the country is one of the poorest in the world with a gross national income per capita of about US$270 compared to US$470 for sub-Saharan Africa in general (1994-2000), whereby more than 20 per cent of the entire population live on less than US$1 a day.

Although the ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives was promised during the budget to be given top priority in the allocation of resources, this has not happened yet. Instead, there has been a slight increase from Tsh54.6bn (about US$54m) to Tsh77.281bn (about US$77m) budget allocation. The slight increase, however, does not indicate that agriculture is given top priority and certainly will not influence significant changes in rural development.

According to Envirocare, the national goal of a wealthy society cannot be achieved if rural people do not access opportunities of improving their livelihoods. Likewise, it is practically impossible for rural people to live better if the environment in rural areas is not improved in a sustainable manner.

Therefore, sustainable agriculture, in which organic farming is a constitutive, is the only possible model to liberate rural populations from the yoke of poverty, hunger and underdevelopment. This is because it combines both traditional and scientific knowledge, it is environmentally friendly and an appropriate model for Tanzania.