A quarterly report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has it that agriculture surpassed other sectors, with a 3.2 per cent growth rate in its contribution to the GDP, which grew by 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2016. During the same period last year the GDP grew by 5.8 per cent rate.
The agricultural sector has notably shown significant growth from the same period last year when it recorded a rather negative 1.9 per cent growth despite being referred to as the backbone of the national economy.
However, this record does not put agriculture on the route to sustainable growth owing to the fact that we still depend on natural causes, notably, favourable rainfall patterns and subsistence farming to a large extent.
It should be noted that the GDP growth rate measures how fast the economy is growing while entailing personal consumption expenditures, business investment, government spending as well as exports, minus imports. GDP does this by comparing one quarter of the country's economic output to the last one.
The GDP growth rate is the most important indicator of economic health. When the economy is expanding, the GDP growth rate is positive. If it's growing, so will business, jobs and personal income. If it's slowing down, then businesses will hold off investing in new purchases and hiring new employees, waiting to see if the economy will improve.
This, in turn, can easily further depress the economy and consumers have less money to spend on purchases. If the GDP growth rate actually turns negative, then the country's economy is heading towards, or is already in, a recession. That's when the economy actually contracts.
The other sectors which contributed to the sound economic growth, according to NBS, include mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, the service sector, construction transport and storage, accommodation and food services, information and communication as well as financial intermediation and insurance.
However, it’s the agricultural sector that performed a significant role. We welcome this report that gives accolades to the agricultural sector, which includes crops, livestock, forestry and fishing albeit with an appeal to the government in general and the private sector in particular to do some extra effort in getting rid of natural causes and give a chance to modern factors.
It is obvious that we do not have control over nature and therefore we cannot ensure steady availability of rainfall for agricultural activities.
But we can manage to administer modern farming methods such as irrigation schemes, adequate extension officers and other supplies, such as farm implements to boosting the sector to have an increased role to the economy.
Livestock and fishing remains equally untapped sectors that would have played a further significant role to the economy and as such contribute hugely to the GDP.
In a country that is graced with major world’s fresh water lakes and abundant sea resources, it hurts to see no major fish production facilities in place.
Most of the current processing plants are located in Mwanza, tapping fish resources from Lake Victoria, mostly for export. The long strip of our Indian Ocean lacks not only deep-sea commercial fishing equipment but also fish processing plants.
The largest plant along the coast can merely produce below five tonnes a day, mostly for export, as it cannot feed even a quarter of the 5 million dwellers of the city of Dar es Salaam, let alone the vast Tanzanian majority who have never cast an eye on a processed fish or a canned one.
Tanzania seems to have gone 30 years back in livestock meat quality and supplies. It used to have efficient livestock keeping strategies under the National Ranching Company (NARCO), National Poultry Company (NAPOCO) and others to safeguard the national interest.
It used to have one of the modest plants for meat processing and packaging. Today, despite higher potential demand, there are no such facilities.
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