However, because the sector largely practices substantial farming using old techniques that are unfriendly to the environment, the sector is in peril as is 80 per cent of the country that directly relies on it.
The agriculture sector is key to overall economic growth and development of Tanzania. In the national development agenda, agriculture is expected to lead the growth and structural transformation of the economy and maximize the benefits of accelerated growth.
The food and agriculture sector impacted attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and will have similar effects on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the first of which is ending abject poverty.
“Agricultural growth is a proven driver of poverty reduction. When agriculture stimulates growth in Africa, the growth is twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth based in other sectors” reads a government agriculture sector development document.
In the face of worsening climate change effects, Tanzania must adopt Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) if it is going to feed itself and have reserves for sell.
To move from substantial to commercial farming by switching from old farming techniques to modern practices requires multi-stakeholder and multi-sectorial intervention.
FAO describes CSA as an integrative approach to address interlinked challenges of food security and climate change that explicitly aims for three objectives:
1. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity to support equitable increases in farm incomes, food security and development
2. Adapting and building resilience of agricultural and food security systems to climate change at multiple levels and
3. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (including crops, livestock and fisheries).
At the moment, Tanzania’s high dependence on rain-fed agriculture increases its vulnerability and predisposes rural households to food insecurity and poverty.
This rain fed agriculture is not sustainable as climate change increasingly distorts weather patterns.
The CSA programme proposal prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Vice President’s Office warns that agricultural seasons in some areas of the country are expected to shift.
These phenomenal changes in weather and seasons demand urgent, concerted and innovative action if the country is to survive and meet its development visions.
However, in Tanzania agriculture is practiced by smallholder farmers who till small farms of between 0.2 and 2.0 hectares.
The CSA programme points out that over the last decade, yields have been mostly stagnant and agricultural productivity gains have been based more on the expansion of cultivated land, which is one of the major drivers of deforestation and land degradation in the country.
Studies by the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) show that some of the previously known highly productive areas such as the Southern and Northern Highlands will continue to be affected by declining rainfall, frequent droughts.
Tanzania’s National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA, 2007) ranked agriculture and food security as the most vulnerable and important sector that is severely impacted by climate change and advocated that studies on the impact of climate change in the sector and on food security be a priority activity.
Climate challenges for agriculture are reflected in Tanzania’s development plans including the first and second Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP 2011/12 and 2015/20), MKUKUTA-II, National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS, 2012) and Agriculture Climate Resilience Plan (ACRP, 2014-2019)
CSA is an approach to developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security
under climate change.
This CSA programme is aligned with Tanzania Vision 2025 and the National Development Plan. Similarly, the CSA Programme is aligned with the Water Resources Management Strategic Interventions and Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation.
The programme is further aligned with National REDD+ Strategy and Action Plan as it addresses the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
At the regional level, the CSA Program enhances the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and also responds to the Malabo Declaration.
Women: answer to agriculture crisis
The programme report notes that about 70 per cent of the country’s food is produced by women with over 90.4 per cent of them engaged in agricultural activities.
The government, through the CSA programme, has identified six strategic priorities as sources of Tanzania’s agricultural development and growth in the face of the changing climate.
Similarly, since youth make up 65 per cent of the country’s total labor force but because they are less engaged in agricultural activities, it is imperative that transformation and growth in the agriculture sector target both women and the youth.
The new climate risks require changes in agricultural technologies and approaches to improve the lives of those still locked in food insecurity and poverty and entails greater investment in
1. Managing climate risks,
2. Understanding and planning for adaptive transitions that may be needed, for example into new farming systems or livelihoods,
3. Exploiting opportunities for reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions where feasible.
CSA offers an explicit consideration of climatic risks that are happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than in the past.
Background of CSA
FAO extract
FAO coined the term CSA in the background document prepared for the 2010 Hague Conference on Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change. The CSA concept was developed with a strong focus on food security, for now and the future, including adaptation to climate change.
As is the case for Tanzania and the EAC in general, the CSA concept now has wide ownership among governments, regional and international agencies, civil society and private sector.
Emerging global and regional (Africa) Alliances on Climate-Smart Agriculture (ACSA) provide a platform for shared learning and collaboration among all interested parties.
Main elements of CSA
CSA is not a set of practices that can be universally applied, but rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts. CSA relates to actions both on-farm and beyond the farm, and incorporates technologies, policies, institutions and investment.
Elements which can be integrated in climate-smart agricultural approaches include:
1. Management of farms, crops, livestock, aquaculture and capture fisheries to manage resources better, produce more with less while increasing resilience
2. Ecosystem and landscape management to conserve ecosystem services that are key to increase at the same time resource efficiency and resilience
3. Services for farmers and land managers to enable them to implement the necessary changes
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