Vel Gnanendran heads the Tanzania office of DFID, the UK’s Department for International Development. He recently decided to find out as much as he could about agriculture in Tanzania, and his report is an interesting read. Here’s part of his conclusion:
Farmers operate in a world of tremendous uncertainty. What will the world price of the crop be when it comes to harvest time? Will government policy be the same next season? Will the rains come this year? What is the cost benefit of investing in seeds and fertilisers? And, related but hardest of all, will someone buy the crop at a decent price? I have a degree in economics, but this is akin to applied quantum game theory.
Global markets and prices are important, for sure, but it would be good to see a little more emphasis on supply food to local markets, rather than seeing agriculture purely as oriented to global markets.
Too right that that ‘people like [him] need to get much better at understanding the complexity and long-term nature of agricultural change.’ Anyone whose prior agricultural experience is apparently limited to growing ‘watercress’ from seed in a yoghurt pot at a primary school (it probably wasn’t watercress, luv) sounds like they are at the bottom of a very steep learning curve…funded by my taxes. For the sake of the Tanzanian people, I do hope that those designing and running agriculture projects under him have substantially more experience and expertise in agriculture.
Anne-Marie: I agree that anyone running agricultural projects should have experience – but Vel is obviously working on it. Far worse the poor CGIAR: for decades the CG has been managed from the World Bank Vice President for `…..’ [fill in the gap – anything but agriculture]. As this position (currently Climate Change) has been, since 1994, responsible for CG genetic resource policy the inevitable result has been a disaster (funded by your taxes). Let’s get the CG back under an agricultural wing to prevent yet more problems.
I agree with Mr. Cherfas that this would benefit by taking the local issues into account. It’s important to consider local problems, such as access to innovations, education, or even just decent seed, with special attention paid to cultural norms and barriers. Many “pure-” or agri- pastoral groups in N Tanzania have taken up subsistence farming, and it’s been a rough transition over the last 50 years, with many problems still in need of thought and action.