Is rice and sunflower commercialisation in Tanzania inclusive for women and youth?
Loading...
Date
2022-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Agricultural Policy Research in Africa
Abstract
Rice is Tanzania’s third most important staple crop after maize and cassava,
and produced by more than 1 million households who are mostly small-
scale farmers. Meanwhile sunflower is the most important edible oil crop in
Tanzania, also grown mostly by small-scale farmers. Over the last two decades,
rice and sunflower have increasingly become important sources of income.
This can be attributed to efforts by the government, in collaboration with
development agencies, to commercialise rice and sunflower production to
improve livelihoods and reduce poverty among actors in both value chains.
There have also been efforts aimed at ensuring sustainable commercialisation
and involvement of women and youth in the commercialisation process (URT,
2016; URT, 2019). Despite these initiatives, women and youth involvement in the
rice and sunflower commercialisation process is likely to be constrained by their
limited access to land and financial capital.
Land access problems among women and youth in Tanzania are largely the
result of cultural restrictions on the ownership of ancestral land by women and
youth (USAID, 2019). Although the Village Land Act of 1999 recognises the right
of every woman to acquire, control, and use land to the same extent as any
man, it does not have provisions on the rights of women and youth to inherit
ancestral land (URT, 1999).
Women and young people also often face limited access to financial capital.
Collateral requirements of commercial banks are a significant stumbling
block as asset ownership is often low for women and youth (Mbuga, 2019).
To overcome these constraints, the government has established the Tanzania
Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) to provide a guarantee to small-scale
farmers who lack collateral but are trying to access credit from commercial banks. The guarantee scheme is reported to be successful. Apart
from TADB, which has been reported to be successful (The Citizen,
2021), there are other guarantee schemes involving commercial
banks, millers (guarantors) and members of famers’ groups. A
notable example is the tripartite agreement involving the National
Microfinance Bank (NMB), a rice processor (guarantor), and members
of Minepa Farmers Association in Malinyi District, Morogoro,
Tanzania (Aga Khan Foundation, 2020). The agreement requires
farmers to sell rice to the processor, which then repays the loan to
the bank on behalf of the farmer.
Description
Technical report
Keywords
Rice, Sunflower, Commercialisation, Women-youth