In 1884, Tanzania became a German colony, a part of German East Africa. In 1920, through the League of Nations, it became a trusteeship under Britain. Julius Kambarage Nyerere became its first Prime Minister in 1961, and in 1962, he became president and the most influential leader under self rule. Zanzibar and Tanganyika united in April 1964, to form the United Republic of Tanzania. The country is divided into 25 administrative regions (5 in Zanzibar) with 94 administrative districts.
Tanzania has a surface area of 945 234 km2; 7 percent water. In 1990, 4.7 million ha of land were used for cultivation and 46 million ha were under forestry cultivation. Of the 400 000 km2 of arable land, between five and ten percent is permanently cultivated. Twenty percent of the land is moderately suitable for agriculture. Shifting agriculture is the most frequent method of farming. Fifty percent of the land is used for grazing, and conflicts between pastoralists and cultivators are common. Forests and woodland make up 43 percent of the land area. In most households, 80 percent of energy requirements are supplied by fuelwood, which rural families spend 20 percent of their time collecting.
In a 1988 census, population was 23.1 million, with an average growth rate of 2.8 percent or 600 000 per year. By 2000, the country's population should reach 33 million. Eighty percent of the population was living in rural areas in 1988, decreasing to 78 percent in 1992. Tanzania has more than 120 ethnic groups, mainly Bantu, plus significant Asian and Arab populations. Religious affiliations are divided equally between Christians and Moslems. Population density was 26 per km2 in 1988 and 30 per km2 in 1992.
The population is concentrated in the peripheral parts of the country. Women make up 51 percent of the population and 48 percent of the labour force. Women also constitute 85 percent of labour used in agricultural production, 5 percent of labour in industry and 6 percent of labour in services. Women's contribution to industry increased by 2 percent between 1965 and 1990. Average life expectancy is 51.2 years. Infant mortality for children under five years (per 1000 live births) was 141 in 1991 and declined to 88 in 1996.
The country has six agro-ecological zones including: coastal areas with intermediate potential for agriculture; arid lands with poor soil fertility and tsetse infestations; semi-arid lands; the plateaux with adequate rainfall and fertile soil; the Southern and Western Highlands; and the Northern Highlands that have adequate rainfall and fertile soils. The highlands, located on the nation's periphery, account for less than 5 percent of total land surface but are home to 20 percent of the population and provide 30 percent of agricultural produce and 50 percent of total crop exports.
Less than half of the country receives more than 700 mm of annual rainfall. In such areas, agro-pastoralism predominates. Tsetse is found in 60 percent of the country. Surplus food production has become increasingly synonymous with areas of higher altitudes and rainfall.
Before independence, British rule encouraged settlers and large agricultural interests to develop estates and plantations, using forced labour (a source of nationalist discontent) with minimum acreage laws for export crops. Large farm production of tea, coffee and sisal estates gained momentum in the post-war period, with emphasis on erosion control and conservation. At this time, peasant production was largely subsistence with minimal trade support from the government. Peasant production centred on the family and extended family. Only surplus produce was marketed. Customs and traditions determined land or livestock ownership patterns and labour was divided by gender, age and skill. Although self-reliant, using indigenous or rudimentary technology, scale of production was small and families lived from hand to mouth from season to season.
A map of the country and a table of salient characteristics of the agriculture sector can be found in Annexes 1 and 2.
Gender Issues in Agriculture
Approximately 98 percent of rural women classified as economically active are engaged in agriculture. Women farmers also contribute substantially to both commercial and subsistence agriculture, including livestock and fishing, as casual labourers and unpaid family workers.
Women carry the major responsibility for both domestic work and subsistence agriculture, especially food crop production. Time-use studies consistently show that women spend more hours per day than men in both productive and reproductive activities. Traditionally, women are responsible for almost all livestock activities of dairy husbandry (feeding, milking, milk processing, marketing, etc.). In crop production, men and women participate fairly equally in site clearance, land preparation, sowing and planting, while women handle most of the weeding, harvesting, transportation, processing and storage activities. Women are also responsible for food preparation, fetching water and gathering water 2.
Tables of key gender-disaggregated information are found in Annex 4.
Since the mid-1970s, Tanzania's agricultural policy has depended strongly on pan-territorial pricing of food crop and cash crops (with non-official prices of food crops competing with official prices on cash crops), cooperatives, marketing boards and crop authorities (with statutory crop monopolies), agricultural industries, directives, state farms and ranches, and crop improvement programmes.
A new agricultural policy was inaugurated in January 1997 for four main reasons: the merger of agriculture and livestock policies; changes due to economic policy transformation; initiation of a new land policy that advocates changing land use patterns; and emphasis on environmental management and protection.
Recognising Women Farmers' Needs in National Agricultural Policies
The 1983 Agriculture Policy ignored gender issues, especially women's rights to ownership of land, access to credit and/or their labour situation. The policy made few visible efforts to integrate women's issues, except it acknowledged that women's contribution to agricultural production was significant. This obvious neglect in addressing problems besieging women in agriculture occurred at a time when an increasing number of women were looking for work on big farms, tea plantations and coffee estates because of their inability to subsist with only their family farms' incomes. Some farming women preferred selling their labour rather than working on their husband's farms without monetary returns.
In 1985, a WID Focal Point Unit was established in the Ministry of Agriculture. Its functions included: working with regional focal points and with agencies involved with women in rural development issues; training of rural women in agricultural credit matters and other entrepreneurial activities; and organizing seminars for women's groups at village level in collaboration with other like-minded institutions.
The Unit also worked to ensure that national extension programmes benefited women and encouraged women to take leadership positions within agriculture. Also, a Women and Youth Unit was established at the office of the Commissioner for Research and Farmer's Education in the Ministry of Agriculture in Zanzibar, to encourage women and young people to form groups and participate in agricultural, livestock, forestry and fishing activities, to offer nutrition education to women, and to work toward equitable distribution of incomes and an improvement in the overall economic status of women and young people. Although the Ministries lacked clear policies and strategies for promoting women's agricultural advancement, a few tangible successes have been noted.
Now, in the 1997 Agricultural Policy, women are recognised for their contribution to agriculture: "It is estimated that the ratio of males to females in the agricultural sector is 1:1.5. Women in Tanzania produce about 70 percent of the food crops and also bear substantial responsibilities for many aspects of export crops and livestock production. However, their access to productive resources (land, water, etc.) supportive services (marketing services, credit and labour saving facilities, etc.) and income arising from agricultural production is severely limited by social and traditional factors."
The policy also acknowledges that social and traditional factors can keep women from contributing effectively, and hints that social and legal actions taken by other ministries could reduce or minimise such limitations. It states that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will target its extension, research, training and credit services to rural women to enable them to contribute effectively to agricultural production. Among strategies chosen to alleviate the situation are labour-saving technologies, cooperation among women, and support of the participation of women in planning and management of development programmes.
It also states that the Ministry should promote the access of women and youth to land, credit, education and information. Another direct reference to women states that extension services will be demand driven and address the needs of livestock keepers, farmers and other beneficiaries with special attention given to women in recognition of their critical role in family household management and food production. It calls for initiating targeted messages and other innovative methods for reaching women and that the Ministry, through extension service, will support farm families (especially women and youth groups) in identifying viable income generating activities.
The policy specifies that training, credit, land and low-cost environmentally-friendly technologies should be provided for women. It says women will be entitled to acquire land in their own right not only through purchase but through allocation, and recognises that women in the rural areas play a critical role in food production, transportation, processing and distribution.
2 Women, Agriculture and Rural Development. Fact Sheet Tanzania, FAO, 1995
