Why the government does not value small scale farmers?

IT is extremely an annoying factor to see that most Tanzanian small scale farmers suffers a lot while looking for a reliable local markets to sell their farm commodities during harvesting seasons. The last year’s debate in parliament that focused on how to help small scale farmers with credit facilities in the country during the budget sessions seems to have hit a snag as nobody cares for low income earners such as these. A promise by the fourth phase government that it would create a conducive environment for its people for the attainment of better life earlier during the campaigns in 2005 before it came into being three years ago, seems to have been repudiated and instead people continues to experience hard life that is exacerbated by inflation.

Petty traders selling oranges spread on the ground. This is at Gongo-La-Mboto 25 kilometers away on the outskirts of the Dar es Salaam city. The area is close to a daladala bus stand. Each piece is sold at Tshs. 50/- or it might be at the lowest price this time for their supply is still high.

It is an orange fruit picking season of the year and farmers from Tanga and Morogoro regions which are the leading in the production of this product have nowhere to sell their farm produce which are picked in bulk. In Dar es Salaam region which has a population of approximately 4.2 million people, petty traders are currently taking an advantage of selling the product to earn their living oblivious to the health danger posed to them. Everywhere you walk around, in streets, orange sellers are scattered all over the place. In some other suburbs within the city, you can see ripe oranges are spread down in large piles besides the main road for passersby to buy. The sale of oranges has become a big deal in most Dar es Salaam city suburbs though it has been conducted not in a sanitary way as this photo below can depicts.

In the middle of the market, petty traders are also busy selling their orange products as this is a picking season of the year. This is at the Gongo-La-Mboto municipal market on the outskirts of the city. Oranges are sold at the markets in this manner.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperative seems not to have cared enough for the small scale farmers in the country by leaving them as such without finding a solution to them. One economic analyst once had suggested that, the government should at least build small industries that would provide the market opportunity for orange growers who could take their farm products for processing and earn money. This is one way to help them and as a result the industries would be in a position to manufacture orange juice products. By doing this, the country would lessen the dependence on the imported products into a local market which has now covered almost 98 percent of its market share. But due to lack of knowledge and or may be negligence, farmers continues to suffer in this country. The same thing applies during mango picking seasons as well as pineapple seasons. You would find sellers of these products loitering around with them without having somewhere to take them for sale.

Lack of market for these products has forced petty traders to sell them in an hygienic way as you can see these two petty traders with their oranges spread on the ground near the main road going to Kisarawe district

Because of the little knowledge among the key stakeholders in the country, and coupled with the continued lack of reliable industries in the country, indigenous small farmers in the country continues to experience poverty. Most municipal health workers have tried in vain to prevent petty traders from polluting the environment with orange peels that after the end of their businesses could be seen left scattered around all over the places. This is a shame to the nation which statistics shows that, since independence, the there has never been built a factory which could process orange products into a juicy products in the country