Agricultural Sector Development Strategy - 2001.

The primary objective of the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) is to create an enabling and conducive environment for improving profitability of the sector as the basis for improved farm incomes and rural poverty reduction in the medium and long-term. This strategy is an integral component of the on-going macroeconomic adjustment and structural reforms. The medium term objectives are determined by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the long term goals by the Tanzania Development Vision 2025. Agriculture is important to Tanzania's immediate and long term economic and social development goals for three reasons. First, widespread improvements in farm incomes and a precondition to reduction of rural poverty. Second, any strategy for addressing food security must involve actions to improve agricultural and livestock production and farm incomes. Third, agriculture, as the single major contributor to national GOP, is key to the country's overall economic development now and in the near future.
Tanzania has a large untapped land resource. Despite this abundance of unused land, Tanzanian agriculture is dominated by small-scale subsistence farming. The major limitation on the size of land holdings and utilization is the reliance on hand hoes as the main cultivating tool. Efforts to increase agricultural production can include technologies to expand utilized land area or intensification of the existing cultivated area. In the short run the most practical approach is to focus on labour productivity enhancing technologies that are affordable. For commercial farmers, improved marketing systems and an appropriate policy environment for private investment will hopefully help to raise farm profitability and encourage the adoption of new technologies. Tanzania has a comparative advantage in the production of almost all industrial export Crops and some non-traditional export crops [Box 7). This can be enhanced by increasing farm productivity and improved marketing efficiency. In the rural sector, these poverty reduction objectives will be achieved through a Rural Depelopment Strategy (RDS) and a complementary Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS). The RDS will cover the entire rural sector, including agriculture, non-farm economic activities, social services, and economic and social infrastructure", The ASDS will cover crop and livestock production and related agribusiness activities in morn detail. Fisheries, forestry and hunting.