Ministry of agriculture and food security irrigation and technical services division agricultural mechanization in Tanzania
Shetto, R. M. / 2005

Agriculture is the leading sector of the economy in Tanzania, accounting for over half of both the GDP and merchandize exports. Over 80% of its population of 34.5 million people live and earn their living in the rural areas with agriculture as the mainstay of their living (ASDS, 2001). Tanzania agriculture is mainly subsistence farming and is characterized by low level of technology use and poor management leading to low crop yields. Small scale farming which is dominant in the country has failed to utilise fully the large land resource available. Improvement of the agricultural sector is paramount in poverty reduction. Commercialising smallholder agriculture and accelerating its growth rate is essential in increasing agricultural production as a means of pulling the majority of the rural poor out of abject poverty. Given the generally abundant land resource, efforts to increase agricultural production should include both technologies to expand utilized land area and intensification of the existing cultivated area. This may be achieved through mechanization and adoption of other improved technologies such as improved seed, use of fertilizers, agro processing and accessibility to markets. Agricultural mechanisation includes three main power sources, that is human, animal and mechanical. Under the tropical heat, a health adult using a hand hoe can work about 0.5 ha per season thus limiting the area under cultivation to 2 ha only for an average family of four adults. On the other hand a family owning a pair of draught animals can manage 5 - 8 ha per season while a 60-70 Hp tractor can manage more than 80 ha in a season. Mechanization enhances the human capacity, leading to intensification and increased productivity as a result of timely planting, weeding, harvesting, post harvesting handling and accessibility to markets. Also it reduces drudgery making agriculture an attractive enterprise. It therefore has the potential to turn idle land into productive land for national economic growth, food self-sufficiency, industrial growth and employment, leading to poverty reduction. Tanzania needs to mount a long-term effort to develop a modern agriculture, mechanization playing a leading role.