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Tanzania’s traditional cash crops include coffee, tea, tobacco, cashew nuts, cotton, sisal and cloves
Members of Parliament (MPs) in Tanzania debated the budget proposals for the Ministry of Agriculture recently and advised the government to explore all possible measures to create markets for all traditional cash crops.
They emphasized that Tanzanians, mostly smallholder farmers, were investing significant amounts of money in the production process, but when it came to selling their agricultural produce, the prices were not satisfactory. Traditionally, Tanzania’s traditional cash crops include coffee, tea, tobacco, cashew nuts, cotton, sisal and cloves.
Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, in the budget estimates presented in Parliament recently outlined key priorities that his office will implement in the next financial year (2024/2025). He wanted the House to endorse 1.25 trillion in both recurrent and development expenditures.
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Lawmakers expressed frustration over the low prices that farmers receive when selling traditional cash crops, calling for immediate intervention as farmers were incurring high costs on their farms. Some of the parliamentarians mentioned that there was a need for an adequate supply of seedlings for coffee producers, stating that the 20,000 seedlings committed by the Minister for Agriculture in his budget estimates were insufficient.
