| Tanzania wrong in handling of Machingas, cross-border trade | Send to a friend |
| Wednesday, 20 July 2011 21:31 |
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YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it In this day and age of inordinately high cost of living – compounded by severe joblessness and a general lack of meaningful and sustainable ways of legitimately generating income – a goodly number of young Tanzanians have taken to petty trading, mostly in urban centres. These are popularly known as ‘Machingas,’ apparently named after a tribe in southern Tanzania (also found in neighbouring countries) which is credited with pioneering the peripatetic style of hawking assorted goods carried about and offered around at bargain-basement prices. Older Tanzanians – mostly women – remain in rural Tanzania, doing what they best know how to do... peasant farming using the traditional hand-hoe and slash-and-burn cultivation method. Come harvest time – and our peasant farmers gather in relentlessly dwindling ‘returns’ at the virtually irreplaceable cost of the sweat of their collective brow. Reduced returns are also the result of poor farming methods and implements, as well as lack of, or insufficient, agricultural inputs such as fertiliser, quality seeds, extension services, etc. These shortcomings are compounded by soils depleted of their fertility and other natural properties; vagaries of the weather, post-harvest losses – and a zillion other ‘agricultural gremlins’ which combine to unleash woes on our hapless farmers. Among these last – but by no means the least – is markets and marketing. But, more of that anon... As the Sisters of Fate and their diabolical collaborators – all manner and style of gremlins – have it, the calamity of all those woes which today befall our peasant farmers and ‘Machingas’ is made even more distressing by the commissions and omissions of related authorities. These include the very Government itself at all levels – Ward, District, Regional and National – which should otherwise be at the forefront of guiding, protecting, encouraging and promoting these activities. Instead of playing those very noble roles, the authorities have been harassing, harrying and harrowing our Machingas and peasant farmers at every turn. Look at it this way... It’s an undisputed fact that both Machingas and peasant farmers play a considerable role within the economy, from the personal and household to the national and international levels. Whatever is said to the contrary by detractors and others with vested interests of one kind or another, Machinga activity brings sustenance to untold millions of otherwise ‘jobless’ youths and their dependents countrywide. They form an important component of the informal economy, accounting for around a third of the greater Economy – whose total real GDP is $22bn, and employs 22 per cent of the workforce. In the event, it’s most distressing to see municipal ‘law enforcement officers’ harassing petty traders and destroying or carting away their merchandise to ‘destinations unknown, fate indeterminable!’ Considering that some of the traders have acquired the goods through loans from third parties, depriving them of same without compensation is a major setback to otherwise genuine efforts at self income-generation, self-employment, poverty reduction and curbing criminology among otherwise ‘unemployed’ youths. The lot of the peasant farmer is also a sorry sight, made so by bungling authorities. Take the raging controversy today as an example. While 16 out of Tanzania-Mainland’s 21 administrative regions are on famine alert, cross-border smuggling of maize (and other food grains) out of Tanzania is on the increase. The major reason for this is poor market prices in Tanzania, compared to what (say) Kenyan buyers pay – doing so in currency that’s ‘harder’ than Tanzania’s! Secondly, arbitrary banning of such exports more often than not results in losses to farmers via poor storage, vermin, reduced ‘shelf-life,’ pilferage – and utter frustration, thus discouraging increased future productivity. Reportedly, 100,000 tonnes of maize is rotting away in Kahama District, despite high demand in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, because of a Government export ban! The local market can’t absorb all that maize – not at realistic prices, anyway. This makes everyone a loser, most of all the farmer and trader! [Mwananchi: July 13, 2011]. No, Sir (and Madam), the relevant authorities should, must, find ways of ‘controlling’ the Machinga and farm trades in a Win-Win mode. Obviously, the extant systems are counterproductive. Cheers! Mr Lyimo is a socioeconomic commentator based in Dar es Salaam. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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