AGRICULTURE REMAINS KEY TO INDUSTRIALISATION DRIVE

The National Development Vision 2025 revolves around a number of key goals, the overriding being Tanzania’s transformation into a semi-industrialised, sustainable middle-income economy by 2025, which is less than three years away.

It is generally acknowledged that agriculture is the driving force that would functionally promote industrialisation of African countries on a meaningful and sustainable basis.

Indeed, most African countries have stagnated in their all-inclusive socioeconomic development largely because of poor policies and regulatory frameworks which focus on peripheral issues, and for all practical purposes ignore agriculture, considered the undeveloped backbone of many economies.

All this must drastically change if Tanzania is to accomplish the transformation required to enable the government to realise the envisaged Vision 2025 in the few remaining years.

Assorted experts are agreed that Tanzania has huge potential to become an agricultural hub in Africa, but to do so, it must first revisit and overhaul as and where necessary the extant policies and regulatory frameworks on agricultural practices and related developmental activities.

In any case, the government and its related institutions, as well as privates sector players, must be more than able, willing and ready to invest in empowering smallholder farmers every which way as a matter of course.

Generally, agricultural hubs help to boost farming through organized crops production, handling, processing and marketing, as well as readily accessing financing, technology and inputs like quality seeds, fertiliser and pesticides.

Agricultural hubs are today the best way to grow the sector in Africa, and also bolster its potential to ensure global food security.

It has been stated time and again that the focus should be on raising the country’s agribusiness profile through the right policies and regulatory frameworks, including those on an investment-and-business-friendly environment.

Doing this would entrench the drive for functional industrialisation.

DISTANCE TO SCHOOL MATTERS

Pupils attending schools that are far from their homes are a cause for concern. They must wake up early – and return home late.

Even with the availability of alternative means of transport like school and commuter buses, schoolchildren are still not that safe.

Accidents and sexual predators are just a tip of the iceberg, and there is more to this than meets the eye.

According to studies, walking to and from school, or spending hours struggling with wheeled transport, makes pupils overly-tired and – more often than not – lowers their morale and concentration in class. Furthermore, waking up early and returning home late leaves pupils no ample time for revision studies. This no doubt impairs their academic performance.

Indeed, getting children to school is only part of the education battles. But for 10-year-olds, waking up at 4am and getting back home by 6pm at the earliest is an acid test for their educational ambitions. Parents and guardians must play their role in changing this situation.