By Elly Manjale
Food is one of the basic necessities of human life. Mark Twain once said: “The secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”
Food is not manufactured—it is derived from the earth through agriculture. In our households, we often grow food for subsistence while also cultivating cash crops. Some households combine both approaches.
As food is essential to human survival, some countries—such as Uganda—are self-sufficient in food. Others, like Sudan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), rely on imports because they do not produce enough to meet their consumption needs.
Tanzania is largely self-sufficient in staple foods such as maize, rice, cassava, sorghum, bananas and millet. However, it imports around 90% of its wheat requirements. Additionally, Tanzania imports hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sugar annually to meet domestic demand, particularly for industrial use.
Agricultural production faces several challenges. Chief among them is land arability. In regions where land is not arable, agriculture becomes impossible. For example, in Djibouti, where 90% of the country is desert or semi-desert, agriculture is nearly unfeasible.
Tanzania covers a total land area of 945,000 square kilometres, or 94.5 million hectares. Of this, approximately 44 million hectares—about 46%—is classified as arable land. This makes Tanzania one of the East African countries with the greatest agricultural potential, owing to its vast and underutilised fertile land. Currently, only about 10.8 million hectares, or roughly 25% of the total arable land, are under cultivation.
Several neighbouring countries—such as Kenya and DRC—are dependent on food imports due to climate change–induced droughts that hamper domestic food production. Tanzania could increase its food production through irrigation and supply these countries. However, the amount of irrigated land in Tanzania remains limited—currently around 1.27 million hectares—despite an irrigation potential exceeding 29 million hectares.
The National Irrigation Master Plan (NIMP), which serves as a comprehensive framework for developing irrigation infrastructure from 2018 to 2035, has identified approximately 29.4 million hectares as suitable for irrigation. This area is classified into: 2.3 million hectares (high potential), 4.8 million hectares (medium potential), and 22.3 million hectares (low potential). These classifications are based on the feasibility of financing irrigation infrastructure.
In my view, we should aim to irrigate at least 15% of the area suitable for irrigation—approximately 4.4 million hectares. If this land were irrigated, Tanzania could achieve self-sufficiency in wheat within two years and in sugar within three to four years.
Moreover, with a diversified cropping system, we could double or even triple current national food production—dramatically reducing food insecurity and enhancing export opportunities.
To make this a reality, adequate funding must be allocated for the development of irrigation infrastructure. This can be achieved through public–private partnerships (PPP).
