Tanzania: How Wassira Wants Dar to Benefit From Food Crisis

Posted to the web 23 July 2008 Samuel Kamndaya Dodoma Tanzania yesterday outlined at least seven measures that will see the nation benefit from the global food crisis. The short-term strategy announced in Parliament in Dodoma by Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives minister Stephen Wassira would see the country increasing the production of food crops by 7.4 per cent in a year. "We wish to take the escalating world food prices as an opportunity for our country to produce more food to meet national demand and export the surplus. With that in mind, we have initiated a short-term strategy to bring quick gains," he said when tabling his ministry's 2008/9 budget. During the 2007/8 financial year, Tanzania harvested 10.782 million tonnes of food crops harvests. The new plan envisages raising that mark by 797,000 tonnes to... [read full story]