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Policy Reforms Status
Reform area | Reform action | Status |
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Seeds | Improve access by private seed companies to publicly protected pre-basic and basic seeds | The revised amended Circular 2011 was re-submitted for approval and signature by the Minister of Agriculture. MALF submitted these to Attorney General Chamber on 7 January 2017. The Minister officially gazetted this for the industry to start implementation on 20 January 2017. Six seed companies entered into contract with Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute using the reviewed Ministerial Circular setting procedures for accessing government-protected varieties
The seed reforms in Tanzania supported by MIRA to improve access by private seed companies to pre-basic and basic seeds of publicly protected varieties and hybrids and officially gazetted by the Minister of Agriculture as Government Circular on Authorization of New Varieties of Plants, 2016 on 20 January 2017 has enabled 7 seed companies (mostly PASS grantees) to obtain access to germplasm of 33 varieties and hybrids, multiply them into foundation and certified seed and to offer these for sale under the company’s brand names to farmers.
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Fertilizers | Barriers to registration of new fertilizer products arising from requirement of 3 seasons of testing and payment of testing fee of $10,000 for each season | The Minister of Agriculture signed the new Fertilizer Regulations 2017 on 10 February 2017. The regulation was gazetted on 17 February, 2017. It included reduction of the registration fees to a single season in two agro- ecological zones and US$ 10,000 instead of three seasons at US$10,000 per season. To provide relief to fertilizer companies, four taxes levied by TFRA were abolished (i) Dealers Registration fee US$ 50 (ii) License fee of dealers (iii) Sterilizing Plants registration US$ 1,000 and (iv) Fertilizer Registration fee Tanzania Shillings 100,000. The Fertilizer Regulation was amended on 17 February, 2017 to allow the blended products not to be tested again. Since then, the reforms are being implemented effectively |
Fertilizers | Improve the delivery of fertilizers | AGRA-supported Soil Health Policy Node commissioned policy analysis study in 2014 that developed an electronic monitoring and tracking mechanism for National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme to improve targeting and efficiency of fertilizer subsidy program by changing from paper voucher to electronic voucher. But this was not adopted by MALF. Soil Health Node also commissioned study to evaluate performance of fertilizer subsidy voucher scheme in terms of efficiency, equity, impact on fertilizer use, productivity and crop incomes. Government abandoned NAIVS in 2014/15 and replaced this with a loan given to farmers in credit groups. Government re-introduced NAIVS in 2015/2016 and put in place an improved version incorporating recommendations of fertilizer subsidy voucher scheme to replace local government appointment of agro dealers to redeem vouchers to input suppliers appointing own agents to distribute and sell inputs. MIRA supported drafting of Cabinet paper that made a case for re-introduction of the NAIVS. This drew on fertilizer subsidy study by Soil Health Node. The reform is MIRA’s first successful policy win
The Minister of Agriculture abolished 108 crops related taxes in his government budget speech on 22 May, 2017.
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Agricultural exports | Lifting of Export bans | The MoA lifted the export ban, and made the official announcement about this decision in his 2018 budget speech on 15 May 2018. Also noteworthy is the fact that MIRA’s economic and legal analysis reports submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture were crucial and played a significant role in prompting the Minister of Agriculture to form the task force and to take actions that ultimately lifted the export bans. MoA extended in July 2018 the validity period of export permits from one month to two months from the date of issuance. Government in collaboration with AGRA started implementing in November, 2018 the Strengthening Food Security and Export Trade in Tanzania (SFSETT) Project putting in place a system of food crop monitoring and forecast, streamlining agricultural trading systems. SFSETT Project is a follow up of MIRA activities and achievements. |
Agricultural exports | Ease, efficiency, and institutional arrangement in the management of issuance of grain export permit system | The issuance of export permits have been decentralized and e-export permits introduced to reduce delays in obtaining export permits.
AGRA Market Policy Node supported policy analyses that contributed to lifting of export bans in 2012. However, MALF introduced requirement for export permits that became just another barrier to trade. In July 2016 Minister of Agriculture issued temporary suspension of export permits for food staples.
The government is piloted the digital processing of export permit with a view of replacing the old system where traders had to travel long distances and spend many days following export permits. In February 2018 the National MIRA Coordinator and AGRA PO messaged the issue of export ban through a presentation at the Annual Agricultural Policy Conference (AAPC). MIRA Coordinator and AGRA PO formally submitted a detailed economic analysis report to the Permanent Secretary of Agriculture in February 2018 on impacts of export bans and the challenges involved in obtaining export permits. The work by AGRA and others working on generating evidence and advocating for removal of export resulted in the Minister and government as whole better understand the detrimental effects of the bans in areas with surplus food production.
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Agricultural markets | Development of an umbrella contract farming legislation to address gap in contract farming laws | The Minister approved the Contract Farming Bill in October 2018 and recommended its forwarding to Cabinet Secretariat for review and approval. A stakeholders’ workshop was organized on 29 January 2019 in Dodoma to discuss the reform options in the proposed Contract Bill. Important areas which attracted much discussion include sanction of the law (section of the law related to penalties –fines, jail sentence/terms –disputes settlement) registration of farmers
The Contract Farming Bill will now be handled with the umbrella agriculture Act, and it will not appear as a separate Act.
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Tanzania Contract Farming Act | Drafted the Contract Farming Act | The request came from the Ministry of Agriculture for support to develop a contract farming Act. Contractual agreements are currently guided by general contract laws, the Ministry identified the gap and requested for AGRA’s support to develop a specific Contract Farming Act. The complete document was developed and taken through a series of validation exercises. However, its progress towards enact enactment was overtaken by the new focus to develop the agricultural Act that was supposed to include the contract farming Act |
Seeds | Land for Seed Production | Minister has instructed ASA to give long-term land leases to private seed companies for upscaling local seed production. Already two local companies, SeedCo Tanzania and Meru-Agro have benefited from this intervention. The two companies are installing irrigation facilities, an indication of the long-term commitment.
The issue of land has now become clear to many technical and policy makers, including government decision makers, members of parliament, development partners.
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Seed | Crop and seed cess | The Minister of Finance and Planning announced the removal of seed cess vide budget speech for the 2022/2023 financial year. But this is only the first stage, more efforts and advocacy are required to enact laws in the LGAs to exempt seeds from crop cess |
Seed | Guidelines for non-true seeds produced and approved by the Minister | Guidelines for non-true seeds. Before, there were no certification standards for non-true seeds, e.g., avocados, mangoes, apples, pawpaw, bananas etc.., but today such standard is available |
Post-harvest | Development of the post-harvest strategy for Tanzania | Working together with ANSAF and other stakeholders in the post-harvest loss management, AGRA supported the development of the post-harvest management strategy and its implementation plan. AGRA also supported the socialization of the post-harvest management strategy |
Seeds | Variety registration | • It is easy and faster to register OPV seeds for horticulture (vegetable and flowers). They only require one season of verification instead of two years and multi-locational trials.
• Enhanced commercialization of vegetable seeds
• New guidelines for registering non-true seeds
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