Tanzania, April 2025
Annual Rice Sector Review Meeting in Tanzania
Rice is the second most important staple food crop (after maize) in Tanzania. It is largely grown by smallholder farmers in irrigated and rainfed ecosystems. Although about 90% of rice cultivation takes place in lowland rainfed environments, it is the irrigated ecosystem that contributes a significant portion of the total rice production. Since joining the second phase of CARD initiative, Tanzania has developed its second National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS-2; 2019-2030) and Implementation Plan for the NRDS-2. The NRDS-2 aims to sustain national rice self-sufficiency and contribute to regional self-sufficiency through surplus rice production.
With technical support from CARD, the NRDS taskforce members have established a framework for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to annually assess progress made in implementing the NRDS-2. The taskforce members have collected data for 4 overall (O) indicators and 2 indicators each under Resilience (R), Industrialization (I), Competitiveness (C) and Empowerment (E). The taskforce members subsequently requested CARD Secretariat to help organize Annual Rice Sector Review Meeting (ARSRM) for sharing the M&E results and mobilizing further support for implementing the NRDS-2 from the stakeholders. This report summarizes the key proceedings and outputs from the mission.
Key outputs from the activity
Prior to the ARSRM, the reporters organized a meeting of the NRDS taskforce members on 23rd April to apprise the level of preparations. The reporters assisted the taskforce members in structuring and finalizing the sequence of program, agendas, speakers and their PowerPoint (PPT) presentations, and discussions with the stakeholders during the ARSRM event.
The ARSRM was organized by the taskforce members at St. Gaspar Conference Center in Dodoma on 24th April, 2025. About 80 stakeholders representing Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), other line ministries, institutions engaged in rice research and extension, non-governmental organizations, farmers’ associations, irrigation water users’ associations, millers and traders participated in the ARSRM. Representatives from development partners such as JICA, African Development Bank (AfDB), European Union (EU) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) were also present.
In his opening remarks, the Chief Representative of JICA, Mr. Ara Hitoshi congratulated the rice stakeholders in Tanzania for making significant advancements in rice production despite facing the impacts of climate change. Mr. Hitoshi expressed confidence that the ARSRM will provide a solid basis for further decision making and improve coordination of the rice value chain actors (including the private sector). He also emphasized on the importance of increasing the funding from the government for further development of the rice sector.
Presentations by the NRDS taskforce
The NRDS taskforce members made three PPT presentations providing (1) overview of the rice sector development, (2) progress made in implementing the NRDS, and (3) key challenges in rice markets. While providing the overview, Dr. Abel Mtembeji (representing the NRDS taskforce) showed how the increase in total rice production has reduced the vulnerability of Tanzania to market crisis. By highlighting the deficit in rice production among the EAC Partner States, Dr. Mtembeji justified the Tanzania’s NRDS-2’s ambitious goal of becoming a regional market leader by increasing the domestic rice production to 8 million tons of milled rice by 2030.
Mr. Geoffrey Rwiza presented the progress made under each of the NRDS-2 M&E indicators to the stakeholders. Besides highlighting the rising share of Tanzania’s rice exports in EAC Partner States’ imports as a success story of rice sector development, he emphasized the importance of tackling the annual fluctuations in the total rice production in Tanzania. Given a rapidly increasing demand for Tanzania rice in markets of East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mr. Rwiza requested focused interventions from development partners on reducing the costs of rice production and improving the sustainability of supply volumes so as to improve the competitiveness over Asian rice suppliers.
Key Stakeholders’ Remarks
Representing EU, Mr. Daniel González Levassor informed the participants that EU has chosen rice as one of the 3 value chains (along with cashew and coffee) under its agriculture sector development agenda in Tanzania. EU will support the NRDS-2 implementation with a focus on improving (a) rice trading with EAC and EU and (b) competitiveness of locally produced rice in Tanzania. EU will also provide overall support for improving sustainability of the rice sector.
Representing AfDB, Mr. Abdul Bangra appreciated the NRDS taskforce for sharing most of the required information on rice sector in Tanzania through M&E data, ARSRM-Annual Summary Report, PPT presentations and NRDS-2 document. He asserted that the AfDB will utilize this information as valuable references in its current engagement with the government for rice sector development. AfDB is planning to support rice value chain through Agriculture Sector Development Program (ASDP-II) for which about 15 million USD has been allocated for the next 5 years.
Representing IRRI, Dr. Pauline Chivenge informed that IRRI will continue to work with Tanzania’s national agricultural research system in developing suitable technologies for rice sector development. IRRI’s efforts will focus on varietal development (including abiotic and biotic stress tolerance), water management, postharvest management, mechanization, socio-economic analyses (including market segmentation and consumer preferences), digitization and information sharing for the stakeholders.
Deputy Permanent Secretary of MOA, Dr. Hussein Omar made special remarks during the event. Referring to a steady increase in national budget allocation for improving irrigation infrastructure (46 billion TSh in 2021-22 to 403 billion TSh in 2024-25) in rice growing areas, he reaffirmed government’s support for implementing the NRDS-2. He requested the stakeholders to add the perspectives of a sustainable food system, while engaging in rice value chain. He urged the private sector to improve usage of rice husks and fertilizer supply to smallholder rice farmers. He thanked the development partners for their continued support in rice sector. He expressed hope that the surplus rice production from Tanzania will soon be able to reach markets in Japan.
Assistant Director (Extension, Directorate of Crops Development), Ms. Upendo thanked the stakeholders for their participation and the NRDS taskforce for successfully organizing the ARSRM event. She requested the NRDS taskforce to urgently review the target figures for the NRDS-2 and the M&E indicators, so that they become more realistic and achievable rather than being too ambitious.
Emerging Issues
The participants expressed a few issues that need more attention while developing the rice value chain the current socio-economic context. These include inadequate accessibility to seed, spare parts for processing machinery, ground water and sustainable practices.
Seed: Stakeholders expressed difficulties in accessing adequate quantities of seeds of improved rice varieties such as TXD 306 (SARO 5) and Kamboka in a timely fashion. They urged the local governments to work with seed producers for improving the production and supply of certified and quality declared seeds (QDS).
Spare parts: Processors are finding it difficult to access good quality spare parts from the original manufacturers of the processing machinery from Japan and Europe. This is mainly because spare parts supplied from China are cheaper and more accessible as substitutes for the original versions. The stakeholders however are concerned that such substitutes suffer from lower durability.
Taxation: While the government has waived the taxes on importation of the assembled farm and processing machinery, the spare parts of these machinery are subject to import duties. Rice moving from through the various provinces in Tanzania are also subject to cess. Although the cess was recently reduced from 5% to 3%, these levies add to higher transportation costs incurred by the traders while moving the locally produced rice from interior areas to borders for exportation.
Ground water: The stakeholders requested the government to provide clarity on policies on regulations on rigging bore wells in rice producing areas so that smallholder rice farmers can consciously improve access to supplementary irrigation through ground water.
Sustainable practices: Farmers’ access to information on proper soil fertility management, soil reclamation (especially in areas affected by salinity), alternate wetting and drying methods, land levelling and agrochemicals need to be improved. The stakeholders also requested the NRDS taskforce to include an M&E indicator on fertilizer usage by rice farmers.
Way forward
The NRDS taskforce has agreed to take the messages from the stakeholders, especially the issues, forward by refining the project concept notes and lobbying for technical and financial assistance from government and development partners. In this context, the members have requested CARD Secretariat to organize a working week by mid-August to work on these concepts and also kick-start the M&E data collection process for the year 2025-26.
