Opportunities for improvement

Abstract

Executive Summary Agriculture is the primary economic activity in Tanzania, and nearly 70% of those engaged in agriculture are small-scale farmers. The greatest identified impediment to high agricultural production and food security in Tanzania is the low usage of fertilizers and improved seeds. The poverty level for farmers who depend on the sale of food crops is high (National Bureau of Statistics, 2002), suggesting a nexus between agricultural production and poverty. Thus, the National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme (NAIVS; implemented by the Government of Tanzania with support from the World Bank) was launched as a smart-market subsidy targeted at providing small-scale farmers with access to critical agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and improved seeds, at a 50% subsidy. It is aimed at high levels of food crop production, particularly for maize and rice. This brief examines key indices identified in the implementation of NAIVS, i.e. awareness of the programme and administrative bottlenecks in service delivery. The brief includes findings from pooled household data from two years (2010/11–2011/12) across eight regions in Tanzania (refer to footnote 1 on page 2). The total number of households for the purpose of this analysis is 1,863 – 51% beneficiaries and 49% non-beneficiaries. Key findings are as follows: (1) There is a high level of general awareness about the programme among the farmers, but there is a need to focus on specific awareness pertaining to eligibility criteria and to the scheme's exit mechanism. (2) There are loopholes in service delivery – land criterion, affordability, and authentication partially followed for targeting the true beneficiaries; (3) there is also a need to strengthen the agricultural extension services.