The Eastern Africa region would experience a severe deficit of maize and rice in the next few years because of recurring droughts and marketing constraints, the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) has warned.
While deficit in the production of rice could rise to 2.84 million tonnes in 2020, the deficit of maize, the country’s main staple food, would reach a staggering 7.76 million tonnes in eight years’ time.
EAGC said in a statement that Tanzania has a strong comparative advantage for production and export of maize and rice to feed the region.
This, the organisation said, was especially made more apparent over the last three years and especially in 2011 when Kenya faced a food crisis due to severe drought to hit EA and the Horn of Africa.
The peak of the crisis not only witnessed the sharp rise of food prices in the region ‘’to unprecedented levels’’ but also an export ban on cereals by the Tanzania government which EAGC claimed “denied producers a great opportunity to access more lucrative prices”.
The Council, which is organising the two-day event in collaboration with the Arusha-based Selian Agricultural Research Institute (Sari), said Tanzania can feed the rest of EA if it utilised its great land potentia.
“At the regional level other partner states in EAC do not have the natural resource endowment and comparative advantage that Tanzania has particularly with regard to agricultural land,” it added.
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