RESEARCH STAKEHOLDERS HAVE ARGUED THAT DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL SECTORS

Researchers said that generally structural transformation has to start with the development of the agro-industry.

Executive Director for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organization (STIPRO) Dr. Bitrina Diyamett said to be useful for poverty alleviation, the complexes need to be set up close to agricultural production in rural areas.

She was presenting a paper at the Annual Research Dissemination Workshop held recently in Dar es Salaam titled ‘The critical role of agriculture in industrialization: Some conceptual and practical experiences’.

She said Tanzania should borrow a leaf from Denmark which, by focusing on agro-industrial complex development, it was able to develop international competitiveness of its milk and meat processing.

“Following the concurrence thesis, the focus should neither be on agriculture nor industry, but on agro-industrial complexes,” she stressed. 

According to her, Tanzania can kick-start the process of industrialization by starting with the development of agro-industrial complexes.

According to her, the trick was to look at the trade balance; for instance, the case of edible oil for Tanzania where the local demand is big, and about 75 per cent of it being imported.

Regarding developing a successful industrialization, she said history indicates that there is a very close connection between development in the agricultural sector and the process of industrialization.

She pointed out that elsewhere in other countries, the rapid increase in agricultural productivity during the onset of industrialization shows played a crucial role.

“Structural transformation is triggered when agriculture realises enough surplus in the form of food, materials, income and servings, capital and workers begin to move out of agriculture to meet the demands of a growing industrial sector,” she said.

According to a participant Lanta Danie, he told the congregation while presenting a paper on “Industrialization in Africa: Past experiences and Lessons from Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana that transformation of a traditional agricultural society and economy into an industrial economy needed to be paid for by agriculture sector.

“Uncalculated massive investment in building industries can be harmful, this leads to Excess capacity leading to under utilization and eventually a failure as it happened in past years,” he said.