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misanet.com / IPS, 27 October - With presidential and parliamentary elections just three days away, politicians here are promising Tanzanians a host of goodies if they would only put an 'X' beside their names. There are promises of free education and health care; some parties like the Tanzanian Labour Party, are promising to default on foreign debt repayment and invest that money in social services; while the Civic United Front (CUF), say they will make available to the public within 100 days of taking office, all essential drugs. CUF, one of the main opposition parties here, also promises to ease poverty. - We will alleviate poverty, states CUF's Phil Ndesamburo. "We will also revive the agricultural sector - the backbone of our country which has been neglected by the government," adds Ndesamburo, a businessman who is confident of winning a ticket to parliament. But given attendance at the rally he addressed later that afternoon in Moshi some 650 km north of Dar es Salaam, it would take divine intervention for him to realise his goal. Ndesamburo has one thing right, however. Much of Tanzania's poverty can be blamed on neglect of the agricultural sector. More than 10 years after economic liberalisation, growth in the agricultural sector has remained at a low three percent per year. Only 15 percent of arable land (42 percent of total land) is under cultivation. Official figures show that tea production remains at the same level as five years ago while coffee and cotton output have fallen. - The CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) government has mishandled the economy. - Most people depend on agriculture, but the CCM government has neglected production of food, alleges Hamad. Zanzibar used to produce 8,000 tones of cloves per year, these days production sometimes goes as low as 1,000 tonnes, says Hamad. - Clove farmers have been neglected and so they cannot maintain their plantations. The farmers are also paid lower prices than what is offered on the world market, he complains. - We want to liberalise the agricultural sector so that farmers can sell to whomever they want at higher prices than what is offered by the government, he adds. To make matters worse, those who till the land at the subsistence level are discriminated against. The land tenure system in Tanzania is governed by patriarchal customary laws. It is estimated that in 1991, about 46 percent of all households in Tanzania had acquired land through the patriarchal inheritance system where only sons and male clan members can inherit clan land. This affects both food security and socio-economic development. The tillers of the land - poor rural women - are not motivated to invest in land protection or management because in addition to not being allowed to own land, they are prevented from receiving institutional credit which gives them less economic flexibility. - We used to produce about 33,000 tonnes of rice per year here, but now we produce much less than that. Sometimes even about 18,000 tonnes, says Hamad. President Benjamin Mkapa, addressing a campaign rally in Moshi, admitted to his government's failure to maintain a buoyant agricultural sector. And he promised that co-operatives will be efficiently run in the future, that 10 million shillings will be allocated to small scale projects and that a fund will be set aside for small scale farmers. It is widely expected here that Mkapa and the CCM will sweep the elections again. But that is not based on promises such as those he made in Moshi, but on the fact that the opposition is plentiful and not united. Some 13 political parties will contest the Oct. 29 polls. Individually, the opposition parties stand no chance of unseating the CCM, but attempts at unity have failed. - Indeed without unity, the opposition will have to work very hard to win the elections, admits Ndesamburo. By Lewis Machipisa
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