THE STATE UNIVERSITY 9F ZANZIBAR HAS ANNOUNCED ITS REASEARCH DATA

The State University of Zanzibar

sically, the evolution of the agricultural policy
in Tanzania has been strongly infuenced by
macroeconomic changes. The post-independence
period (1961-1967) was marked by an emphasis on
improved peasant farming through extension services
and the provision of credit and marketing structures. At
the same time, the Government continued to support
large scale farming in selected areas. Following the
Arusha Declaration, however, the Government became
the manager, entrepreneur as well as the investor.
Unfortunately, these policies had unexpected results
of causing stagnation of the agricultural sector
causing substantial reduction in productivity and
incomes amongst the stakeholders. However, it has
been noticed that, by the mid-1980s as the nation
changed the economic policy from controlled
economy to free market, the Government adopted a
Statement of Development Policy for Agriculture in
1983. Furthermore, during that time, the Tanzanian
economy had undergone fundamental transformation
that redefned the roles of public and private sectors
with regard to agricultural development.
 Additionally, a series of complementary measures
to the changes in macro-economic management
were formulated and implemented at the sector level
and they include liberalization of marketing of food
grains and price structures for major export crops;
removal of the monopoly export powers of crop
boards; and restructuring agricultural sector. In the
post 1990s Tanzania managed to reverse the low, and
in some years, negative growth rate of the economy
experienced in the 1980’s. The sector continued its
evolution towards market orientation with reduced
intervention by the state.
 These series of rational approaches necessitated
the Government measures such as those related to
increasing investment in infrastructure; improved
Government ability to design and implement market
based incentives; improved functioning of markets
for all factors of production; induced technological
changes by improving effciency of input supply
markets and increasing the effectiveness of agricultural
extension, education and research services.
Meanwhile, during the same period the agricultural
sector was brought into the tax base followed by the
introduction of a wide range of taxes and charges levied
by central government, local and regional authorities.
Taxes were introduced on produce exports and there
was a proliferation of taxes on marketed produce. At
the same time the Government adopted the policy of
providing tax based incentives to investors in a