Agrarian crisis and the food sectors: the case of maize transportation and storage in three villages of Sumbawanga Urban district Rukwa region

The study examines some of the causes of the agrarian crisis in relation of food storage and transportation – the case of maize, Sumbawanga urban district- Rukwa region. One of Tanzania’s agricultural policies has been to encourage her population to attain food self-sufficiency. By so doing, the government has been announcing different incentive packages to the peasants and the agrarian population as a whole. Many areas have responded positively. One of such areas is Rukwa region, famously known as “one of the Big four producers of Maize”. However, expanded maize production in Rukwa was faced with many bottlenecks like storage and transport problems. This study, thus investigated the status of agriculture, feeder roads and storage facilities and their impact to the agrarian sector. The areas involved in the study were three villages of Wipanga, Chipu and Kasense in Sumbawanga urban district in Rukwa region. Data were collected through the use structured interviews, questionnaires and documentary analysis supplemented by unstructured interviews. According to the findings, feeder roads lacked maintenance and were in extremely poor condition while storage facilities were inadequate. In the absence of good feeder roads and improved storage facilities, women were at a disadvantage. This meant that the ferrying of crops done mainly by women and children (on their heads) became a very time consuming and burdensome task. The study concludes that unless maintenance component for the feeder roads is adhered to, and farmers are provided with credit facilities from private and national financial institutions, the agrarian crisis emanating from those infrastructural bottlenecks is likely to persist.