Agriculture plays a huge role in the Tanzanian economy, which accounts for 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing 75% of the labour force (URT, 2014). In Tanzania, 69% of the population lives in the rural areas and mostly represents small holder farmers (World Bank, 2014). Consequently, food crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, pulses, paddy and wheat are mainly grown in the country, contributing approximately 65% of the agricultural GDP (URT, 2013).

Seed is a major investment made by smallholder farmers. We believe farmers need to have access to affordable seeds so as to increase their productivity. With the increase of seed companies and Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute ensuring companies register all their varieties, we have seen an increase in the improved (hybrid) seeds in Tanzania. In addition, productivity and efficiency are key performance of improved seeds.

According to RLDC (2009) farmer’s awareness of quality, availability, marketability of produce of these seeds is very low. This is because most of the farmers lack knowledge on improved seeds and as a result they end up preferring to stick to traditional preferred varieties which are not economically efficient but have prominent aromatic and palatability characteristics. Still there is low adoption and access of improved seed varieties among small-holder farmers. If more farmers do not adopt improved seed varieties, while their main source of livelihood is agriculture, it is very likely that they will remain poor and stagnant productivity.

Farmers seek mostly seed from off farm source for numerous reasons. The common reasons are to get a variety of high yielding potential, drought tolerance, disease resistance, a preferred taste, etc. when food crop is considered. Moreover, when they are different seed sources available and farmers get access to them there is high probability of adoption of improved varieties (Alene et al. 2000).

Fresh improved seeds increase productivity and farmers efficiency in comparison to recycled seeds. The productivity and efficiency gains indicate that promoting fresh improved seeds has a potential to boosting maize production using the available improved seed technologies at most efficiency.

Nevertheless, small-holder farmers choose pollinated varieties (OPVs) because they can be recycled for a longer period and the price is relatively lower compared to hybrids. It is generally accepted that access to improved seeds is an important factor for increasing agricultural productivity among small-holder farmers (URT, 2013).

Counterfeiting is prevalent across the agricultural products negatively affecting the farmers, the Tanzanian economy, and the people and putting the lives of Tanzanians at risk.

Tanzania is still facing food insecurity due to low productivity, which is attributed to low use of improved inputs. Other factors contributing to low productivity include; climate change, often manifested as drought, farmers’ low purchasing power such that they cannot buy improved inputs including seeds, inefficient distribution network of inputs due to an inadequate number of Agro-dealers in rural areas, inability of rural agro dealers to purchase inputs in required quantities, low entrepreneurship skills by the Agro-dealers, lack of or limited rural credit facilities, and poor infrastructure, especially roads and storage. A combination of these factors has resulted into low production and productivity (Hepelwa, Selejio, O. and Mduma, J 2013); URT (2013).

Quincewood consulted closely with stakeholders, consumers and government regulators Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI), to successfully trial and implement eHakiki within the agriculture sector. This partnership led on to further collaboration with other government agencies within the agricultural sector including the Tanzania Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI).

The eHakiki system enables users to check in real-time the authenticity of the products that they have just purchased. eHakiki enables farmers to confidently, quickly and economically verify the authenticity of any inputs which carries the eHakiki verification codes via dialling *148*52#

Despite considerable efforts by several programme and organizations, the adoption of improved agriculture technologies is still low in Tanzania (URT, 2013). Fortunately, now farmers in Tanzania will see increased productivity because they can verify their inputs via eHakiki services and this platform is accessible across all mobile network operators.

References

• Abro, Z.A., B.L. Debela, M. Kassie (2019). The joint impact of improved maize seeds on productivity and efficiency: implications for policy. GlobalFood Discussion Paper 128, University of Goettingen. http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/213486.html.
• Hepelwa, A., Selejio, O. and Mduma, J. (2013). The Voucher System and the Agricultural Production in Tanzania: Is the model adopted effective? Evidence from the Panel Data analysis. Environment for Development 5 (21): 1-24.
• RLDC (2009). Rice Sector Strategy: Improving Rice Profitability through increased productivity and better marketing focusing on Tanzania’s Central Corridor.
• URT (2013). National Agricultural Policy. Dar es Salaam: Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives. 50 pp.
• URT (2014). Tanzania Agriculture, Climate Resilience Plan (ACRP), 2014-201, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and cooperatives.
• World Bank (2014). Overall total maize production in tons. [http://data. worldbank.org /indicator/AG.YLD.CREL.KG] site visited on 21/02/2016.