Economy
Mwanza is arguably the fastest growing settlement in Tanzania; with substantial growth in financial, industrial and local investment sectors. However, the economy of the city; and the region, as a whole, is dominated by smallholder agriculture employing about 85 per cent of the region’s population and complemented by an expanding fisheries sector.
The region has traditionally been one of Tanzania’s main producing area for cotton. For the past two decades cotton production has declined basically due to low profitability and inefficient marketing arrangements. It is believed that fisheries activities in the region lead in terms of foreign exchange earning contribution to the region’s economy. Commercial fishing is carried out by big fishing companies using modern fishing gear and vessels. Agriculture takes second position followed by mining in recent days. The region holds a large proportion of the country’s livestock; about 13 percent (District Integrated Agricultural Survey, 1998/99 - National Report, February 2000). The region’s rural population is relatively poor and conditions are worsening due to high population density and consequent land shortage, exacerbated by erratic rainfall patterns in many parts of the region. Major food crops in the region are maize, cassava, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes and legumes (beans/peas). Maize, cassava and sweet potatoes constitute about 71 per cent of all food crops grown in the region. The region in most times is unable to feed itself; food has to be imported from other regions. Surplus production realized in Geita and some parts of Sengerema fail to bridge the food gap. Paddy and maize play a dual role in being food crops, which can also be sold if a surplus is generated or if cash is needed urgently. Cotton and paddy have both been major cash crops in the region over the past 50–60 years.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)