In the United Republic of Tanzania which has a population of 50 million, rice is the second most important crop, mainly grown by farmers as a cash crop for local and regional markets. The country also ranks second within East, Central, and Southern Africa in terms of rice production and consumption after Madagascar. Rice is accounts for about 19.5% of the country’s annual cereal production, of which smallholder farmers produce around 90 percent under continuous flooding with average farm size and yield of 1.3 hectares and 2.5tonnes/ha, respectively. The crop has a per capita consumption of 25 kg per year, accounting for around 9 percent of the nation’s calorie intake. In terms of trade, rice is the most traded crop than any other food crop in Tanzania, around 42 percent of all rice produced is marketed, of which majority of farmers sell unhusked rice to traders and millers (Nkuba et al., 2016). Rice production is carried out by 2million smallholder farmers countrywide (RCTs, 2015). Seed usage is around 2% of annual production. The national strategic reserves are around 300,000 tonnes annually, and the average closing stock is around 120,000 tonnes.

a. Use above information to generate Tanzania’s food balance sheet for rice , a comment on trade policy implications of the food surplus/deficit situation based on the data above and your assumptions.