Tanzanian food producers, vendors and traders need direct relief measures in the face of the Covid-19
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
Abstract
Key messages
• Tanzania’s responses to Covid-19 pandemic have
shifted over time. An initial ambiguous position refrained
from imposing hard lockdown restrictions measures and
focused on local remedies. In the second year of the
pandemic, and under new political leadership, this has
given way to the promotion of a national vaccination
programme.
• Despite the absence of any significant hard lockdown
measures in the country, Tanzania’s food producers,
vendors and traders faced disrupted domestic food
markets and were locked out of the regional market. As
a result, these food-system actors incurred significant
business losses during the two first waves of the
pandemic.
• Although food producers, vendors and traders play a
central role in sustaining national food security their
interests have not been properly considered in the
development and implementation of official Covid-19
relief measures.
• Women and youth constitute the majority of food system
actors, including in the production and trade of food, and
were thus disproportionately harmed by the disruption of
the system.
• The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of
regional and international trade frameworks and the
critical need for top-level diplomatic and political
solutions to strengthen national and African food
systems and the livelihoods of food system actors in
Tanzania and the continent more broadly.
Description
Keywords
Food producers, COVID-19, Vendors, Tanzania, Traders, Relief measures
Citation
Sulle, E., et al. 2021. Tanzanian food producers, vendors and traders need direct relief measures in the face of the Covid-19 (Policy Brief). PLAAS, UWC