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Tanzanian government and AGRA to collaborate to grow agribusiness in the country


May 6, 2015

Farmers in Tanzania are set to benefit, after the Government of Tanzania and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) signed a new agreement to strengthen their partnership in transforming the country’s agricultural sector.

Under the new agreement, AGRA and the Tanzania Government will jointly identify and resource priority growth areas, and AGRA and its partners will provide not just financial resources but also technical know-how.  

The five-year agreement was signed by the Permanent Secretary, Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mrs  Sophia Kaduma, and AGRA President Dr Agnes Kalibata at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam.

The agreement is significant because it formalizes the working relationship between Tanzania and AGRA, and outlines how the ongoing initiatives will be scaled up. 

Mrs Kaduma said the formalisation would bring in greater gains for food security and making farming more profitable for small scale farmers.   

“AGRA has been a committed partner in helping us as a country to prod up agriculture development.

“The Memorandum of Understanding will take the partnership to a new level,” she said adding that AGRA has been a committed partner in helping the country to push agriculture development saying the signed agreement will take the partnership to the new level.

So far AGRA has been supporting the Government’s “Kilimo Kwanza” initiative through increasing the availability of well-adapted crop varieties, building the technical capacities of various agribusiness partners such as seed companies and agrodealers, and most recently launching new crop storage technologies to cater for the 2014 bumper harvest.

AGRA has invested almost US$ 48m on projects throughout Tanzania since 2007.

The Government of Tanzania has prioritized agricultural development as a key economic driver, and is devoting resources and developing new partnerships to promote profitable farming and agribusiness in the country.

“This partnership with AGRA has been very beneficial so far in boosting agricultural productivity in the country. We are confident that through the new agreement, we will have the resources and capabilities to do even more: not just funding but technical know-how,” said Dr Agnes Kalibata at the signing: “Tanzania has immense growth potential in agriculture which can be harnessed to benefit millions of smallholder farmers and improve their livelihoods and food security. AGRA is looking forward to cooperating with the Government to make this a reality.”

In the past few months, the new storage technologies introduced by AGRA and the Rockefeller Foundation to farmers in Ruvuma, Mbeya, Njombe areas have made a huge difference in preventing grain losses that would have been worth billions of TSh for hundreds of thousands of farmers.

These technologies ensure that insect pests do not get a chance to destroy stored maize. They have included hermetic bags, metal silos and cocoons. So far farmers are very happy with the results from using these new technologies.



More news from: AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa)


Website: http://www.agra-alliance.org

Published: May 6, 2015

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