New agreement signed to boost the cooperation
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania. 30 April 2015 –The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Thursday Evening, 30th April 2015 signed a new agreement that will see Tanzanian smallholder farmers benefit from initiatives geared towards making their farming more profitable.
The new 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 brief 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 offering vital support –to the agriculture sector in the country.
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 in Tanzania since 2007.
The Tanzania Government 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.”
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.
A second agreement was also signed on implementation of Micro reforms for African Agribusiness (MIRA ) project.
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.
Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Permanent Secretary, Sophia Elias Kaduma (r ) exchanges documents with the President of Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa ( AGRA), Dr. Agnes Kalibata, shortly after they had signed two memorandum of understandings in Dar es Salaam yesterday.According to AGRA President Dr Agnes kalibata, the MOUs were on cooperations in the field of agricuture and the other was on framework agreement on implementation of Micro reforms for African Agribusiness (MIRA ) project.
New agreement signed to boost the cooperation