The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has launched a five-year strategic plan to enhance inclusive and competitive markets in Tanzania.
Development Diaries reports that the plan seeks to benefit about three million Tanzanian farmers directly, especially in rural communities.
About 10 million people in rural pollution in Tanzania live in poverty and 3.4 million live in extreme poverty, compared to less than 1.9 million living in poverty and 750,000 people in extreme poverty in the urban sector, according to a 2015 report by the World Bank.
Also, smallholder farmers in Tanzania contribute to over 75 percent of the country’s total agricultural outputs, according to TanzaniaInvest.
Addressing audience at the launch of the strategy document, AGRA’s Regional Head for East Africa, Jean Muhinda, said the plan seeks to empower communities through the creation of job opportunities for youths and women while expanding the market value chain.
‘The strategic plan we are launching today is our third cycle of investment in the country. Out of the 11 countries supported in the last Strategy (2017–2022), Tanzania, together with Burkina Faso in West Africa, are the two countries that received the highest resources’, he said.
‘We wish to match resources and co-invest together in areas of market development, building resilience of farming systems, creation of work opportunities for youth and women, access to finance by value chain actors, trade of agricultural commodities domestically and regionally’.
For his part, the Chair of the Presidential Food and Agriculture Council, Mizengi Pinda, highlighted the need for the country to prioritise the development and improvement of food systems to create sustainable livelihoods and uplift communities.
Photo source: USAID
