Arusha | Tanzania’s government has set aside Tzs 1.248 trillion ($500,000) to transform its agricultural sector into agroecology and climate-smart agriculture over three years.
Gerald Geofry Mweli, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, made the revelation during a conference at the Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania, on June 5, 2024.
Addressing philanthropies, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, and government officials from other East African countries, the permanent secretary revealed that Tanzania’s government has budgeted Tzs 1.248 trillion for the fiscal year 2024/2025 to transform its agricultural sector to agroecology.
“We have revised our laws and policies to provide a conducive environment for investment, including Public Private Partnerships and opening up more export markets for agriculture products.”
He noted that the government had only allocated Tzs290 billion in 2021, but after recognising the relevance and need, the budget was increased.
“The government of Tanzania is in the process of transforming its agriculture to agroecology farming. In the process of transforming our agricultures sector, our aim is to provide stable food systems that address food security, and income in our communities. This is critical due to the correlation between agriculture and prosperity, and between agriculture and poverty,” he said
According to the PS, the government has set six priorities for achieving the transformation agenda, which include training small-scale farmers, assisting small-scale farmers in gaining access to inputs such as fertilisers, expanding markets for agroecological products, mainstreaming agroecology and farmer sensitization, and strengthening coordination and implementation.
“Our transformation master plan aims to ensure farmers increase areas under irrigation to reach 1.2 million hectares and set aside 2 million hectares for agroecological practices, we also intend to increase farmers’ accessibility to financial services by 2030 through the digital solution and increase extension services workers by 16,000. We aim to increase our exports to $ 5 million from $ 2.3 million,” Mweli added.
He urged the various stakeholders in the agroecological sector to collaborate with Tanzania’s government on its transformation agenda.
“We want to increase domestic seed production from 13% to 56.5% of demand which will also embrace farmer-managed seeds and Indigenous plant genetic resources.”
Mwatima Juma, chair of the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement, noted that the government’s efforts to transition from conventional agriculture to agroecology are a positive step.
“You have created hope, and this convening gives a lot of hope to me and many other small-scale farmers in Tanzia,” Juma said.
Frison Emile, senior advisor to agroecology coalitions, believes there are still opportunities to raise additional funds to finance the transition to regenerative, agroecology, and food systems transformation.
“There are different new things that have been established for example the agroecology fund which brings together 50 different foundations contributing to that fund has established a regional fund for East Africa to particularly fund grassroots organizations that play a big role and are neglected in big rounds funding which is being given to the government,” Emile said.
Background
According to the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2019/20, Tanzania has 33.9 million cattle, 24.5 million goats, 8.5 million sheep, and 87.7 million poultry.
Furthermore, the 2020 Economic Survey Report indicates that the livestock sector accounts for 27 percent of the agricultural sector’s contribution to GDP, with beef accounting for 40 percent, dairy accounting for 30 percent, and other livestock products such as eggs, hides, and skin accounting for the remaining 30%.
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