The week of 11-17 May culminated into a meeting with the
President of the Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete in Dar es
Salaam on Friday 16 May. The president set a casual tone for the discussions
but made all the salient points regarding his vision of smallholder agriculture
in Tanzania. For example, mechanisation and improved agricultural technologies,
investment in research to ensure development of viable inputs for farmers, as
well as a conducive policy environment that allows for responsible Public
Private Partnerships that benefit smallholders.
There were 8 board members – representatives of Finland,
Angola, Nigeria, Switzerland, Indonesia, Netherlands, China, and Mexico. On the
visit was also the ESA Regional Director, 2 members of the Independent Office
of Evaluation, and IFAD Country Office. The visit was hosted by the
IFAD Governor, Tanzania's Minister of Agriculture, Hon C. Chiza
To set the pace of the visit, Francisco Pichon shared a presentation
about IFAD work in Tanzania and the agenda for the week. On
12May, we travelled to Arusha for a discussion on regional cross-border trade for agricultural products in East Africa, with the East African
Community . Kilimo Trust participated in this meeting to show how
the proposed IFAD grant project will facilitate regional market access
for the small scale farmers. We were taken to the Kenya-Tanzania border post of
Holili, where a One-stop customs system is set to start operating soon. One-stop
customs unit will reduce the amount of time spent on the road, and for
agricultural produce which are perishable, this is good news.
From Arusha, we headed to Kibaya Kiteto, to meet the Masaai
cattle keepers' community who have been supported with better access to clean water. The
weather was cloudy and we could not land at the pre-planned airstrip (which is
close to the village we were visiting). As such, we ended up in Dodoma and had
to travel for a little over three hours by road to get there. It was well worth
it meeting the community members and hearing their story of how access to water
has helped reduce the spread of trachoma, as well as removed the need to move
every season in search for water.
After Katikati, it was back to Dar es Salaam, and
then off to Zanzibar the next morning after a roundtable meeting with the Minister of Agricuture, State Minister for investment from the Office of the Prime Minister, and Permanent Secretaries from various ministries. In Zanzibar, we were hosted to a dinner by the second Vice President, Hon
Seif Ali Idd. The following morning, we met the President of Zanzibar, HE Ali
Mohammed Shein, who applauded IFAD for supporting Farmer Field Schools and said
these were transforming rural subsistence farmers into commercial farmers. We
then had a chance to visit the Farmer Field Schools. We visited the dairy FFS
and the Cassava FFS.Farmers shared their experiences,
opportunities, and challenges with members of the board.
Back to Dar es Salaam. There was a meeting with the
officials from the Ministries of Agriculture, the Office of the Prime
Minister, and private sector partners to discuss
different policy initiatives such as Big Results Now (BRN), and Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGGOT). These
have been put in place to boost agriculture and transform rural subsistence
farmers into commercial ones.
All together, it was an unforgettable week for both the
hosts and the guests, as a cross section of issues was covered – the
implementation modalities of IFAD supported projects, the policy environment, and working in close
collaboration with other UN agencies in country. The last meeting of the
visit was with the Tanzania UN Country Team.
You can read about the #ifadeb visit in the press on these links: 1,
2, 3, 4. We shall share details of the discussions and field visits in the next blog on the #ifadeb visit.
0 comments