RATIN

Best Practices to Uplift Agriculture in the offing

Posted on May, 20, 2016 at 09:15 am


By Maureen Odunga

Government is committed to adopt best practices which can accommodate climate change impacts to boost the agricultural sector in the country.

This remark was made in Dar es Salaam yesterday by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr Florens Turuka, during a Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Guidelines National Validation Workshop.

"Agriculture contributes a large percentage on the economy of the country but currently the sector is facing a big challenge caused by the impacts of climate change such as floods, droughts and pests," he said.

To overcome challenges caused by climate change, in October last year the ministry in collaboration with the UN Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) and CARE-Tanzania had organised National Climate Change Agriculture Workshop.

The aim was to share evidence and experience on Climate Agriculture in Tanzania in order to build a case for accelerating the adoption of CSA. "Today (yesterday) experts are meeting to validate the final draft of CSA guidelines indicating the identification of key requirements, suitable technologies and successful implementation.

"The guidelines will enhance agricultural production as well as help to monitor the impacts of CSA and facilitate planning for up-scaling CSA technologies and practices," Dr Turuka noted.

He said the move will spearhead more investment in agriculture, noting that implementation of CSA is going to begin soon during the 2016/17 financial year. FAO Representative in Tanzania, Patrick Otto, pointed out that adoption of the guidelines will streamline the implementation process.

"It is expected that CSA guidelines will assist in the planning of increased agricultural productivity combined with sustainable use of natural resources and enhance ecosystem management, which in turn will result in improvement of people's livelihoods and poverty alleviation in the country," he said.

FAO will remain committed to supporting the promotion and up scaling of CSA. On her part, the Head of Environment Management Unit at the same ministry, Shakwaanande Natai, said "we have devised an awareness creation programme which is aimed at shedding light on CSA starting from the central government to individual farmers from the grassroots."

"This programme, which will be ready next month, will assist farmers to conduct our activities in line with climate change that includes the kind of crops to be cultivated and the technology to be applied," she said.

Source: Daily News