Posted on October, 27, 2021 at 08:48 am
World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed commitment to supporting small scale farmers of organic sorghum in accessing markets outside the country so that they sell their produce at good prices.
To walk the talk, it has linked almost 22,000 small scale farmers of organic sorghum from three districts of Dodoma region to a South Sudan.
WFP's head of sub-office and programme policy officer in Dodoma, Neema Sitta said they make it work through the Climate Smart Agriculture programme funded by the Irish government.
She said the programme has enabled the farmers to access markets through private buyers and companies saying as for sorghum they link them with South Sudan buyers since the commodity is their staple food.
Ms Sitta said farmers have so far sold sorghum worth over 9bn/- to South Sudan since January this year and the districts which are the beneficiaries of the projects include Kongwa, Bahi and Mpwapwa.
The programme is part of the WFP Country Strategic Plan for 2017/22.
Almost 203 villages of the 700 Dodoma region villages have been reached whereas apart from educating smallholder farmers to practice climate smart agriculture they are linked directly to the buyers.
As a result, the farmers sold a kilogram of sorghum at 550/- instead of 250/- that they used to receive prior to the programme. WFP and its funding partners have been spending 1.75bn/- every year for the programme.
"Our supply chain component favours purchasing of local agricultural commodities and supply as well as link them to other countries in the region. This is especially for the WFP refugee programme. Since the past ten years, the agency has purchased over 700,000 tons of maize and beans for refugees and neighbouring countries," she added.
She Sitta noted that in its second Country Strategic Plan for 2022/27, WFP will feature sunflower farmers because the government is focusing on the cash crop as it has good market potential within and outside the country.
Ms Sitta said among the challenges that sorghum farmers facing is shortage of seeds and the WFP started by initiating a seed production facility in the region.
Source: DAILY NEWS