Tanzania is one of the three African countries selected for a 4bn/- organic agriculture project to be implemented in the Mainlanad and Zanzibar.
The project is being conducted by Institutional Innovations for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa (IIABA), part of the African Organic Network (AfrONet), projected for three and half years, costing euro1.666m and set to benefit 100,000 farmers in four districts.
Speaking at an event to launch the project, Moses Aisu, AfrONet Program Director said that already the French Development Agency (AFD) has disbursed a sum of euro 1.498m (3.810bn/-) for farmers, businessmen and processors engaged in organic agriculture with priority for farmers.
Organic and non-organic farmers from four districts of Zanzibar, Dodoma, Ruvuma and Mafia will through the project be exposed to networks of production and sourcing of organic inputs, participatory and farmer-led research on new practices and knowledge that can improve ecological and productive performances.
“Both organic and non-organic farmers are targeted. For the non-organic component the project will focus at convincing them to venture into organic agriculture,” he said.
“We expect to increase farmers’ participation in organic agriculture by five per cent by the end of the project period. Earmarked farmers are those engaged in spices, avocado, vegetable and sunflower cultivation,” said Aisu.
He asserted that from the already issued money, Tanzania will secure about 775.2m/- for the project. IIABA will consolidate and construct innovative markets at the territorial level, innovate in production guarantee systems (PGS) to create trust between producers and consumers. They will innovate in public policy processes and dialogues that can support the emergence, development and scaling of a range of organic innovations and build capacities of AfrONet members to accompany scaling up processes.
AfrONet president Jordan Gama explained that building innovative markets aims at establishing conducive and accommodative market opportunities.
The idea is for farmers at all levels to have platforms to sell their produce to willing buyers through formal and informal markets, he explained.
“The project will also uplift public policy governing the agriculture sector for influencing ecological organic agriculture,” he said.
The Isles Minister of Trade, Industry and Marketing, Amina Salum Ali, who graced the launch of the project, said this is a major opportunity for organic agriculture products destined to global markets for which Tanzania should take advantage.
So far Tanzania is a second producer of organic farm products behind Morocco, with about 270,142metric tons.
“We in Zanzibar had established a committee chaired by the president and are working on having a policy on organic farming so that different programs can be brought in. Our 2020 to 2023 mission also involves initiatives to change Zanzibar into a green island,” she said.
Frederic Clavier, the French ambassador to Tanzania, said that organic agriculture if practiced to its fullest will play a major part in resilience to climate change that results into floods and droughts, hence putting the world under the threat of hunger and desertification.
“Organic agriculture means sustainability for the agriculture sector that guarantees food security in addressing nutritional challenges. In support of organic agriculture in Zanzibar the AFD has set aside U$1.5million to empower small scale farmers of spices, and I call upon farmers to use this opportunity effectively especially by forming groups to access the funds,” the envoy urged.
On his part, Nyasebwa Chimangu, the Director of Crop Development in the Ministry of Agriculture said that the project will help the ministry in capacity building for extension officers and in linkage of organic agriculture towards the growth of the agriculture sector as a whole.
The project is funded by AFD funded by 90 per cent at euro 1.666m (4.239bn/-) and the remainder will be issued by organic agriculture
implementers in Tanzania, Uganda and Morocco, where altogether around 300,000 farmers in those countries are expected to benefit from the project.
