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New Kilimo Trust strategy to impact 1.5 million farmers
Dar es Salaam. Kilimo Trust, a not-for-profit organisation working in agriculture for development in East Africa has launched its five-year strategic plan (2023 – 2028) yesterday.
The organisation said in a statement yesterday that the new strategy will prioritise agricultural transformation and resilience, effective and efficient project implementation, resource mobilisation, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
The launch event was graced by dignitaries from the government and funding partners such as The IKEA Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), MasterCard Foundation.
Kilimo Trust’s CEO Dr Birungi Korutaro said the organisation will continue to work with the vast network of stakeholders including small and medium-scale farmers, women, people with disabilities, youth, farmer institutions and other value chain actors.
Dr Korutaro was quoted saying that, “The new strategy is well aligned with the seven Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are: No poverty, Zero Hunger, Good health and wellbeing, Gender equality, Decent work and economic growth and Industry, innovation and infrastructure, and Climate action,”
Kilimo Trust also highlighted that it will build on lessons learnt in sustainable agricultural practices and continue equipping actors in the sector with timely information and cutting-edge innovations in mitigating the emerging effects of climate change.
Another area of focus will be on contributing towards enhanced food systems and nutritional security, food quality and access to high value markets, among others.
“The organisation aims to impact almost a million and a half farmers, create over 10,000 meaningful jobs, support over 1,000 small and medium enterprises and work to establish more than 5,000 business linkages,” the statement reads.
“It is expected that over $100 million will be accessed by farmers and other value chain actors through this work,” it added.
In the past five years of its operations, Kilimo Trust achieved considerable milestones that contributed to the SDGs such as creating jobs for over 5,000 farmers and other value chain actors while over 200,000 household’s accessed 3 meals per day through its interventions.
Close to a million households accessed nutritious and safe food and over 15,000 women in agriculture were empowered through tailored capacity building and mentorship programs.
