Samia calls to partners for help in boosting agriculture

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday urged development partners, the Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), and the private sector to assist African nations in improving the agricultural sector.

She also asked African countries to show solidarity with peers who were dealing with hunger and food insecurity for various reasons.

Speaking during a ‘Presidential Summit: Heads of State Roundtable’, which was part of the African Food Systems Forum/AGRF, President Hassan said Tanzania was ready to cooperate with development partners in utilising its investment opportunities for transforming the country’s food systems.

“I expect that the summit will come up with resolutions that will enable the continent to have sustainable food systems and allow the formulation of strategies that will enhance cooperation in addressing food and nutrition challenges among African countries,” she said.

“The resolutions should open opportunities in the agriculture sector, trade, and finance to support food systems transformation at the national level, as well as share experience in the use of technology to build sustainable food systems in the areas of production, soil health, value addition, research, and marketing,” she added.

Furthermore, she said the resolutions should strengthen regional trade, food security, and sustainability, as well as work on the promise to address the challenge of unemployment among the youth.

She expressed optimism that every country will come out with individual strategies and plans that will support implementation.

Speaking about the continent’s food production trend, President Hassan said the continent’s richness in resources placed it in a position to provide food system solutions to the world.

“The continent is blessed with 65 percent of conducive land for agriculture production, 60 percent of the youth among its population, and excessive water in its large lakes and rivers,” she said.

She said the continent is blessed with lucrative deposits of minerals that could generate enough income for sustainable agricultural funding, noting, however, that the continent has remained complacent instead of finding solutions ahead of the green economy revolution.

The head of state said an estimated 283 million Africans are reported to go hungry every day, leading to malnutrition and other nutrition-related diseases.

“Worse enough, there are some who die due to lack of food. This is shameful and unacceptable,” observed the President.

She said it was high time African leaders assessed their priorities, compared them with the current demands in the wide context of the world, realised the intended food system transformations, and made the sector take the people to Africa we want.

Furthermore, she listed several measures that Tanzania has taken to simplify and fasten trade with other countries, especially through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

President Hassan said some products are traded through AfCFTA among some African countries, including Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Rwanda, and Tunisia.

She commended the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) for pumping Sh60 billion into the implementation of different agriculture projects between 2006 and 2016.

Furthermore, she said Agra also injected Sh20 billion for the execution of the Agriculture Sector Development Plan (ASDP II) between 2017 and 2021.

Welcoming President Hassan, Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe said Tanzania required $2 billion to fund the six-year Building Better Tomorrow (BBT) programme for the country’s youth.

“During the fund-raising spearheaded by the President of Zanzibar, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, today (yesterday), $100 million was committed by the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Agra committed $60 million and $40 million, respectively,” he said.

He said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and other stakeholders committed their support to the formulation of the Agricultural Sector Master Plan (ASMP) and the opening of the Agriculture Transformation Office in the country.

Meanwhile, President William Ruto of Kenya yesterday shed light on the food trade with Tanzania, which often fluctuates due to new regulations.

Addressing the African Food Systems Forum (AGRF) yesterday, Dr Ruto said Tanzania would continue to be a main source of cereals for his country.

He said that with nearly two-thirds of Kenya being prone to severe droughts, food importation was a critical factor in the food security agenda.

“In Tanzania, you have plenty of rain to grow food, unlike in our country,” he told a presidents’ segment of the four-day forum at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC).

The Kenyan leader, who will mark one year in office next week, admitted that the high cost of food was one of the main issues during the last polls in Kenya.

He challenged the African governments not to take food cultivation for granted and instead invest in food production in every possible way.

At least 65 percent of the uncultivated arable land in the world is in Africa, yet the continent leads in the number of hungry people.

Dr Ruto said in a session attended by leaders from Burundi and Senegal that the food trade between his country and neighbouring Tanzania has not been without challenges.

“There are some problems at the borders. There are just a few border officials frustrating this,” he pointed out, noting that the solution to the crisis has often hit a brick wall.

He implored the government technocrats in East Africa to ensure borderlines between states remained facilitative rather than hurdles for cross-border trade.

He attributed the poor farm harvests in Africa to the failure to embrace the right technologies targeting smallholder farmers.

According to him, between 30 and 40 percent of crops in Africa were damaged after harvests, noting that the drawback must be addressed.

Burundi’s president, Mr Evariste Ndyashimiye, said Africa should modernise its farming systems to meet the growing demand for food.

The Burundi leader, who is also the current Chair of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit,

The Zanzibar President, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, said his country has embarked on the Blue Economy to put more food on the table and money in the pockets of its people.

He said that despite its potential, seaweed farming has not been taken seriously by the Zanzibaris, who have limited land to cultivate food crops.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) minister of Climate Climate Change and Environment, Ms Mariam Almheiri, said her government will grant $4.5 billion for renewable energy projects in Africa.

The Norwegian minister for International Development Ms Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, slammed the developed countries for not supporting the poor countries in addressing food insecurity.

“It is absurd that we have invested in sending tourists to space, yet we have failed to feed people,” she said during discussions on nutritional benefits.

She said strategies to combat hunger should go alongside efforts to tame malnutrition, which is also behind the high mortality and morbidity rates in poor countries.

Ms Tvinnereim implored the African governments to turn to the continent’s rich aquatic resources to produce enough food for the constrained people.

She said the animal protein from fish was the best to be consumed for the improved nutritional status of the people, noting that Tanzania was better placed with its long coastline and its inland lakes and rivers.

The minister emphasised that Norway was ready to support African countries in investing in food production among small-scale farmers and fishermen rather than in space exploration.

“It is absurd that we have invested in sending tourists to space, yet we have failed to feed people,” she said during discussions on nutritional benefits.

She said strategies to combat hunger should go alongside efforts to tame malnutrition, which is also behind the high mortality and morbidity rates in poor countries.

Ms Tvinnereim implored the African governments to turn to the continent’s rich aquatic resources to produce enough food for the constrained people.