Tanzania’s BBT to allocate land to youth for agriculture
President Samia Suluhu Hassan
What you need to know:
- The innovative government programme, which focuses on young men and women has established a Youth Guarantee scheme and Loan Facility for youth under the Agricultural Input Trust Fund.
Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said government is set to allocate up to 10 acres for qualified youth, which they will end up owning.
This is in efforts to widen youth engagement in agriculture with the government ready to give them access to land ownership to ensure their economic empowerment.
Tanzania is currently in the process of recruiting the first batch of youths who will be enrolled in the middle of February 2023 for a three-month training programme after which they will be allocated land for agricultural purposes.
President Samia was speaking on Wednesday, while answering a question on how to make agriculture attractive to youth, access to land, technology and finance during the official opening of a three-day Second Africa Food Summit in Dakar, Senegal.
The Second Dakar summit under the theme Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience—takes place amid supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a part of Tanzanian government’s ‘Building a Better Tomorrow’ (BBT) programme, President Samia said selected youth will be allocated up to 10 acres each, which they will end up owning.
The innovative government programme, which focuses on young men and women has established a Youth Guarantee scheme and Loan Facility for youth under the Agricultural Input Trust Fund.
The head of state said Tanzania decided to establish the scheme because many youth have lacked access to land and agricultural financing.
Since its adaption in the last six months, ‘Building a Better Tomorrow’ programme has already secured a total of 600, 000 hectares and land clearance is ongoing.
Samia made assurance of achieving a 10 per cent annual growth rate in the agricultural sector by 2030 compared to the current growth of around 3.6 per cent, as part of Tanzania’s ambitious agricultural transformation vision.
In another development, President Hassan’s efforts to bring agricultural sector reforms has received a huge boost after African Development Bank Group’s decision to commit a $120 million (about Sh280 billion) package for the sector, with focus on four value chains through irrigation and logistics hubs.
Also, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has committed $10 billion over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food provider for itself and the rest of the world.
AfDB President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, announced at the summit, calling on more than 34 heads of state, 70 government ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners, and corporate executives to work out compacts that would deliver food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa.
