US injects $5 million to boost food security in Tanzania

Speaking here yesterday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power explained that the $5 million, among other things, is meant to empower local food growers.

The farmers will be enabled to invest in proper irrigation systems, farm inputs, storage facilities, agricultural machinery, and offsetting effects of climate change.

“I am very aware that local food producers are also working hard to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected global supply chains,” added Ms Power.

During her itinerary, she visited horticultural farms in the Ilkiding’a Village of Arumeru District, where she met and held talks with local farmers, especially women growers.

Ms Power also met with the aspiring young farmers being incubated under the state-supported ‘Build a Better Tomorrow,’ (BBT) programme.

The Secretary of the Association of Arusha Onion Growers (UVIWAVA), Eva Petro Mollel, said of late more women have been joining commercial farming activities, something that used to be impossible in the past.

“As per traditions, women were not allowed to own land or engage in activities that went beyond domestic chores,” she pointed out.

“And when it comes to irrigation farming, this is usually a night activity when peasants are compelled to trek long distances at dusk to open the water gates for drenching the farms and close them after irrigation,” Eva explained. She stated that for women to wake up in the middle of the night to irrigate the land is something that many husbands would not have tolerated in the past, but nowadays they have been enlightened and even escort their wives, sometimes even undertaking the duties themselves.

Taha Group CEO Jacqueline Mkindi revealed that the organization has been working with USAID to empower local farmers in Tanzania.

“Nowadays, farming is all about markets, and with the assistance of USAID, we are working to secure local and overseas markets for Tanzanian horticultural producers,” she stated.