AGRA: striving to increase farmers' incomes, food security

In order to realise this goal, AGRA has focused on developing the economic potential of the small farmer.

This has been done through provision of high quality seeds, sustaining soil fertility and provision of storage facilities to reduce loss of harvests.

The focus has also been on provision of credit facilities for agricultural inputs as well as securing markets that would provide fair prices for the farmer's surplus.

In a broad sense AGRA has identified the missing link and the shortcomings that have made Africa fail to achieve a green revolution and is taking measures to address them.

"In this endeavour, together with partners in the public and private sectors, AGRA has been able to reach out to 15 million small farmers and thousands of locally owned agricultural businesses," the institution says in one of its recent publications.

In collaboration with her partners, AGRA has been able to deliver new economic opportunities to African farmers, their families and rural communities in line with its vision of doubling yields and incomes for 30 million households.

Tanzania is one of the beneficiaries of a more ambitious phase that seeks to provide solutions to problems faced by small-scale farmers while at the same time addressing concerns of local agricultural businesses.

The new phase would engage a series of comprehensive, coordinated initiatives and policies in order to double the incomes and yields of small-scale farmers by 2020.

Recently, AGRA has launched a new initiative, the Inclusive Green Growth of the Smallholder Agriculture (IGGSAS) Programme in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT).

The five-year programme which will be implemented in partnership with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims at increasing incomes and food security for at least 30,000 small-farmers in Mbeya region by 2020.

Specifically, the programme will be implemented in Chunya, Mbozi and Momba districts.

Among other things, IGGSAS focuses on strengthening the value chains of cereals, oilseeds and legumes in order to operate more efficiently while increasing access to inputs and knowledge of agricultural practices among smallholder farmers.

"The partnership with the Norwegian government is a great opportunity for AGRA to scale up its work in Tanzania, a country that has tremendous potential as a bread basket," said AGRA President Dr Agnes Kalibata.

"For the last nine years we have worked in Tanzania to cultivate a broad alliance of public and private sector partners who are working together to unlock the potential of Tanzania's smallholder farmers and help them move beyond subsistence to earn income from their hard work."

She was speaking at the launch of the programme held in Dar es Salaam recently that also marked the start of AGRA’s new five-year Tanzania Business Plan.

Over the past nine years, AGRA has given 95 grants to Tanzania worth $49m from various donors.

"The Norwegian government is pleased to support this innovative Public-Private-Partnership. Broad and inclusive growth in Tanzania must include the agricultural sector, and AGRA's pro-poor and climate-smart approach and focus on linking small-scale farmer to off-takers and markets is key to inclusive and sustainable development," said Tone Skogen, Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at the ceremony to launch the IGGSAS programme

In July 2015, her ministry awarded AGRA a grant of NOK 9m (1.2m) to implement a one year inception phase of the IGGSAS Programme in the SAGCOT with YARA International as a key partner. The inception period started on July 1, 2015 and will conclude by the end of June this year.

During this period, AGRA is expected to put in place the systems and structures in terms of human capital and resources and pilot the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Small-scale farmers in Tanzania, as in many other parts of Africa, lack access to modern inputs, are at risk from climate change, and remain locked out of international markets.

“The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor addresses these issues by linking farmers to modern supply chains and making agriculture a profitable activity in a country where more than 75 per cent of the population is engaged in the sector.

We promise a transformation in fortunes thousands of Tanzanian farmers working in the corridor, which boasts rich farmland and infrastructure including roads, rail, power and an international port in Dar es Salaam,” said Geoffrey Kirenga, CEO of SAGCOT Centre Ltd.

The corridor could feed the East African region and become a major agricultural exporter to rival the likes of Brazil.

The IGGSAS Programme is supported by a public-private partnership of global agricultural businesses, international development agencies, farmers' groups and the government of Tanzania.

Through this initiative, tens of thousands of subsistence farmers would have opportunities to become profitable, commercial farmers in their own right, with access to modern inputs, irrigation and international markets.

Besides tripling the three districts’ agricultural output, the initiative will see approximately 350,000 hectares brought into profitable production, tens of thousands of smallholders becoming commercial farmers with access to irrigation and weather insurance, and at least 420,000 new employment opportunities created in the agricultural value chain.

Moreover, more than two million people will permanently be freed from poverty as annual farming revenues rise to USD1.2 billion.

“Here in Tanzania, agriculture continues to be the backbone of the economy; it is the biggest employer, a leading foreign exchange earner and source of food for the population.

The sector contributes 25 per cent of the GDP and employs 75 per cent of the population, whose majority are women in rural areas,” said AGRA President in her speech, stressing the need for the IGGSAS to ensure that women are at the centre of the programme.

She explained that in 10years of operations AGRA has learnt that when a lot of challenges African farmers face are addressed at once, when they get access to improved crop varieties, fertilizers, finance, and market opportunities, progress will be rapid and sustainable.

“This type of integrated approach has helped 20,000 farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania where farmers tripled their yields in just two seasons.

We’re seeing in Tanzania and other countries aggregation centres run by farmer organizations and warehouse receipt systems that are giving smallholder farmers the competitive edge in the market,” Dr Kalibata said.

AGRA has built networks of local institutions delivering services to more than 15 million smallholder farmers across 18 countries; has supported over 100 new seed and fertilizer businesses, 25,000 agro-dealers and released over 500 varieties of locally adapted seeds necessary to spark the shift from subsistence to surplus.

“The stage is set for rapid progress, and so AGRA is now taking the knowledge gained in seeds, soils and markets - along with finance and policy - and pushing for a full package of solutions in agriculture for many more smallholder farmers across Africa,” the AGRA President said.