PASS, WFP partner in ambitious maize production project

DAILY NEWS Reporter

PRIVATE Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) envisages reaching 345,000 entrepreneurs in agricultural sector this year, with projected guaranteed loans of 114bn/-.

PASS Managing Director Mr Nicomed Bohay said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the organisation will, under the PPP, partner with the World Food Programme (WFP) to support maize farmers in Songea, Mbeya, Iringa, Morogoro, Dodoma, Manyara and Arusha to access farm inputs--fertilizers, seeds and agrochemicals to increase productivity.

“The arrangement targets almost 50,000 farmers who will receive loans, with priority being on areas where there are active supply-side players to allow cost sharing on the field, extension and risk mitigation activities,” he said.

Special attention will be on the Patient Procurement Platform (PPP) that seeks to develop scalable and affordable linkages and instruments for farmers while ensuring commercial viability for the private sector.

The PPP will focus on building technological interventions to increase scale and sustainability in post harvest operations. The project will work with stakeholders along the value chain to increase the overall size of the value pool created under the platform.

And, the UN food organisation will use its market knowledge and field presence as a catalyst to link smallholder farmers to its demand, private sector food procurement companies and government reserves through multi-year engagement.

WFP spends some 2.4trn/- (1.2 billion US dollar) in annual purchases, 50 per cent of which is procured from countries where the agency operates, creating local economy multiplier effects.

The platform therefore will leverage supply chain efficiencies through a variety of farmer aggregation models.

PASS, a non-banking financial organisation that facilitates provision of business development and financial services, was established in 2000 under the Agricultural Sector Program Support.

It operated as a project until 2007 when it was registered as a trust, with similar mission to facilitate commercialisation of subsistence farming. It as well operates as credit guarantee to commercial farmers and agri-businesses that run small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Its main focus is to facilitate value chain financing, covering all needs of agro-entrepreneurs.