SAGCOT partners endorse agricultural development initiative in Tanzania

DAILY NEWS Reporter in Mbeya

MOST of the development partners, including bilateral and multilateral partners have commended the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), saying it has potential to spearhead the country’s economic growth.

Speaking separately at the launching of the SAGCOT’s Mbarali Cluster in Mbeya recently, the development partners promised to continue funding the agricultural initiative, saying it was likely to lift millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty.

A Senior Agricultural Specialist at the World Bank, Madam Sarah Simons said she was pleased to see that SAGCOT was moving away from the traditional approaches in agriculture to the whole value chain for looking at a more diversified crops that have a relatively high return for investment.

“I am particularly keen on the value chain, moving away from the traditional approaches which focus on staple food crops to a more diversified crops that have a relatively high return for the investment,” she said.

The Head of Cooperation at the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Mr Trygve Bendiksby said he was quite convinced that SAGCOT will bring more value for the country’s development and raise the income of small holder farmers.

The Director of Economic Growth at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mr Randy Chester said it was a good initiative that brings on board the government, development partners and the private sector to promote development in agriculture.

“We are pleased to see the government of Tanzania, the private sector and donor community coming together to promote private sector led agricultural development in the corridor,” he said.

On her part, Berth Arthy, the Head of the Department for International Development (DFID) said the United Kingdom was funding the initiative because of the potential it has in terms of prosperity and impact to helping small holder farmers.

“We do this because we are quite convinced that agriculture has got such important potential for Tanzania in terms of its prosperity and for helping small holder farmers out of poverty” she said.

The Executive Secretary of the SAGCOT Catalytic Trust Fund, Mr John Kyaruzi said launching of a new Mbarali Cluster was an important milestone in terms of widening the number of small holder farmers to be supported to maximize agricultural opportunity’s value chain