PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan 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 the country’s ambitious agricultural transformation vision.
According to the president, Tanzania has developed a national pathway for food system transformation, which is expected to strengthen local production, improve livelihoods, help mitigate and adapt to climate change.
She made the remarks in her speech as a panelist at a session on ‘Food Action Partnership: Investing in Greater Resilience’, yesterday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
In implementing a sustainable food system in Tanzania, President Samia said a number of efforts have been done, including establishing a programme for youth, while continuing to build on the successful work of agricultural growth corridors such as the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT).
“From this financial year, Tanzania’s budget for the agriculture sector was increased four times from the previous budget. Tanzania also plans to host Africa’s Food Systems Forum this September to showcase progress and learning,” noted President Samia.
Budget allocation for the agriculture sector has increased to a whopping 954bn/- for the financial year 2022/2023 up from 294bn/-, which was allocated during the previous fiscal year.
The Food Action Alliance session convened more than 50 leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to accelerate partnerships and investments for greater resilience at country-level.
Among the panellists scheduled to speak on achieving food system goals were President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment from Vietnam and the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Alvaro Lario in Rome.
In another development, while speaking with investors, development stakeholders and leaders of AfCFTA on the sidelines of the WEF 2023, President Samia pledged to reinforce collaboration with development stakeholders as well as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) members.
She guaranteed the stakeholders to find and get solutions on investment challenges, so as to increase Africa productivity.
The assurance comes on the back drop of Tanzania’s official submission of its ratification of the AfCFTA agreement to the African Union Commission (AUC) in January last year, enabling the country to gain access to a market of over 1.3 billion people across the continent.
A move which is anticipated to foster the free movement of goods, services, and people across borders and help meet the continent’s enormous economic potential.
Among other things, the establishment of the AfCFTA marks an opportunity and a very important step in expanding business opportunities, attracting investors and increasing exports of Tanzanian products, particularly agricultural products.
Besides, it acts as a crucial catalyst for economic growth and trade between member states (intra-African trade) by promoting African participation in world trade and building its capacity to add value to products through sound technological, innovative and competitive policies.
In line with this, the meeting also gave priority to the production sector taking into account that the African continent is known for having abundant raw materials most of which is being exported to support manufacturing in foreign countries.
The meeting among other things deliberated on ways to foster collaboration with the private, public and investment sectors in the facilitation of manufacturing of goods within the borders of specific countries.
Likewise, the meeting suggested the establishment of a single regulator of the continent instead of each country possessing its own regulatory bodies specifically in issues related to trade and medicines.
Other issues which featured in the meeting include the intent to reduce the cost of doing business among African countries, the importance of employing technology particularly offering services through digital means, a move expected to fast track development within the continent.
Based on the discussions, the stakeholders suggested that issues relating to agriculture and energy should be prioritized by governments within the continent as well as embarking on collaborative and sustainable measures to support the youths to secure jobs emanating from the critical sectors.
Regarding the aviation sector, various challenges were singled out by the stakeholders’ emphasis placed on the issue of accessing visas for citizens coming from within the continent, lower aviation services and higher flight costs, thereby demanding more investments in the area.
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