Africa-Press – Tanzania. FORMER President and Board Member of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Dr Jakaya Kikwete has urged African governments to create a conducive environment for the private sector participation as a way of speeding up agricultural transformation.
Kikwete made the remark this week during a press conference held in Dar es Salaam which was also attended by former Ethiopia Prime Minister and AGRA Board Chair, Hailemariam Dessalegn, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, and Permanent Secretary in the President’s Office in charge of Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), Prof Riziki Shemdoe.
In his remarks, Dr Kikwete commended development of public infrastructure, including roads, electricity, and market structures, which he described as necessary for attracting private sector participation in agricultural value chains.
On his part, Deputy Minister Bashe said that the government’s investment in infrastructure and policy development had helped to increase private sector investment in Tanzania’s food value chains to nearly 4tr/- (USD1.7bn) in three years.
The Deputy Minister further announced that the government had prepared a ready market for the country’s maize as a way of incentivising more production.
“With this year’s bumper harvest, the government will from August buy each kilogram of maize from farmers at 500/- (USD 0.22),” he said.
The 500/- (USD 0.15) is a 43 per cent increase from the 350/- that the National Food Reserve Agency paid for a kilo of maize in 2020, he said.
Dessalegn announced that AGRA will support the government of Tanzania’s agro-industrialisation development program.
“AGRA will work with the government on its industrialisation agenda that seeks to drive the country’s diversification and expansion of agro-industries. AGRA will work with sector-line ministries to mobilize both technical and financial resources,” he said.
Dessalegn further invited all agriculture stakeholders to the 2021 AGRF Summit which will be hosted by the Government of Kenya from September 6 to 10 this year.
The Board Chair has been in Tanzania since Friday last week as part of a Cross-Africa tour to witness the impact of AGRA’s work, while mobilizing political goodwill and private sector participation in transformation of the continent’s food systems.
He has so far travelled to Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. From here, Kikwete takes over the role as he visits Uganda, Zambia and Mozambique.
