Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has reiterated its commitment to accelerating the country’s private sector development. The assurance was given by Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Kaspar Mmuya.
Mr Mmuya urged the private sector stakeholders to be more proactive in facilitating agri-development from the farm level to industrial and export markets, as the government was creating an enabling environment.
He challenged the private sector to play a more significant role in enabling smallholder farmers to produce adequate raw materials for the industrial sector. “The private sector must participate more actively in enabling and stimulating the agricultural sector to contribute more to the national income by uplifting individual farmers and actors instead of waiting the government to do so,” he noted.
The deputy permanent secretary made the remarks during an agriculture stakeholders’ workshop in Dar es Salaam on Friday which aimed at validating the integrated assessment of the agricultural sector review 2017-2021 for mutual accountability.
Tanzania has been undertaking an evidence-based Agricultural Sector Review 2017/2018 – 2020/2021, which is on the final leg, with technical support from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The analysis has been done at the same time alongside the Agriculture Public Expenditure Review with FAO and World Bank’s technical support.
The integrated reports are expected to play a pivotal role in enabling improved systems for accelerating agriculture’s efficiency and performance in the East African Community’s secondlargest economy, according to Mr Vianey Rweyendela, AGRA Country Manager.
The agricultural sector performance has been “incremental rather than transformative,” with more financial investments, higher private-sector investment growth, and improved provision and utilisation of farm inputs and services. The review calls for enhanced agricultural production, productivity, and profitability, which would involve expanding access to improved agricultural inputs, finance and extension services.
The review shows that short-term agriculture plans are successful, but longterm goals have failed due to a lack of adequate financial resources. University of Dar es Salaam Professor Deogratius Mushi and Prof Beatus Kundi both noted that the Agriculture Joint Sector Review (JSR) brought together different stakeholders to look at the implementation of national agricultural sector plans.
Ms Stella Clara Massawe, a Senior Programme Officer with AGRA, noted that by the end of the review process, which had taken many months, there would be an agreement on specific and priority actions for the different stakeholders to improve sector performance.
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