Arusha — THE United States government is injecting 5 million US dollars (about 12bn/-) in support of Tanzania’s food security.
Channeled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the sum is part of a whopping 14 million US dollars (about 33.5bn/-) geared towards supporting Tanzanian farmers to obtain access to technology, training to enable them cope with the ever changing climate patterns.
Speaking here on Thursday, an Administrator with the world’s premier international development agency Samantha Power, said the support will also enable Tanzanian farmers avoid food waste, amidst climate change.
“Today’s announcement comes on top of 14 million US dollars that we have invested in the agricultural sector here in Tanzania in the last nine months,” the USAID administrator explained.
Ms Power further acknowledged Tanzania’s commitment towards the role of young female smallholder farmers in transforming the agricultural sector.
Ms Power further hinted that the US government was exploring ways of supporting Tanzania in establishing a fertilizer hub.
“One of the things that USAID is supporting is the government’s effort to potentially invest here in a fertilizer hub because of a desire not to be dependent on importing fertilizer from other parts of the world, given what we’ve seen over the last year or two with those increased fertilizer prices,” she disclosed.
According to Ms Power, USAID is currently sponsoring some assessments about the best fertilizer to opt for in a bid to make Tanzania a reliable food exporter.
“That is already happening with avocados, which are now going to the European Union to India and to elsewhere. We are excited for that to happen with other produce, other fruits and vegetables and other crops. But we’re also very intrigued by the idea of fertilizer potentially being something that helps build food security resilience, not only in Tanzania,” she added.
In her rejoinder, Tanzania Horticulture Association (Taha) Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Mkindi reiterated the apex private sector member based organization’s commitment in working with USAID in taking the horticultural sector to greater lengths.
USAID is an independent agency of the US federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.