By Evelyne Mpasha
The President of the United Republic of Tanzania Hon. Samia Suluhu Hassan is pleased with the products and technologies derived from the research findings and instructed TARI to deliver research results and technologies to farmers and agricultural stakeholders to increase productivity in crop production instead of staying with such studies in the office.
President Samia Issued the directives when she visited the TARI pavilion and witnessed the various crop technologies that were researched during the launch of the distribution of agricultural working tools (6700 motorcycles, smartphones, soil health kit,& technical extension kit) to 6700 extension officers in the country on Monday, April 4, 2022 at Jakaya Kikwete Convetion Centre, Dodoma.
The distribution of the equipments to extension officers will increase the motivation of more than 6700 agricultural extension officers present in the country to serve farmers easily in order to revolutionize the agricultural sector in the country.
“I have visited TARI’sexhibition pavilion and seen crop varieties with high nutrients. Its better that these technologies were distributed to farmers and agricultural stakeholders instead of staying in the laboratory and being shown at exhibitions like this” said President Samia.
In addition, President Samia called on the Ministry of Agriculture to focus on food production and commercial production including strategic crops to meet domestic and surplus needs for the export market.
Earlier in his statement, the Minister of Agriculture Hon. Hussein Bashe thanked President Samia by increasing hi Ministry’s budget from 7 billion shillings to 11 billion shillings and that he said his team in the Ministry are planning to make major reforms in the agricultural sector to ensure food security, nutrition and agricultural employment through the value chain.
According to President Samia, the agricultural sector has continued to grow the economy and bring development to the nation where it contributes 65% of industrial raw materials and 61.1% provide employment to Tanzanians.
The decision by the Ministry of Agriculture to allocate resources to agricultural extension officers in the country is one of the implementation of the Malabo Declaration to save Africa from hunger and eradicate food insecurity by 2035 by investing its energy in major agricultural investiment.
Tanzania is a member of the African Union (AU) , who collectively agreed to set 10% of their country’s government budget on agriculture for sustainable investment.
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The author is a Principle Public Relations Officer at Dodoma and is also an Executive Member of the Tanzania Knowledge Management Community of Practice.
