Dar es Salaam. The government’s second phase of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme launched this week is expected to address the challenges and gaps experienced the first phase through its eight key principles.
The initiative aims to address critical constraints and challenges to sector performance and to speed up agriculture GDP, improve growth of smallholder incomes and ensure food security by 2025.
Its implementation will be guided by the following key principles outlined in the document.
Smallholder commercialization
The programme focuses on the support to farmers to graduate from subsistence farming to semi-subsistence/semi-commercial status, practicing farming as a business.
“Smallholder farmers have to begin producing for the market and be supported to forge strong and dynamic linkages with commercial input and output supply chains in order to connect with a growing agro-industrial sector and expanding food demand from urban consumers,” states the document.
Whilst the focus will be clearly on the smallholder sub-sector, greater inclusive private sector participation will also be encouraged, both in commercial agricultural production and in marketing, agro-processing and farm input supply chains.
Investment in rural infrastructure, agro-processing, especially in grain milling and packaging and sustainable utilisation of natural resources will get special attention to expand the market for priority crops.
Result-based focused support
Based on lessons learned from ASDP-1, key innovations integrated in ASDP II include, among others, impact orientation and concentration of resources on high potential commodity value chain within agro-ecological zones and selected districts to achieve results, and scale-up.
While targeting market-oriented smallholders, a phased approach is being proposed to build and consolidate impact.
Districts which were not covered in the first phase will be covered in subsequent phases and therefore growth-inducing interventions will reach all regions and districts over time.
Productivity increase for sustainable food security and nutrition, farmer income and economic growth
The programme promotes surplus food production and quality (crops, livestock and fish) in districts that have the potential to do so.
Food deficit or low potential areas will benefit from the surplus generated from selected priority districts enabled by enhanced marketing policies and private sector marketing.
The focus of the programme is to maximize food self-sufficiency, but also export of commodities for which Tanzania has a comparative advantage in regional and international markets.
Priority is given to investments focusing on expansion of irrigation, development of rangelands, control of livestock diseases, aquaculture development, mechanisation, research and development, access to improved agricultural technologies and related inputs and appropriate support services.
Increasing management of resources by beneficiaries
Although some progress has been made in the first phase of the ASDP, ASDP II reinforces this principle through a more structured planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation arrangements and supporting financing mechanisms.
It places decision-making control over resource allocations in the hands of farmer groups, cooperatives and agribusinesses based on transparent processes.
Pluralism in service provision
ASDP II aims to push for a wider choice in service providers to broaden knowledge support by integrating agribusiness services.
Performance-based contracts for private agribusiness advisory service provision will enable linking of public funding from service delivery and complementing public technical services implemented by local government services.
Sustainability and diversification
Under the ASDP II, there will be a commodity focus, but intertwined with strategic diversification.
While focusing on priority Commodity Value Chain, crop rotations and promoting intensive animal husbandry systems to use efficiently crop residues, sustainable soil and water management systems and efficient use of irrigation systems will be promoted.
The initiative will also introduce processes and mechanisms to achieve market-driven diversification and sustainability.
The expansion in irrigated agriculture opens up an opportunity for crop intensification, one of which could be diversification into high value crops, such as horticulture.
Focus will also be directed towards developing livestock diseases free zones, improve water availability for livestock, improving access to grazing lands, improvement of genetic potential of the existing stock, increasing supply of improved stock, commercialisation of the livestock industry and aquaculture and fisheries development.
Food and nutrition security
Nutrition remains an area of concern as little progress has been recorded on nutritional status over the past decade, especially in rural areas.
The programme has built in flexibility to accommodate interventions to improve the nutritional status of rural households and protect them from the impact of natural disasters, along with improving the capacity of institutions that provide services for sustainable productivity growth and quality.
Gender and youth mainstreaming
While it is recognised that gender and youth is a cross-cutting area which needs to be addressed at all levels, sectors, and in both technical and management areas, the ASDP II contributes its share by undertaking both socio-economic and gender/youth analysis.
Differentiation of groups by wealth, vulnerability, age and possibly other socio-economic characteristics is required to ensure that more vulnerable groups also benefit from the program.
Resilience, including to climate variability and change
ASDP II interventions will be undertaken with climate change considerations factored into the interventions, including climate smart agriculture in sustainable landscapes and appropriate climate change mitigation strategies.
Extremes in temperature and precipitation will be the focus of research and technology development.
Farmers’ adaptive capacities will be strengthened to ensure the impact is understood and integrated into their farming systems/activities.
A menu of response options to mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture, including conservation agriculture will be developed, tested and shared.
Source: The Citizen
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