Go the Sagcot way in other sectors: call
Sagcot has so far been recognised as the pillar of modern agriculture in the Lake Zone regions. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Sagcot, a venture that was designed to increase the adoption of new technologies and marketing practices to achieve rapid and sustainable growth in smallholder agriculture, through expanding and creating partnerships in the Southern Corridor of Tanzania, has so far been recognised as the pillar of modern agriculture in the Lake Zone regions.
Dar es Salaam. In order to improve the agriculture value chain in the country, stakeholders are urged to put in place mechanisms that will replicate what the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot) is doing.
Sagcot, a venture that was designed to increase the adoption of new technologies and marketing practices to achieve rapid and sustainable growth in smallholder agriculture, through expanding and creating partnerships in the Southern Corridor of Tanzania, has so far been recognised as the pillar of modern agriculture in the Lake Zone regions.
Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) lecturer, Prof Abiud Mdoe, has urged all agricultural stakeholders to organise themselves and follow the route that Sagcot took in a bid to make the agriculture sector the driver of industrial revolution.
The facilitator said that since 2016 when the project was initiated in the country, Southern regions had benefited especially after practicing modern farming technologies, leading to more production.
“If we want to fully make Tanzania an agriculture hub, there is need for all stakeholders - regardless of their organisational affiliation - to follow the route taken by Sagcot, partner with others and always think of new skills to drive agricultural practices,” he told BusinessWeek in a telephone interview.
For his part, Mr Mohamed Nurdini, an agricultural specialist based in Dar es Salaam, told BusinessWeek in an interview that Tanzania had all reasons to be an agriculture centre if all stakeholders worked together.
“If researchers, seed specialists, the ministry of Agriculture, NGOs and the private sector can collaborate and work closely with farmers, then our country would be the hub for food products around the East African region and the entire African continent,” he said.
The specialist further said that farmers were currently being challenged by the ever changing climate, a situation that needed immediate attention.
“Climate Change is a hindrance to the prosperity of our agriculture. Stakeholders in this sector need to strategise on how to overcome the changes it has brought,” he said, applauding Sagcot as the best initiative the country needed in other areas if it wanted to succeed in the sector.
