Farmers to benefit from Sagcot plan
What you need to know:
Sagcot centre managing director Geoffrey Kirenga said here yesterday that his institution was taking the annual event seriously as an important platform for the smallholder farmers to learn, gain experience and interact with all key players in the sector. “Since Sagcot activities are being implemented in public-private partnership, our pavilion has attracted 30 companies from both public and private sectors.
Mbeya. The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (Sagcot) of Tanzania has attracted 30 partner companies in one pavilion to enable its stakeholders, including smallholder farmers, to benefit directly at the NaneNane festival set to begin countrywide tomorrow.
Sagcot centre managing director Geoffrey Kirenga said here yesterday that his institution was taking the annual event seriously as an important platform for the smallholder farmers to learn, gain experience and interact with all key players in the sector. “Since Sagcot activities are being implemented in public-private partnership, our pavilion has attracted 30 companies from both public and private sectors. This is what makes Sagcot to be proud of the partnership,” Mr Kirenga explained. Describing the significance of this year’s festival, Mr Kirenga said that through the NaneNane platform, the smallholder farmers will be trained on how to add value of their produce in order to generate more income. (The Citizen Reporter)
“Participation of our partners at this festival has been increasing yearly,” he said, noting that farmers get a huge opportunity to network with financial institutions and government regulatory bodies.
According to Mr Kirenga, during the Nane Nane Day, the farmers will have another opportunity to witness the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Sagcot and the Netherlands on promoting round Irish potatoes in the corridor.
“This is a very important step in promoting the crop. The MoU signing will be witnessed by the minister for Agriculture from Netherlands, the Ambassador of Netherlands to Tanzania and Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Agriculture,” he said.
Sagcot activities are being carried out in Ihemi Cluster, which covers the regions of Iringa and Njombe, and the Mbarali Cluster, which comprises Mbeya and Songwe regions.
In collaboration with its partners, Sagcot has been pioneering in training of the smallholder farmers in the corridor so that they could reap the benefits of agriculture.They are also exposed to modern technologies and crop value addition methods.
The Sagcot activities are funded by the government in collaboration with UKAID, USAID, the Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Agra.
