Farming summit: Kijaji wants Tanzania to feed Africa, world

Dar es Salaam. The minister for Investment, Industry and Trade, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, has challenged public and private sectors to make efforts towards making Tanzania the centre of Africa and the world when it comes to food trade.

She made the challenge ahead of an agriculture forum.

The five-day African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) is slated to start next Monday in Kigali, Rwanda, where President Samia Suluhu Hassan is scheduled to be a keynote speaker.

Addressing the Tanzania Agribusiness Investment Summit 2022 in Dar es Salaam yesterday, , Dr Kijaji said Tanzania’s vision was to be a global food supplier and the market leader in agro-industrialisation in Africa.

She said the achievement would be realised with the public and private sectors working together to benefit smallholder farmers.

The day-long Tanzania Agribusiness Investment Summit 2022 was organised by the government, bringing together the ministries responsible for Investment, Industry and Trade; Agriculture; Livestock and Fisheries Development and the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC).

It had delegates from the public and private sectors as well as civil society and development partners. Agra vice president Apollos Nwafor led the AGRA delegation to the summit which marked as the launch of the 2022 Agribusiness Dealroom to be held in Kigali.

“We want to serve Africa from Tanzania. We want to serve the world from Tanzania through the agricultural sector,” Dr Kijaji said.

She commended the government for raising its agriculture budget from Sh294 billion in 2021/22 to Sh954 billion in the current financial year, Dr Kijaji exuded confidence that Tanzania was on the right track. She said the vision was for Tanzania to provide local, continental and global food security with the nation’s immense God-given resources.

Dr Apollos Nwafor, commended Tanzania for prioritizing food systems transformations and assured that Agra would continue to support government efforts to uplift the sector. He commended the country for spearheading agro-industrialization vision through the design and implementation of the Tanzania Agro-industrialization Development Flagship (TAIDF), which aims at mobilizing investments in agro-industrialization.

“President Samia Suluhu Hassan has shown outstanding commitment to creating a sustainable food system in Tanzania,” he said.

“Last year in 2021, the president of Agra, Dr Agnes Kalibata led the UN Food Systems Summit where we have charts. We began to look at Africa’s leadership in driving food systems transformations where we look at regions, especially Tanzania on which food systems transformation has been accelerated drastically.

“Today’s summit shows that Tanzania is ready to see and foster as a driver of economic growth. We should ensure we are not dependent on food imports,” she said.

The Summit also involved Tanzania business pitching at The African Agribusiness Dealroom a year-round matchmaking platform at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which brings together capital seekers and providers.

The Agribusiness Dealrooms provide entrepreneurs in the agricultural and agribusiness sectors with upstream and downstream supply chain linkages, access to finance, and market entry solutions to support and drive their growth objectives.