Mbeya — MBEYA Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Juma Homera has called for prioritisation of farmers' needs and welfare so that the country could hasten its desired goals in the agricultural reforms agenda.
Mr Homera underscored the indelible place that farmers occupy in the overall campaign to make the sector profitable to majority of the people and contribute significantly in Tanzania's GDP.
The RC was speaking yesterday during an official opening of a farmers' town hall meeting in Mbeya city, organised by fertiliser manufacture and distributor - Yara Tanzania.
Over 400 farmers drawn from the food rich southern highlands attended the meeting.
The farmers' forum is part of the Yara Kilimo Expo that kicked off at the Nanenane grounds on Monday and brings together a wide range of players in the sector to discuss challenges and opportunities for the reforms agenda being championed by the government.
It specifically tackled the promotion of strategic food and cash crops in the southern highlands.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, is today expected to officiate a high-level symposium during the expo, where experts will delve more deeply into the future of the agri-sector value stream and the issues that would likely shape direction of the transformation agenda.
Yesterday Mr Homera hailed Yara Tanzania for putting the smallholder farmers' empowerment at the centre of its activities.
"Today's meeting of farmers from surrounding regions is testimony to Yara's cognizance of your importance and have therefore brought you to the centre of the discussions to have your say," said Mr Homera.
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The RC who was flanked by Yara Tanzania Managing Director, Mr Winstone Odhiambo and the Director of Crop Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Enock Nyasebwa, among other officials and guests, said the government acknowledges that farmers remain key to its plans to make Tanzania the fulcrum of food production in Africa.
"I want to, therefore, thank Yara for their efforts to uplift the farmers. And as representative of the government, let me say that we will give Yara the necessary support it needs to speed up the reforms through its quality fertiliser products and agronomic services across the Republic," said Mr Homera.
He noted that the recently opened Yara Farmers Knowledge Centre at Mbeya University of Science and Technology (MUST) will be invaluable to the agri-reform campaign.
Earlier in his welcoming remarks, Mr Odhiambo said it is Yara's belief that empowered smallholder farmers would be key for the country to attain food sufficiency and raise millions of people out of poverty, through higher farm level productivity and job creation in the sector's value chain.
"As Yara, we are playing our part by producing different and high-quality fertilisers and other blended crop nutrients that significantly raise yields and thus farmers' income. Our approach encompassed soil health solutions, sustainable farming and industrialisation, environmental protection and mitigating climate challenge," he revealed.
Mr Odhiambo said Yara Kilimo Expo will be an annual event to enhance public-private partnerships and support the government's economic development agenda, through the agricultural sector, which holds the largest potential for millions of Tanzanians to prosper.
