Tanzania at the World Food Prize October 15 – 20, 2012. Des Moines Iowa

 World Food Prize banner display at the Des Moines downtown Marriott Hotel.

 Opening ceremony of the 2012 World Food Prize Symposium which was held in Des Moines Iowa. On the picture, H.E Mwanaidi Maajar Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania to the USA and Hon. Jumanne Maghembe looking at the program just before the opening ceremony.

 Tanzania's presence at the 2012 World Food Prize 

 Panelists in a group picture after the discussion organized by Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa.

 Jacquline Mkindi, Executive Director of the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) making a point during a panel discussion

 Ambassador Maajar moderating the discussion during the Partnership to Cut Hunger meeting at the World Food Prize in Iowa

Tanzanian Ambassador to the United States H.E. Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar has emphasized the importance of small-scale-famers working together with large-scale –farmers and investors in agriculture industry in ensuring high yields. She said this is the way to go for countries like Tanzania to modernize agriculture that will see an average farmer develop into a commercial farmer.

She made the remarks last week during the side meeting at the World Food Prize while moderating a session dubbed “Launching a Second Decade of Leadership to Promote Inclusive Agricultural Development” which brought together leaders from international organizations, government and private sector representatives to discuss ways of promoting an inclusive dialogue in agriculture sector in Africa.

A 3-hour Consultation Workshop on Responsible Investments in African Agriculture on Wednesday, October 17 was attended by about 120 people. With a panel discussion by Matthew Armah – COO of Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority (MiDA); Carlos Moamba – Development Specialist with Abt Associate’s AgriFUTURO Project in Mozambique; Jacqueline Mkindi – Executive Director of Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA); and Tjada McKenna, USAID’s Deputy Coordinator for Development, Bureau of Food Security. The event was moderated by Partnership Board Vice-Chair and Ambassador of Tanzania to the United States H.E. Mwanaidi Maajar. The panel discussion led to very engaging four breakout working group discussions.

Ambassador Maajar explained emphatically the need for Tanzania to modernize its agriculture saying that todate the average farmer in Tanzania is still using a hand-held hoe producing just enough for own consumption and any little surplus is sold at a local market. On the contrary, she said  farming in Iowa for example, employs very few people and the entire food production is automated such that today in America, young people are returning to agriculture. She gave the example of a combine harvester which may be controlled by GPS allowing the operator to work on a computer that feeds information back to the farm office while listening to music.

“If we want to have an honest conversation on improving agriculture in Africa, we must first attempt to at least help our famers to get close to where Iowa is today” she remarked and added that Africa need to attain food security and in particular Tanzania  cannot achieve food security unless we produce enough food for ourselves and surplus to sell to neighboring countries that suffer cyclical drought. Tanzania can never achieve food security using primitive tools and depending only on subsistence farmers.“

Ambassador Maajar also discussed the issue of land grabbing. Suggesting that it is not right to lump all African countries together. She said while there may be land grabbing in some African countries there are some countries that have appropriate legal and regulatory regime that can check land grabbing.

The panelists on the panel provided in-countries experiences where small holder famers in Ghana and Mozambique worked along large scale farmers benefiting from their technical knowhow, farm inputs and access to markets. They both explained the constrains faced by smallholder farmers in the process of food production which is prolonged due to lack of modern farming methods equipment and technology and there was consensus that that pose a great challenge in agriculture in Africa.

A Tanzanian panelist Jacqueline Mkindi, the TAHA Executive Director, explained the benefits that the horticultural industry in Tanzania is enjoying by working in partnership with government and the private sector through the Tanzania Horticultural Association.

In her powerful presentation Ms. Mkindi submitted that agriculture in Africa employs over 80 percent of the population and is still very vulnerable and faced with many challenges. She explained the need to speed up transformation in the sector, deploying meaningful interventions through extraordinary leadership from both the public and private sector not only to address the key challenges but to unlock the potential in agricultural industry.

“In Tanzania, we are working on a genuine participation and sound involvement of farmers in a win-win framework, which include placing big and small farmers at the center of agricultural transformation and building strategies around them” Mkindi says.

Mary Fredricks who works with an NGO involved in agriculture activities in Ghana submitted that from her experience in Ghana she was unsure if small holder farmers would benefit from a partnership with large scale farmers to achieve agricultural transformation.

“Maybe this dialogue is useful and we should first define a small holder farmer before we outline this strategy of him having to farm along side with a large scale famer in a business way” says Fredricks.

Regarding the idea of international symposiums and meetings on agriculture, Ms. Mkindi comment which later on was repeated by several participants that partners in transforming agriculture especially in the developed world must note “that fine words do not produce food. We need to develop ever-creative innovative ways to shape agriculture by creating strong inter phasing between small and commercial investors, knowing exactly that working alone, a farmer cannot do much but with others she gains strength to do farming as business and access markets”.

Ambassador Maajar said that in its agricultural transformation policy, the Government of Tanzania is promoting both commercial farming as well as development of the smallholder farmer and the policy is working. She gave the example of sugar cane farming in Kilombero and rice farming where large scale farmers are working with smallholder farmers and the smallholder farmers are benefiting. She mentioned that Agrisol, an Iowan company is desirous of establishing large scale farming in Tanzania while they will also provide extension services to smallholder farmers as well as giving them access to markets. She said it was unfortunate that Agrisol was being demonized as land grabbers which was not the case.

“There are those here in Iowa, who believe that we should not invite foreign investors to help our farmers, and that our farmers should continue to farm using hand hoes, in this century?, it is shocking” Ambassador remarked.

On her part, Ms. Mkindi said that Tanzania has about 44 million hectors of arable land out of which only 25% has been utilized to date. So the question of land grabbing in this kind of a situation is just some illusions promoted by group of people who don’t know what’s happening on the ground in respective countries in Africa” Mkindi concluded.

Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa organized this session as one of this year’s World Food Prize side dialogues which was characterized by vibrant discussions and sound solutions to the question of public private partnership in ensuring agriculture transformation efforts benefit an average farmer in Africa. Ambassador Maajar who is also vice chair of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa moderated the discussion. She took the position of Vice Chair in place of Ambassador Ombeni Sefue who is now the Chief Secretary of Tanzania.  Amb. Ombeni Sefue is the emeritus board member of the organization.

Prior to moderating this session, Ambassador Maajar presented a key note speech on Tanzania and the relations that exist between Tanzania and American people at the Iowa-Tanzania summit organized by a Non-Governmental Organization known as Empower Tanzania.

The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing-- without regard to race, religion, nationality or political belief—the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality or availability of food in the world. The World Food Prize emphasizes the importance of a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people.

Opening this year’s session, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the WFP recognized efforts by Tanzanian Government in transforming agriculture and improving lives of Tanzanian farmers. This echoed the summary of side meetings which called for other African countries to learn from Tanzania to achieve this transformation.   

By Mindi Kasiga

Des Moines, Iowa USA

October 2012.