Davos, Switzerland: The ambitious
Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) plan was a hot topic
at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has won massive support from development
partners, many willing to come on board.
 |
| African leaders at Davos, meeting |
This
was manifested on Friday when some leading European countries, the US, Japan
and some multinational companies saw an urgent need to support the programme,
which aims at boosting agricultural productivity in Tanzania and the wider
region.
The
US Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment, Mr Robert Hormats,
the Crown Prince of Norway, Haakon Magnus and over 80 CEOs from multinationals
attended the working lunch.
The
programme run through the public-private partnership model also focuses on
promoting clusters of profitable agricultural farming and businesses, with
major benefits for small-scale farmers and local communities.
The
Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Prof Jumanne
Maghembe, who is accompanying President Jakaya Kikwete to the economic forum,
was upbeat about the support garnered so far.
The
meeting was specifically designed to discuss challenges on food security,
water, energy and climatic change. “We are happy that we got a rare opportunity
to present our case at the forum for support on SAGCOT,” he said.
He
told the “Daily News on Saturday” yesterday that the World Bank leads the pack
and has agreed to provide 60 million US dollars (about 91bn/-) to the SAGCOT
Catalytic Fund.
Others
are the US government through its foreign development agency, USAID which has
contributed 12 million dollars (about 19bn/-) and Japanese International
Co-operation Agency (JICA), which is studying the proposal but has shown big
interest to support the project.
It’s
on record that some countries have been impressed by the SAGCOT model and want
to adopt it. These include Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Vietnam,
Mexico, Ghana and Indonesia.
Source:The Daily News www.dailynews.co.tz eported by Gabriel
Nderumaki in Davos, Switzerland
0 comments :
Post a Comment