The Government of Tanzania through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries with its mission is to “deliver quality agricultural and cooperative services has aimed to strengthening agricultural extension services in Tanzania. The objective of the ministry is to improve access to extension and advisory services by smallholder agricultural producers in the country. Good enough, the ministry collaborates with different agencies and stakeholder including STAWI in order to increase the scope of services delivering processes and base to most potential small holder farmers in Tanzania.
STAWI is very much aware of the critical and pivotal role agricultural extension and advisory services play in imparting practical knowledge and skills to farmers and are some of the key drivers of agricultural growth in the various plans and strategies. STAWI is very grateful to the Tanzanian government for caring for and continuing to increase extension services by increasing and improving the extension capacitation drive by increasing the mobility of extension staff through provision of motorcycles and fuel, increased interventions towards appropriate and relevant training opportunities as well as equipping extension officers with digital technologies for effective technical backstopping of farmers to adopt Good Agricultural Practices.
Refurbishing the agricultural sector is critical for reviving Tanzania’s economy. Frequent droughts and unstable macroeconomic conditions have continued to hinder the country’s ability to effectively deal with the pervasive low productivity in the sector resulting from many factors including, high cost of inputs, inadequate availability of quality inputs, unstable prices, liquidity challenges and weakened extension system. The Government of Tanzania with support from FAO has taken major steps in this by outlining the intentions and strategic focus for steering and implementing the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy (2020-2030).
Moreover, STAWI provide technical assistance to some innovative options to deal with the systemic extension challenges in the medium to long term. This initial technical prioritize assistance enabling the extension services to reach more smallholder farmers, innovate with ICT platforms and support the initial steps for digitalization of the extension system.
Much concern in this agricultural developmental segment is the covering of the demand of increase agricultural productivity through soil fertility enhancement. The efforts initiative goes direct to soil pH correction to equip 10 decentralized soil testing facilities throughout the country. In addition, farmers get training from STAWI agronomists in collaboration with other likeminded stakeholders on emerging issues relating to climate proofing, agro-ecology and soil pH correction to enhance productivity.
STAWI is importantly thanking the Tanzania Government on its efforts to establish collaboration and partnerships between different stakeholders in order to achieving the Tanzania 2030 agenda as well as meeting the SDG targets especially SDG17, which focuses on strengthening the means of implementation, and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development
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