The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Cooperative Bank Tanzania Plc have signed a landmark partnership aimed at helping smallholder farmers in Tanzania reduce post-harvest losses, strengthen climate resilience and improve food security through the RE-GAIN Programme.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in Dar es Salaam on May 11, 2026, will promote climate-smart agricultural technologies, improve post-harvest handling systems and expand access to Food Loss Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) for farmers growing staple crops such as maize, rice and beans.
The partnership was formalised by AGRA Tanzania Country Director Vianey Rweyendela and Coop Bank Managing Director Godfrey Ng’urah as part of AGRA’s broader RE-GAIN initiative, which operates across seven African countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Ng’urah said the collaboration aligns with the bank’s Vision 2030 agenda, which prioritises food security, sustainable financing and support for farming communities.
“Agriculture accounts for over 60 percent of our loan portfolio. This partnership marks a significant milestone in our shared mission to transform agriculture and improve the livelihoods of Tanzanian farmers,” he said.
He noted that the initiative supports the bank’s ambition of reaching 10 million families by 2030, while strengthening resilience among farming communities that depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods. According to the bank, more than 80 percent of Tanzanians rely on agriculture either directly or indirectly.
Under the agreement, farmers will gain access to subsidised farming equipment and improved storage technologies at discounts of up to 30 percent below market prices, helping them cut food losses and improve household incomes.
AGRA said the partnership comes at a critical time when climate change continues to disrupt agricultural production through prolonged droughts, floods and heatwaves across East Africa.
“The RE-GAIN Programme seeks to enhance the climate resilience and adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers by promoting the widespread adoption of food loss reduction solutions across seven African countries, including Tanzania,” said Rweyendela in remarks shared by AGRA on X.
He added that the initiative is designed to help farmers protect their harvests, stabilise incomes and build stronger agricultural value chains amid growing climate uncertainty.
In another message posted on X, AGRA said: “By combining innovative financing, climate-smart technologies, and stronger post-harvest systems, this collaboration will equip farmers with practical tools to protect their harvests, improve productivity, and build more resilient livelihoods.”
The RE-GAIN Programme, launched by AGRA in partnership with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), seeks to reduce food losses while improving food quality and enhancing local capacity through widespread adoption of post-harvest technologies.
According to World Bank estimates cited during the signing ceremony, a one percent reduction in post-harvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa could generate annual economic gains of about $40 million, much of it benefiting smallholder farmers directly.
