The government of Tanzania has signed a deal totaling up to $400 million with the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) to enable the East African nation fund its various agriculture programmes.
The deal includes a $300 million pact with the World Bank and $100 million with AfDB reached during the just concluded Africa Food Systems Summit AGRF in Dar es Salaam.
According to Tanzania’s Agriculture Minister, Hussein Bashe, though Tanzania has made remarkable strides in the agriculture sector with a variety of targets met, the country still needs financial resource mobilisation to continue funding the sector.
“We have just reached a deal for the Programme for Results (PforR) project worth $300 with WB and another $100 with AfDB to fund the sector,” said Bashe.
The minister also revealed that the government is in talks with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) which has already committed $60 million to scale up the funding.
This follows the country’s Vice President, Philip Mpango’s meeting with IFAD vice president and fund management to fast track the process.
Scaling irrigation projects
According to Bashe, the government is also in talks with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to find a possibility of scaling up some of the irrigation projects in the country.
Additionally, the agreement cooperation between Norway and Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (Tari) to strengthen research activities has been signed to reinstate the Feed the Future Programme.
“The agreement is to help improve horticulture production with much focus on the production activities that are women and youth-led,” said Bashe.
