FARA Discusses COP27 and ARIFA with Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation

by admin | Apr 13, 2022 | News And Events

Dr. Yemi Akinbabamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), paid a courtesy call on Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister in Charge of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), yesterday, April 12, 2022.

The meeting’s purpose was to provide the honorable Minister with an update on FARA’s preparations for COP27.

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 will take place from November 7–18, 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where FARA is expected to lead the African Climate-Smart Agriculture Framework (ACSAF) implementation of the purpose-driven process that will deliver a consolidated plan to mitigate the climate crisis and the operationalization of the 10-year framework to guide the ACSA for the next decade (the African Decadal Plan) that will position Africa for a meaningful climate-resilient Africa. In principle, it will operationalize the global demands of the AUCCS 2030.

From Left-right, Mr. Peter Dery (Director for Environment, MESTI ) Mr. Johnson Okpong (Finance Director, FARA) Hon. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie (MP), Minister for MESTI, Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo (ED, FARA) Mr. Kwamena Quaison (Director for Science, Technology & Innovation(ST&I))

In addition, the two talked about educational and agricultural research and innovation collaborations.

Dr Yemi Akinbamijo reiterated the need for Ghana to leverage the Agricultural Research for Innovation Fellowship in Africa (ARIFA) initiative, whose target is to produce at least 5,000 new generations of the fit-for-purpose workforce to re-engineer the African agri-food sector.  This could provide the change factor for rapid agricultural transformation and achieve the goals of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Program (CAADP)-Malabo of the AU.

Dr Afriyie was pleased to host FARA and asserts that his ministry is well-positioned to leverage science and technology. He stressed how his sector is employing nature-based solutions to address climate change and its associated challenges and that strong collaborations with other local and international institutions, particularly with FARA, are critical for promoting a sustainable environment.

He stated that African leaders must begin utilizing international accords to boost their countries’ growth.

mesti.gov.gh

Tanzania on Right Track Cutting Post-Harvest Crop Losses

by admin | Apr 12, 2022 | News And Events

Tanzania is on the right track to cut post-harvest crop losses by half come 2025, says a new report. The efforts are largely complemented by the country’s political will involving strategies and policies as well as major developments in storage infrastructure across the country.
A recently published third Biennial Review Report of the African Union Commission on the implementation of the Malabo Declaration, shows Tanzania is among countries that are on the right track in curbing post-harvest losses. In the quest to end hunger in the region, governments have committed to cutting post harvest losses in half by the year 2025.
By 2021 Tanzania had successfully reduced losses by 28 percent, therefore increasing availability and the quality of food without putting additional pressure on the environment and economy to produce more food. Stakeholders told The Citizen that the country has made commendable efforts to reduce food wastage in the agriculture value chain hence ensuring food security.
One of the areas cited is improvement of storage facilities. The director general of the Cereal and Other Produce Board (CPB), Dr Anselm Moshi, says many interventions have been made in the food supply chain. Several studies have reported that maximum losses happen during the storage operations, according to Dr Moshi. He notes that CPB’s plan is to expand the board’s storage capacity to enable it to store about 600,000 tonnes of cereals and other produce come 2025. “Using proper storage facilities with good technical and handling infrastructures can help reduce the loss of quality and quantity as well as crops’ economic values,” he says.
A study conducted by the Sokoine University of Agriculture (Sua) in 2012, indicated that postharvest loss for three major cereals as follows: maize (15.5 percent); paddy (10.7 percent) and (sorghum (12.5 percent). Overall, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicates that Tanzania farmers lose up to 40 percent of annual harvests through post harvest losses.
National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) chief executive officer, Mr Milton Lupa believes minimising cereal losses in the supply chain could be one of the resource-efficient ways that can help to strengthen food security and sustainable measures of combating hunger.
Mr Lupa says considering the criticality of post harvest losses during storage, the government through NFRA has invested a lot in establishing large and equipped storage facilities across the country. “We currently have the capacity to store 251,000 tonnes of food, despite the target of storing over 500,000 tonnes of produce,” he says. According to Mr Lupa the agency has built new storage facilities in Babati, Sumbawanga, and Mpanda whose construction has been completed. By July this year, the country will increase storage capacity by 90,000 tonnes, Mr Lupa says.
The NFRA boss says the country will be able to store a maximum capacity after one year when construction of all storage facilities will be completed.
Tanzania has enacted the National Post Harvest Management Strategy (NPHMS) 2019-2029 that aims at facilitating and building the capacity of post harvest actors in order to reduce losses and increase farmers’ income as well as food and nutrition values.
The 10-year strategy focuses on food crops, particularly cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables, roots and tubers, as well as crops that are used for production of edible oils. The strategy intends to provide significant interventions that will reduce post harvest losses and potentially offset the food deficit, according to the ministry of agriculture. According to the strategy, postharvest management in the country will largely depend on financial support from the government, the private sector, the international community as well as individual contributions. “However, an integrated approach and coordinated working system is highly required to ensure that funds to address post-harvest issues are used to achieve the objectives presented in the strategy,” reads part of the document.

Furthermore, the document suggests that funds mobilisation for financing NPHMS from several development partners supporting post-harvest interventions will be managed through special arrangement (equivalent to those of the Agriculture Sector Development Plan-ASDP) in order to remain focused. “Where necessary, the funding arrangement will require signing a common Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government of Tanzania and development partners agreeing to operational modalities of the Basket Fund (using government system for disbursement and procurement),” stresses the strategy document.
Agriculture Non-State Actors Forum (Ansaf) executive director, Mr Audax Rukonge says many countries did not implement such a strategy, which is an indication that the government of Tanzania is ready to act and help farmers. “We still have a long way to go in building enough infrastructure because we have programmes and systems in place to support it,” he notes. He named some of the infrastructures as the processing industries, which will add value to raw produce and give them a new preferred quality for both domestic use and export.
Public policies that support post harvest losses in the country include the 2013 National Agriculture Policy and the Agriculture Marketing Policy of 2008 that collectively underscore the challenge of post harvest losses in achieving food security.
In order to implement such policies, a number of interventions have been formulated by the country including Kilimo Kwanza, Resolve, the Tanzania Agricultural and Food Security Investment Plan (TAFSIP) and Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot). These interventions were separately introduced in order to complement speedy implementation of the ASDP.
In the ten years post harvest management strategy, the government has highlighted a number of challenges that are still holding down efforts to address the post-harvest losses in Tanzania. The challenges include inadequate post harvest services, limited agricultural marketing infrastructures and shortage of relevant technologies.
Although the current policy environment is more receptive to the importance of the post harvest losses, the ministry has also admitted that the agriculture strategies have not paid adequate attention to the post harvest losses issues in efforts to increase food and income security. Additionally, there also is inadequate awareness on post harvest losses among stakeholders, including farmers and the costs to the economy and the environment.

Knowledge Sharing Critical to Sustainable and Transformative Agriculture

by admin | Apr 11, 2022 | News And Events

CCARDESA, through the EU funded CAADP-XP4 project, held a national training workshop from 28^th to 31^st March 2022 at the Peacock Hotel in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. The primary purpose of the meeting was to familiarize key Officers from relevant Institutions, including the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI), Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute(TAFIRI), Tanzania Forestry Research Institute(TAFORI), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministries of Livestock and fisheries (MLF), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA), and the media to Knowledge management, Data capture guidelines and monitoring and disseminating information on the Malabo commitments.

The workshop also endeavoured to create awareness about CCARDESA themes and its programmes. Furthermore, the workshop sought to support the media understand how best Tanzania could meet its targets in reporting the Malabo commitments by disseminating information  on the same in non-technical user-friendly formats.

Dr Joseph Nduguru officially opened the meeting and applauded CCARDESA’s efforts in building the capacity of the Tanzania stakeholders and ICKM focal persons of SADC countries on Knowledge Management, data capture guidelines and Malabo Commitments. Dr Ndunguru noted that tied to the workshop’s goals; participants will identify options to move forward at the national level to mainstream food and agriculture and ensure the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of the Malabo Declaration implementation. He said that this could only be achieved through a transformative change that must be done in a more integrated way, across sectors and varying stakeholder interests. He emphasized that monitoring, partnerships and financing are key aspects of the implementation process. 

On behalf of the Executive Director (ED), Dr Cliff Sibusiso Dlamini of the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA), Ms Futhi Magagula, the CAADP-XP4 Programme Officer, thanked the government of the Republic of Tanzania through Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) for hosting this important workshop. Ms Magagula commended Tanzania for being the first country to initiate the implementation of the ICKM national plan that was developed during the regional training of CCARDESA ICKM Focal Points. She stated that, “this shows that Tanzania takes knowledge management and the Malabo Commitments seriously”. She went on to say that CCARDESA considers knowledge brokerage critical to ensure evidence-based policy decision making within the agricultural sector in the region. To substantiate this, knowledge management is one of the CCARDESA’s thematic areas and CAADP-XP4 project Output areas.   Ms Futhi Magagula also gave an overview of CCARDESA and the CAADP-XP4 project, noting the project’s anchor on the CAADP framework and CCARDESA’s Strategic framework.

Dr Richard Kasuga, the Knowledge Management Manager for TARI and CCARDESA ICKM Focal Point, gave his keynote address. He noted knowledge management as vital if at all research is to contribute effectively to addressing the agricultural challenges for food and nutrition security, increasing economic well-being and improving the livelihoods of the local people. Dr Kasuga set the scene by asking why is ICKM important and why does it matter to all of us? The key to responding to this question was understanding what data, information, and knowledge meant? This was further elaborated in his detailed presentation.

Mrs Bridget Kakuwa-Kasongamulilo, the ICKM officer for the CAADP-XP4 Programme, presented the CCARDESA ICKM strategy. She intimated that Information, Communication and Knowledge Management is CCARDESA’s 5^th thematic area, also outlined in the Medium-Term Operation Plan (MTOP). The thematic area’s primary goal is to ensure access to knowledge and information through various ICT technologies, traditional and electronic media for researchers, extension agents, farmers and the SADC region. She also outlined the functions of the CCARDESA Mobile App and took the participants through a physical application demonstration.

Mr Martin Muchero, an International Consultant and expert in agriculture and the CAADP framework, and Malabo Commitments reporting process, took the participants through the overview of the Malabo Declaration Commitments; their alignment between the Malabo Declaration and SADC Strategic Frameworks, Including the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP) and the SADC Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP); the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030; SADC Protocols and the SADC Agricultural Development Fund (ADF); the M&E Reporting on the Malabo and its indicators; and the status of Malabo Commitments in Southern and Eastern Africa.

Ms Vidah Mahava, CCARDESA ICKM Focal point for Tanzania, also a Senior Agriculture Researcher at TARI, presented the Tanzania Knowledge Management strategy where she highlighted its implementation plan. She also shared the Tanzania action plan that is under implementation, which guided the participants on how to develop their action plans  to support information dissemination on the achievements on the Malabo commitments and CCARDESA Strategic Plan Themes. The action plan included timelines and targets and a monitoring framework that the CCARDESA ICKM focal point persons would follow.

Mr Benajmin Abugri the Knowledge Management, Learning & Communications Lead Specialist at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), facilitated on Knowledge Management at the continental level and how it can transform Africa. He also officiated in establishing a Community of Practice in Knowledge Management in the agriculture sector in Tanzania. The participants selected three interim Community of Practice executives who will develop a charter that will govern the Community of Practice’s operations.

Dr Hildellita Msita, the Centre Manager for TARI Kibaha, gave the closing remarks. She acknowledged the participants’ action plans that identified various knowledge products that will be developed to promote work on the Malabo commitments and CCARDESA themes in Tanzania. She encouraged all the participants to make an effort to walk the talk so that Tanzania moves one step ahead, emphasizing that knowledge gaps identified during the workshop be promptly addressed  with the available knowledge products. Regarding the CCARDESA Mobile App, Dr Msita  urged that the tool be promoted so that it can be used widely in Tanzania to better technology transfer to all Tanzanians. Dr Msita thanked CCARDESA and FARA for all the support rendered to make this workshop a reality. She also thanked all the institutions which saw the importance of sending a representatives to attend the workshop. She expressed great gratitude towards the resource persons and hoped that they had enjoyed the Tanzania hospitality. She wished everyone safe travels back to their respective places and declared the workshop  officially closed.

The meeting ended with participants fully aware of essential knowledge management, Malabo commitments and CCARDESA themes. The training workshop was held under the auspices of the CAADP-XP4 Project, funded by the European Union and administered through the  International Fund for Agricultural Development.