In Tanzania, agriculture is a core industry in which 70% of the population is engaged. Yet, most farmers continue subsistence farming with low productivity and profitability, and a shift to business-oriented farming is strongly expected. Under the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP1) formulated in 2003, the government adopted a holistic approach to agricultural development with the use of the ASDP basket fund, and 75% of the fund was allocated for the implementation of District Agricultural Development Plans (DADPs) prepared by Local Government Authorities (LGAs). Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported the capacity development of LGAs in DADP formulation and implementation as well as that of the central government for technical backstopping to the LGAs under “Project for Strengthening the Backstopping Capacities for the DADP Planning and Implementation under the ASDP” (RADAG1) and RADAG2. While RADAG succeeded in achieving the set targets, agricultural commercialization and income increase of smallholders became the key areas of ASDP2 initiated in 2018. Under ASDP2, DADP is further required to have a direct impact on the increase in farmers’ income.
RADAG2 supported a pilot project of target LGA on the support for horticultural farmers groups, applying the approach of “Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment Promotion (SHEP),” which emphasized production and sales based on market needs. Through the pilot project, target farmers’ income increased by 80%, and the government highly valued the result as a good practice of DADP implementation. As a result, the government requested JICA to expand the application of the SHEP approach to DADP implementations of other LGAs in the county.
The Project aims at improving the function of DADP for achieving higher income of horticulture farmers in the project sites by providing the following outputs.
Output 1: Tanzanian SHEP approach under DADPs is developed.
Output 2: Primary target LGAs plan and implement horticulture projects with the Tanzanian SHEP Approach under DADPs
Output 3: Central Government backstops horticulture projects with the Tanzanian SHEP approach under DADPs.
The increased demand and interests on safe food and value-added food in ASEAN states have been driven by middle-income households due to the economic growth of ASEAN. However, an inappropriate redistribution of profit and vulnerable food value chains (FVC) remain the major constraints to improve livelihood of traditional farmers below poverty lines. Agriculture is one of the important sectors both for employment opportunities and source of income and also for food and nutrition security. Therefore, the improvement of FVC must be one of the prioritized issues to solve.
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have initiated its discussion on the concept of “the ASEAN-JICA Food Value Chain (FVC) Development Project” in February 2018. The project considers supporting the high quality, safe FVC development for trade and joint corporation with public-private sectors. The project concepts had been discussed and approved at the Senior Officials Meeting of the ASEAN AMAF Plus Three on August 29, 2018, and subsequently, confirmed at the Eighteenth Meeting of The ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry Plus Three on October 12, 2018.
The main objective of the project is to develop quality and secure intra and extra Export-oriented FVCs in the ASEAN Region. The specific objectives include; 1) strengthening of ASEAN Good Agricultural Practice (ASEAN-GAP), 2) strengthening of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, and 3) promoting public-private partnerships for the development of regional food cluster models.