Tanzanian agric experts in Nigeria to study GES

Doctors Damian Gabagambi and Chaboba Nkangwa on a visit to the agriculture ministry told the sit-in permanent secretary, who is the Director of Fertilizer, Mr. Akinbolawa Osho, and other directors that the Tanzanian central government has sent them to understudy the operational modalities of the GES.A statement by the Acting Director, Press of the ministry, […]

Doctors Damian Gabagambi and Chaboba Nkangwa on a visit to the agriculture ministry told the sit-in permanent secretary, who is the Director of Fertilizer, Mr. Akinbolawa Osho, and other directors that the Tanzanian central government has sent them to understudy the operational modalities of the GES.
A statement by the Acting Director, Press of the ministry, Greyne Anosike, said that Mr. Osho and the directors, as well as the heads of the operational institutions under the GES, explained to the Tanzanians the evolution of the scheme, the successes so far and the challenges, which are currently being addressed in order to move the sector to a new level in 2014.
Mr. Osho told the visitors that GES is primarily targeted at small holder farmers while plans have been concluded to engage multinational farmers in a special GES next year.
The permanent secretary said that majority of the citizens are impressed with the progress made under GES and that the National Assembly has given a commitment to providing teeth to the scheme through an enacting law that would institutionalise the various components of the programme to sustain it beyond any government’s tenure.
In their remark, the leader of the visiting team and senior lecturer in Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania, Mr. Gabagambi, said the Nigerian agricultural policy has been a subject of discussions at continental fora, hinting that other countries in Africa will be coming to understudy it.
The team leader said: “Tanzania like Nigeria agricultural practice before 2012, was dominated by a prevalence of elite culture.”
He said in Tanzania, middlemen and political farmers “are billionaires” while the actual farmers who labour to feed the country get poorer.
He expressed confidence that their study trip to Nigeria would dislodge pseudo farmers and input vendors from their system as is now the case in Nigeria.