Tanzania to Invest USD 30 million in Agriculture Training Institutes

Tanzania is set to invest USD 30 million in the renovation of 14 government-run agricultural training institutes to support the country’s economic growth.

This was recently announced by Tanzanian authorities during a visit at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in Morogoro, Xinhua, China’s official press agency, reports.

Gerald Kusaya, Permanent Secretary in Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, said: “The renovation of the institutes will include revamping of the teaching infrastructure and increasing the enrollment of teachers and students.”

Kusaya explained that the 14 state-run agriculture institutes were facing a shortage of 247 teachers.

He added that the government will create a database for trained agricultural officers and their work stations across the country. This would help the Ministry of Agriculture to identify areas where the agricultural officers were most needed to help farmers improve productivity.

Tanzania has an estimated 1,000–2,000 large scale farms and estates with an average size of 1,100 hectares (ha), while the country’s available irrigable land stands at 29 million ha, which leaves the agricultural sector well below its potential.

This is due to smallholder crop farmers’ limited access to modern farm technologies and inputs, inadequate storage infrastructure, high transport and marketing costs, low technology adoption, and lack of affordable inputs such as improved seed and quality fertilizer.