Paul Holmbeck’s Post

Strong support today from Gerald G. Mweli, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania for upscaling agroecology in Tanzania’s strategy for food security, climate resilience, biodiversity and farmer incomes. “Agroecology is taking high speed in global conversations” “In Tanzania we will upscale ecological organic agriculture, through our NEOAS strategy to achieve our goals of food security, climate resilience, biodiversity, job creation and farm incomes. As noted from the scientific community, agroecology contributes to these goals.” “We have increased our agricultural budget by 5 times compared to three years ago. We must ensuring that whatever we are doing is enhancing sustatinability. “In our transformation agenda represented by our Agriculture Master Plan, we will increase our productivity, improve irrigation and water management, food exports including organic products, increase domestic seed production and reduce mismanagement of agrichemicals. One contributing strategy for these goals will be to increasing the land area with agroecology and climate smart agriculture by 2 million hectares by 2030. “ “We are the fifth largest producer of organic cotton in the world as documented by FiBL. We will be a leader in organic cotton” The messages came today at the opening of the "Cultivating Change Gathering" bringing together leaders in philanthropy, bi-lateral and multilateral donors, governments and civil society organisations working for food systems change through agroecology. The gathering in Arusha Tanzania is organized by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, the Agroecology Coalition and Biovision Foundation. The Permanent Secretary detailed and supported the 6 core strategy interventions in Tanzania's National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy: ✅ Equipping farmers with latest knowledge on agroecology ✅ Increase availability of inputs—strengthening smallholders en access to seed, seedlings and fertilisers as alternatives to conventional fertilisers ✅ Expand market access for smallholder farmer, Participatory Guarantee Systems for local markets and organic grower groups to gain access to global markets, to improve incomes and drive transition to agroecology in farming. ✅ Mainstream village land use planning,  Protecting land for agriculture, and sensitizing local leaders to how agroecology helps them reach their local goals for food securlity, incomes and natural ressources. ✅ Improve access to finance products for smallholder farmers and supply chain actors ✅ Support for coordination and capacity building in civil society organization to drive implementation on the ground.