Regional meeting assesses agric investment

Governments’ commitment to drive agricultural transformation in Africa is pivotal, but the private sector’s involvement is critical to sustainability, says Christopher Chiza, Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Governments’ commitment to drive agricultural transformation in Africa is pivotal, but the private sector’s involvement is critical to sustainability, says Christopher Chiza, Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives.According to him, agribusiness firms have a bigger role to play in supporting African farmers in service delivery and skill impartation.He was contributing to Grow Africa’s platform on creating the enabling environment to advance agricultural investment on the sidelines of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF 2012) in Arusha."What we are trying to do in Tanzania is to create a very conducive environment for investors to come and invest in Tanzania and work with farmers”, said Mr. Chiza.Grow Africa Initiative is a partnership platform that seeks to accelerate investments and transformative change in African agriculture based on national agricultural priorities and in support of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).Co-Chair of the Grow Africa, Sean de Cleene is impressed with the contribution of the Initiative within the past 12 months in accelerating investments in African agriculture.Attractive investment opportunities are emerging from pioneering agricultural partnership initiatives in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Tanzania.