London, 15 April 2022 (TDI): The High Commission in London of Tanzania shared via Twitter that the Tanzanian Ambassador and other members of the Commission; received the former President Jakaya Kikwete at the Ambassador’s residence. This event was after the meeting with AGRA.
According to the Commission, Kikwete attended the board of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). During the visit, Kikwete told the attendants about the work of AGRA and how Tanzania and Africa are benefiting.
Ambassador Hans Hoogeveen,Independent Chair of FAO Africa Council also attended the AGRA meeting.
OVERVIEW OF AGRA
AGRA is an alliance led by Africans with extensive roots in farming communities across the continent. According to AGRA, they understand that African farmers need uniquely African solutions.
Furthermore, they mentioned that the farmers require unique solutions designed to meet their specific environmental and agricultural needs. This is to help them to boost production sustainably and gain access to rapidly growing agriculture markets.
AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security. This food security is for 30 million farming households in 11 countries by 2021.
Furthermore, since its foundation, AGRA continues to work with its different partners to deliver solutions to farmers and thousands of indigenous African agriculture enterprises. According to AGRA, the Alliance has systems and also tools for Africa’s agriculture.
Those systems and tools are high-quality seeds, better soil health, access to markets, and credit. Moreover, to the systems, AGRA included stronger farmer organizations and also agriculture policies.
AGRA helps the countries in three main categories: policy engagement and also building state capacity for delivery; strengthening systems for scaling technology, and partnerships for strategic transformation.
In the first category, AGRA included policy and advocacy; regional food trade, and resilience; state capability, and the hub for agricultural policy action initiatives. The second category included inclusive finance; seed research and also systems development, youth strategy; soil fertility and fertilizer systems, resilience, and also climate adaptation; input distribution, extension strategy; capacity building, market, and also post-harvest management.
The third category included their partnership for inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa; strategic partnerships and also alliances, gender inclusivity, value 4 her; generation Africa, digital agriculture, alliances and coalitions, and China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation.
TANZANIA-UK BILATERAL RELATIONS
Tanzania and the UK have been partners in many areas, especially in trade and security. The main exports of Tanzania to the United Kingdom are raw materials like tea, tobacco, and precious stones.
According to the High Commission of Tanzania in the UK; the United Kingdom is the largest non-African purchaser of Tanzanian tea. On the other hand, the UK’s main exports to Tanzania are cars and electronic appliances.
According to the official data of the Tanzanian Investment Centre; the United Kingdom is the top investor as they have a 35% share of the foreign direct investment. British companies have invested around $ 5.1bn (TSh 8,415,000,000,000) in Tanzania in the period 1990-2013 (June).
This investment created 271,000 jobs; almost four times more than the rest of the investors. They had a total of 340 million in bilateral trade. Furthermore, the Tanzanian High Commission remarked on the role of British firms in the economy.
That role has a direct impact on energy, communications, construction, banking, agriculture, and the nascent oil and gas sector. In these last two sectors, the British company BG Group alone has invested more than $ 1 billion.
On the other side; Tanzania is one of only five African countries with which the UK has signed a High-Level Prosperity Partnership. This Partnership has four priority areas: extractives, renewable energy, and improving the business environment.
The High Commission mentioned that they are also working in partnership with the Government of Tanzania to implement a G8/Tanzania Land Transparency Initiative. Finally, the United Kingdom is the top contributor of tourists to Tanzania after Kenya.
