Laying the Foundations for Effective Landscape-level Planning for Sustainable Development in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT): Ihemi Agricultural Development Cluster

Project Summary

The project “Laying the Foundations for Effective Landscape-level Planning for Sustainable Development in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT): Ihemi Agricultural Development Cluster” aims to promote and facilitate adoption of sustainable intensification in the Ihemi Cluster by local institutions investors as well as policy-makers through provision of robust, evidence-driven processes and strategies. The project is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research – Water, Land and Ecosystem program (CGIAR-WLE) through the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

The overall goal of the program is to improve capacities and the governance and management of natural resources and ecosystems by generating and sharing the knowledge and practice needed to do so. The main objective is to promote innovative investments that maximize the productivity of ecosystem services in a way that equitably meets the needs of women and men (food security, nutrition, higher incomes) while conserving the natural resource base.

This is a 2-year project led by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Africa Regional Office, Nairobi, Kenya in partnership with The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). The project will work closely with key public and private sector stakeholders in Tanzania, both at the National and local levels.

Project Launch and Inception Workshop

The launch and inception workshop of the project “Laying the Foundations for Effective Landscape-level Planning for Sustainable Development in the SAGCOT Corridor: Ihemi Agricultural Development Cluster (LiFELand)” was successfully held on the 10th of April, 2015 at the Gentle Hills Hotel in Iringa. The workshop was organized in order to introduce and familiarize the project to stakeholders in the Cluster and rally their support for its implementation as well as use of the findings. It was also an important avenue for better understanding of the issues and challenges faced by stakeholders including farmers, investors, donors, private sectors, government agencies, agricultural and extension staff as well as policy and decision makers. It was for these reasons that participants for the workshop represented a diverse range of organizations.

The workshop was attended by a diversity of participants from diverse backgrounds and organizations in the Ihemi Cluster and beyond. As the project places gender involvement and participation as one of its core outputs, it was good to see that the workshop was attended by a good number of female participants within the Ihemi Cluster, including the top Government leadership in the region, the Iringa Regional Commissioner, Mrs. Amina Masenza (the guest of Honor), the Regional Administrative Secretary, and the Iringa District Commissioner, Ms. Evangeline Mabula and the representatives from the Ihemi Cluster districts, the investors and a good number of farmers including female farmers.

The event was a crucial opportunity for the project to identify clear roles and contributions of different partners and stakeholders towards implementation and achievement of the outcomes. In the opening speech, the Regional Commissioner Madame Amina Masenza expressed her delight for the project and was hopeful that it will provide information that will enable understanding of natural resources, in particular water resources, as well as land and how they can be used sustainably  in the cluster. She insisted that, such information will help policy makers, planners and other stakeholders in agriculture plan and create enabling environment for sustainable development that will not only attract private investment, but also lure youths and smallholder farmers to engage in productive and sustainable agriculture. She also pointed out that gender equity is a very sensitive and important part that needs thorough assessment for sustainable agricultural productivity and sustainable environment. She called on the participants to share insights of the Ihemi and contribute to the project towards realizing the outcomes. On her part, she promised to have issues related to the project and SAGCOT discussed in all her future regional meetings.

In general, the participants expressed an overwhelming support to the project and this was evidenced by the identification of roles and responsibilities each participating organization will play in the implementation of the project. For example, the SAGCOT Centre played a major role in the relocation of the site from Sumbawanga to Ihemi Cluster, which is the priority SAGCOT pilot cluster, and also played a role in identifying key stakeholders for the workshop. The change of the project site was endorsed by the participants. Participants were grouped into four main groups which are private investors/donors, NGOS, Farmers and Farmer Organizations and Government Agencies. Each group identified challenges to cluster planning and identified the contribution of their organizations towards the realization of the project outputs. Lack of good and reliable statistical data was a common challenge identified by all the groups and the different organizations promised to offer data at their disposal.

Participants called on the research team to double check available data during the baseline to avoid erroneous and misleading data. They also insisted on the use of data from research institutions as are good sources of secondary data, but strive to collect primary data from farmers. As a way forward, the project team thanked the participants for their contribution and was looking forward to following up on the different organizations for data and quality control will be done together. The project team will prepare a tool for data collection and will use different methodologies for data collection. Stakeholders will be contacted in advance to share their insights.

The workshop was closed by the Iringa District Commissioner who thanked all the participants for a useful day and for the contribution to the project. She emphasized that the success of the project will be the success of the country and will be an important step towards the efforts of the government to bring development to its citizens. She thanked the project team for relocating the project to Ihemi, and said it was an honor people in Ihemi will value and treasure.

The Guest of Honour, Regional Commissioner for Iringa  Region, Mrs. Amina Masenza (in white hijab) accompanied by the Iringa Regional Administrative Secretary, Mrs Wamoja Ayoub entering the Gentle Hills Hotel premises and being received and welcomed by the Project leaders  Mr.Felix Kamau (Second from right) and Prof. Japhet Kashaigili (third from right). Others are the SAGCOT Centre Officer, Mr. John Banga (first from right) and the Iringa District Commissioner, Evangeline Mabula (fourth from right).

Participants of the LiFELand Project launch and Inception Workshop posing for a group photo with the Guest of Honour, the Iringa Regional Commissioner, Mrs. Amina Masenza

 

Prof. Japhet Kashaigili (Project leader - Tanzania) giving welcoming remarks

The Guest of Honour, the Iringa Regional Commissioner, Mrs. Amina Masenza giving a speech to officiate the opening of the inception workshop. From left is the Iringa District Commissioner, Mrs. Evangeline Mabula, Prof. Japhet Kashaigili, the Iringa Region Administrative Secretary, Mrs. Wamoja Ayoub and Mr. Felix Kamau, the project leader.