VOICES RAISED FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS AT AGRF

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

Voices are being raised for deliberate support by the governments to smallholder farmers as the high profile African Food Systems Forum/AGRF ended last Friday.

Delegates to the meeting in Tanzania's commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, said farmers should be assisted towards agroecology rather than highly mechanized production systems. 

"We need to transition to agroecology that addresses the contextual needs of our farmers, our women and our youth. No decisions for us without us", said Ms Juliet Nangamba from Zambia. 

She said gone were the days where food security and nutrition is based on high input use such as fertilizer and other chemicals. This is very evident", she said. 

Ms Nangamba, a partner with Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), underscored the need for the policy makers to  address "the intersectionality of food production,climate change and ecological breakdown".

The four-day forum at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) attracted nearly 3,000 people, a significant number representing major global  firms in the agricultural value chain.

Prof Joyce Kinabo of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro implored the policy makers and experts to listen to the critical needs of smallholder farmers so that the desired transformation systems in food production do not leave them behind.

"Let's go to the people to sell the transformation agenda. Let's put in place governance mechanisms and structures to realize that", she said at the JNICC.

A local farmer-leader who identified himself as Juma Shabani said the food systems agenda should focus on tackling the food crisis in Africa through cultivation systems that can be easily applied by small farmers.

Topping the list of alternative farming options is agroecology, a farming system that takes into account the ecological conditions due to minimal application of the chemicals and heavy mechanization.

He said the Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA), which organized the forum, should have realized that food security in the continent can be achieved "if the family farming system is put on board".

Mamadou Goïta, the Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives in Development based in West Africa said technological fixes have not been entirely beneficial to the farmers as they have been "working on their food systems".

'Themed 'Recover, Regenerate, Act,Africa's Solutions to Food Systems Transformation', this year's African Food Systems Forum in Dar es Salaam has attracted 3,000 attendees and 350 speakers from over 70 countries.

There were various stakeholder groups in the food systems landscape including senior government and political officials from across Africa, policy makers, scientists, representatives of the private companies and farmers.

One of the exhibitors at the JNICC Ms Fatma Riyami said in her vegetable and fruit processing business, smallholder growers and vendors top the list of her firm's clients, es;pecially in extension services..

"We support the smallholder farmers", she affirmed in an interview. The Mtwara-based company is working with mango, cashewnut, groundnuts and spices farmers as well as processing the crops for value addition.

The same sentiments were expressed by representatives of the Arusha-based Taha Group, the key player in Tanzania's multimillion dollar horticulture industry, at the JNICC exhibition booth.

"We provide technical support to smallholder farmers with market information. We also link them to the financial institutions", said Jerry Moshi and Ms Loveness Adolf.

Prof Faustine Lekule said high tech approaches to the farming systems have not necessarily edged out the small scale farmers as long as such technologies were devoid of chemical pollutants.

"Small farmers are a necessity. There is no way you can avoid them", he said, noting that 80 percent of food produced in the country (Tanzania) annually is from that category of crop growers.

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