TANAKA Akihiko

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka (second from left) visits a ProSAVANA site.

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka extended his Mozambique visit to the north region.

On February 22, JICA President Akihiko Tanaka met with José Condugua Pacheco, Minister of Agriculture. Tanaka mentioned that the most important objectives of JICA's cooperation on the agricultural front such as ProSAVANA project^[1] are to improve the productivity of small scale farmers and to improve their livelihoods by increasing their income. Since these small scale farmers are the overwhelming majority of the agricultural sector in Mozambique, the relevant private sector investment shall be implemented in an appropriate or rule-based manner, which is one of the important means to attain those objectives. Both side confirmed the significance of enhancing dialogues with farmers' organizations and other civil societies in a transparent manner for the success of ProSAVANA.

Tanaka also held talks with representatives from development partners, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, UNDP^[2], USAID^[3] and DFID^[4] on issues related to infrastructure development, disaster risk management and agriculture. Tanaka exchanged opinions as well on public-private partnerships with Japanese private companies based in Mozambique.

Tanaka (center) on tour of the Port of Nacala

Tanaka then moved to Nampula for touring project sites on the Nacala Corridor, the north region of Mozambique. He paid a courtesy visit to the governor of the Province in Namupla on 23rd. Over the next day and a half, Tanaka visited some project sites of ProSAVANA: sesame and corn cultivation site, in which small scale farmers are supported by medium scale farmers, and experimental cultivation field for soybean and other crops. He also visited the Nacala Port and Nampula – Cuamba road improvement project, one of the key infrastructure projects to improve the accessibility of the inner countries to the sea.