Press Release

The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the President's Office - Regional Administration and Local Governance (PO-RALG), in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), held the 4th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) Meeting on May 25, 2022 to discuss the progress and further action on the "Project for Strengthening DADP Planning and Implementation capacity through Use of SHEP" (TANSHEP).

The meeting was conducted in the capital city, Dodoma, and chaired by the Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) of MoA, Prof. Siza Tumbo, and the Director of Sector Coordination (DSC) of PO-RALG, Eng. Enock Nyanda.

In his speech, Eng. Nyanda PO-RALG thanked JICA for the support it has extended to Tanzanian people through the Project and noted the crucial importance of resources mobilization for upscaling the approach to cover the whole country. Furthermore, he told that disseminating the approach will create more employment opportunities to the youth, increase income, and decrease the poverty level in rural areas.

TANSHEP has been implemented in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, and Tanga regions, and so far over 3,000 farmers have been supported.

Farmers are now learning how to change their farming techniques from the traditional "Grow and Sell" approach towards the "Grow to Sell" approach by conducting several techniques including the Market Survey before cultivation to achieve better profitability. The farm income of selected farmers' groups is expected to increase by more than 25% by attaining several trainings in TANSHEP.

Furthermore, in ensuring the dissemination of the approach, the SHEP concept and approach was incorporated into the compendium for horticulture marketing module in the Ministry of Agriculture Training Institutes (MATIs), and the revised compendium is planned to be utilized from October 2022.

SHEP stands for "Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion", focusing on promoting market oriented horticulture development. It encourages horticulture producers to conduct the Market Survey first, and collaborate with relevant stakeholders, e.g. buyers, input suppliers, and even intermediaries, in order to improve production and marketability, and thereby to realize the increase of farmers' income for the betterment of rural livelihood in Tanzania. The Project developed a slogan "Anzia Sokoni Malizia Shambani Kwa Kipato Zaidi" which simply means "For more production, start with the Market Survey first".

The approach is in line with the priorities of the agriculture development policy in Tanzania as clearly outlined in the Second Agriculture Sector Development Program (ASDP2) and the recently published "Agenda 10/30" of the Government of Tanzania.

4th JCC for TANSHEP project, Dodoma

Market Survey by Farmers in Kwasadala, Moshi Kilimanjaro

For more information please contact:
Ms.Yukari Inagaki: Inagaki.Yukari2@jica.go.jp
Ms. Veronica Balua: baluaveronica.tz@jica.go.jp
JICA Tanzania Office
P.O. Box 9450, Dar es salaam
Tel: +255-22-2113727/30