Indonesia helps Tanzania in improving the quality of agriculture.

“Indonesia has an important role in developing agriculture in Tanzania by providing knowledge and training for our farmers,” said the minister.

Indonesia has supported Tanzania agriculture through Farmers Agriculture Rural Training Centre (FARTC) established in Mkindo, Morogoro since 1996 where Indonesian agriculture experts provides training for Tanzanian farmers.

However because of austerity measures the program was terminated in 2004. In 2007 Minister of Agriculture of Tanzania visited his counterpart in Indonesia, requesting the resuming of FARTC program. On March 2011, Indonesian Government reactivated FARTC.

Minister Counselor of Indonesian Embassy Hadi Sasmito who invited by Principal of FARTC Temi MW to attend the inauguration said Indonesia will keep supporting Tanzania agricultural improvement.

Indonesia also maintains a good bilateral relationship.

“Indonesia established FARTC in 1996 to help Tanzania to reach food security. Indonesian agriculture experts shared their knowledge and experience to Tanzanian farmers so they can improve their quality of life,” he said.

Inauguration of Big Result Now 0f the Vision 25 is a kick off a program which involved 31 agencies to improve Tanzania agriculture. There are three priority crop; maze, rice, and sugar which included in the program.

Until now, agriculture contributes 24 per cent to the real GDP of Tanzania, and accounts for 75 per cent of workforce employment.

In the short term, Tanzania wants to increase agriculture GDP growth, improve smallholder incomes, and ensure food security by 2015.