SUPPORT SMALL-SCALE FARMERS,URGES OXFAM

Oxfam Tanzania has said that there is a need to empower small-scale farmers in the country to produce enough food. Speaking while visiting Maisha Plus Mama Shujaa wa Chakula (women food hero) competitors, Oxfam’s country director, Jane Foster, expressed satisfaction over progress so far made by Maisha Plus Mama Shujaa wa Chakula competitors in creating employment opportunities through entrepreneurship.

Foster’s visit, which was also part of Mothers’ Day observance, raised the need of providing financial services to small farmers through their co-operative societies. She said there is a need to invest in the productivity, resilience and sustainability of small-scale food producers, particularly women.

Welcoming the competitors, Foster said small-scale farmers are the key not only for their own families, but the nation at large, raising the need of an agriculture value chain from production, harvesting, storage, processing, trading and export.

Mama Shujaa wa Chakula has also partnered with Maisha Plus who are creatively bringing together producers and consumers into the debates around the nature of the food system and the need to ensure food justice for all in a resource-constrained world.

By profiling the type of individual food producers and modeling the best small-scale producer investment needed, Maisha Plus reality Television show highlights what is meant by food justice.

Maisha Plus, supported by Oxfam, brings together young aspiring East African youth from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi with inclusion of 20 Tanzanian small-scale women farmers, living in the jungle for eight weeks while carrying out various tasks and constructive challenges from which they learn and acquire experience about rural livelihood and agriculture.