The 3rd National Ecological Organic Agriculture Conference (NEOAC) was held on November 8th and 9th 2023 in Dodoma, Tanzania.
The event was organized by Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) and the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with agricultural stakeholders and development partners including SWISSAID Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT), Tanzania Alliance for Biodiversity (TABIO), the French Embassy, Iles de Paix (IDP) and St. Joseph Sustainable Organic Farm. The conference was officiated by Deputy Minister, Ministry of Agriculture Hon. David Silinde.
Building on the calls for actions of the first and second conferences held in 2019 and 2021 respectively, this third conference aimed at catalysing existing initiatives and processes to further move EOA from dialogue to actions and results at the country level. In this perspective, it provided a platform to share relevant information and experiences and to discuss policy-related issues and actions that can support ecological organic agriculture in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This conference also marked the official launch of the National Strategy for Ecological Organic Agriculture for 2023 – 2030. The goal of this strategy is to “accelerate development and mainstream the ecological organic agriculture subsector into existing national frameworks for agricultural sector development in order to enhance sustainable environmental conservation for improved health, income, and food security by 2030.” No less than 12 objectives were formulated to guide the implementation of this strategy, including an objective aiming specifically at recognizing peasant seed systems as official seed systems, which fits perfectly within CROPS4HD’s mission.
The event brought about 300 participants, which included farmers, agriculture experts, researchers, influencers and policymakers such as former Prime Minister Hon. Mizengo Pinda (also a chair of the Presidential Food and Agriculture Delivery Council) and Dr Mwatima Juma (members of the council’s secretariat), civil society organizations and practitioners, agriculture (including organic) businesses and entrepreneurs, development partners and media coming from Tanzania mainland as well as Zanzibar.
Speakers offered their insights into the latest advancements in organic farming under the theme “Nurturing Nature, Harvesting Health”. Different approaches were addressed as part of a few sub-themes. For instance, under the sub-theme “Sustainable Seeds and Food Sovereignty”, a SWISSAID seed expert presented the socio-economic factors that influence the sustainability of seed banks, based on a study conducted by Lukas Reinhard in collaboration with IDP and Echo East Africa. Under the sub-theme “Agrobiodiversity and improved nutrition“, Veronica Massawe, Senior Programme Officer at SWISSAID leading and coordinating the implementation the CROPS4HD project in Tanzania, presented the first findings of the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) which was conducted on CROPS4HD this year. As part of this assessment, CROPS4HD beneficiaries in Tanzania were evaluated on their level of agroecological transition and the impact it has on 5 key dimensions of sustainability: economic, nutrition, social, environment and health, and governance. The presentation focused on the first two dimensions, demonstrating that with an advanced agroecological transition, farmers can reach the same or even higher levels of total farm productivity as conventional farmers, while at the same time reducing production costs. The results also show that with an increased agroecological transition, food insecurity is decreasing. Lastly, under the sub-theme “Technological Development to the farming communities”, Dr. Luambano Kihoma, graduated PhD student, presented the key findings of her study on “Validation of the Ugunduzi application in enhancing productivity“. From the main conference, two scientific presentations were held on the key findings of a 5-year research project conducted by SUA and the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). Dr. Angelika Hilbeck (ETHZ) presented on the “Participatory Research Project in Tanzania” and John Constantine, PhD student (SUA), on “Agroecological practices on increased productivity“. Both presentations were centred on validating the effectiveness of the best agroecological practices (soil fertility amendments, pest control and intercropping) in increasing the yield on maize and cassava crops, based on research in the regions of Masasi, Mtwara and Mvomero, Morogoro.
Key to the success of the conference was the participation of CROPS4HD farmers. Some farmers participated in panel discussions, where they shared their experiences and talked about factors for success and challenges they are facing. In addition, farmers presented seeds, including NUS varieties, and NUS products such as salted and fried pumpkin seeds, Bambara flour/Unga lishe (Bambara nuts, mixed with finger millet, pumpkin seed flour, rice and millet), Bambara flour (Bambara nuts with maize, mainly used for Ugali), Bambara bean crackers, Moringa powder, sesame oil, etc. At the same time, CROPS4HD’s partner I Am Organic presented their NUS cookbook through a live cooking show of Pilau Bambara, Bambara Ugali with sweet potato leaves and African eggplant sauce; accompanied by Moringa lemonade and Bungo Juice.
This event and the launch of the 2023-2030 Strategy for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Tanzania represent a great success for the movement of ecological and organic agriculture in the country and for CROPS4HD’s progress.