Regional Commissioner launches tree planting initiative

Dodoma Regional Commissioner Hon Anthony John Mtaka joined Farm Africa in launching a tree planting campaign as part of our work in partnership with the World Food Programme to help smallholder farmers adopt climate-smart agricultural practices.

On 19 February, the Regional Commissioner, along with other regional and district delegates, joined the Farm Africa team in Kingiti Village, Mpwapwa to plant the first of a total of 6,134 trees.

The majority of the trees will be planted across farmers’ lands, but local schools and health centres will also enjoy new leafy coverage.

A variety of tree seedlings was distributed, the majority being gliricidia (around 5,000), a fast-growing versatile leguminous tree favoured in agroforestry. Other varieties of tree included papaya, passion fruit and guava.

Hon Mtaka, along with Mpwapwa District Executive Director Hon Mwanahamisi Ally, launched the campaign by planting guava trees in front of the crowd.

As well as benefitting the local environment, the visit also offered the chance to show the Commissioner the work Farm Africa is doing to help smallholder farmers boost their livelihoods and nutrition through planting the drought-tolerant crop sorghum.

Here, Hon Mtaka is being given a pack of quality-declared seeds, which help ensure a sustainable supply of sorghum throughout the year.

During his visit, Hon Mtaka was introduced to Farm Africa and the World Food Programme’s project boosting sorghum production and linking sorghum farmers to new markets to sell their produce.

The Regional Commissioner learnt about the project’s work increasing yields through climate-smart agricultural techniques that allow farmers to achieve a surplus of sorghum even through extreme weather conditions such as drought, building local resilience and improving food security within the community.

Following the visit, Hon Mtaka will arrange a stakeholders meeting in Dodoma engaging market facilitators and market actors to discuss potential agricultural opportunities in Dodoma Region. He will emphasise the importance of sorghum as a key regional crop through the Regional Agricultural Department.

This project is funded by Irish Aid through the World Food Programme.