Tanzania: Partnership for horticultural training programme

Four partners building a Horticulture Practical Training Programme

COLEACP is working with the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) towards an accredited Horticulture Practical Training Programme in Tanzania.

A recent working meeting was held for the partnership members and the team of COLEACP experts. During the early months of 2021 this COLEACP team will provide direct support for the mapping/needs assessment needed to define and establish the training programme, as part of the two Fit For Market programmes. The process will follow COLEACP’s “Jobs-Skills-Training approach” under the lead of Professor Bruno Schiffers.

In June 2020 in Arusha, the members of the partnership confirmed their collaborative effort to establish and run an accredited programme offering certificate and diploma courses. The programme aims to provide competent, market-ready horticultural practitioners across the value chain in Tanzania and other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The four partnership members are working together to run a market-driven skills development programme that will bridge the wide skills gap of agricultural (and specifically horticultural) graduates and practitioners in Tanzania, which has been a barrier to realising the untapped full potential of the horticulture industry for the country.

• TAHA, a member-based association of Tanzanian horticultural private sector actors, aims to drive an inclusive, transformative, competitive and sustainable horticulture industry in Tanzania through improving the business-enabling environment, and providing technical services including horticultural extension, and market development services.
• NM-AIST contributes to the development of a critical mass of high-level science, engineering, technology and innovation experts, techno-preneurs, industry captains and innovation managers in Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation for Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa.
• WorldVeg (formerly the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, AVRDC) is an international non-profit institute for vegetable research and development, which mobilises resources from the public and private sectors and works in partnership across the research-to-development continuum to realise the potential of vegetables for healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods.