Over one million people in East Africa should benefit from the banana and sweet potato agricultural project that aims to resolve food safety and poverty problems in Tanzania, Ouganda and Ethiopia. The 4 year project was initiated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has been called the SeFeMaCo (Seed, Farmer, Market and Consumer), and will be set up by Farm Concern International (FCI), an African market development agency.
The Director of FCI Africa, David Ruchiu said that the project would allow Africans to resolve under-development. He says that they foresee partnerships with hundreds of thousands of farms acting as a respectable part of the sweet potato and banana value chain in the three countries.
Stanley Mwangi, in charge of the SeFaMaCo programme says that the project will benefit around 192,000 households in the three African countries, i.e. about one million people.
“SeFaMaCo is there to harness potential” he stated, calling on the region's farmers to explore the benefits offered by banana and sweet potato farming.