Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) Support Through Basket Fund.

The Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) Framework and Process Document (2003) is an operational response to the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS). The ASDP identifies five key operational components as a focus for implementation at: district level through DADPs; national level, including zones; and cross-cutting issues (Table 1). The components are: the policy, regulatory and institutional arrangements; agricultural services (research, advisory and technical services, and training); public investment; private sector development, market development, and agricultural finance; and cross-cutting and cross-sectoral issues, including gender mainstreaming and implementation of the land acts. The ASDP also attempts to define how the ASDS can be delivered through a shift to a Sector Wide Approach (SWAp). The ongoing national and area based projects and programmes will be mainstreamed into the ASDP framework as a step towards a SWAp.
This Programme has the following objectives: to enable farmers to have better access to and use of agricultural knowledge, technologies, marketing systems and infrastructure, all of which contribute to higher productivity, profitability, and farm incomes; to promote private investment based on an improved regulatory and policy environment. The objectives will be achieved through a set of complementary interventions aimed at: improving the capacity of farmers, including food insecure and vulnerable groups, to more clearly articulate demand for agricultural services and to build partnerships with service providers; reforming and improving capacity of both public and private agricultural service providers to respond to demand and provide appropriate advice, services and technologies; improving the quality and quantity of public investment in physical infrastructure through more devolved technically-sound planning and appraisal, improving market institutions, including strengthening the policy framework and coordination capacity at national level. These results will be delivered through two components: Local Level Support and National Level Support, as described below. Local level support will be formulated and implemented through District Agricultural Development Plans (DADPs), while national level support will be guided by the ASLMs Medium Term Strategic Plans.
1.4: This programme does not cover all Government interventions in the agricultural sector as presented in the ASDP Framework. It rather covers a sub-set of interventions whose design has been more clearly aligned to the ASDS principles and objectives. These include the ASSP, DADPs, irrigation and marketing and private sector development interventions. The document presents an integration of the ASDP national and local components into one consolidated set of interventions to be financed through the ASDP Basket Fund. This document supersedes the ASSP and DADP. The document is divided into a main text and eight Annexes, providing an overview of the relevant policy and strategic frameworks in Tanzania (Section 1), including an overview of agriculture, Government strategies and programmes, as well as the Government and Development Partners’ Joint Assistance Strategy (JAS). Section 2 presents the strategic context and rationale of the Programme including key principles and reform elements. The Programme is described in Section 3 which summarizes the objectives, phasing, components and costs including a discussion on its integration within the MTEFs. Implementation arrangements (institutional and financial) are discussed under Section 4; Section 5 briefly discusses benefits and risks of the Programme as well as the Expected Outputs.