The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform is hosting the Strategy for the Transformation of the Agri-food Sector (STAS) workshop.

The workshop aims to kick-start the implementation of the strategy and discuss financing modalities as well as monitoring and evaluation.

The Executive Director in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Land Reform, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, said the strategy serves as a vehicle for the implementation of key development priorities in the agri-food sector.

These include accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.

"Our workshop today really focuses on chapter 8 of the strategy, which outlines the implementation and coordination arrangements of what we call STAS in abbreviation. Last week we also were blessed with having the African Union Development Agency, NEPAD, which we call out to assist us with this assignment."

The STAS focuses on six strategic pillars. The six strategic pillars are improved productivity, value chain addition, market access, climate resilience, sustainable resource management, social inclusion, and finance and policy reforms.

The Director of Agriculture Production, Extension and Engineering Service in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ben Haraseb, said the main objective is to leverage private and public sector engagement.

The aim is to identify how countries can benefit from investments in agriculture made by both the private and public sectors, while also addressing challenges within the value chain.

"The main objective of our workshop today is basically to look at it in terms of various activities that we are going to implement, and based on those activities, we are aiming to leverage both the public and private and see how we then move forward as a sector for us to be able to implement the transformation strategy that we have developed."

The workshop will conclude on Wednesday.