By ADAM IHUCHA -- Finland has partnered with Tanzania Horticultural Association in a bid to unlock the horticultural potential in Zanzibar Islands. The $980,000 nurture horticulture initiative to be executed by Taha, is a three-year program that will see Zanzibar transformed into horticultural giant to meet its growing demand and for export markets. Taha Executive Director, Ms Jacqueline Mkindi says that the project will invest $300,000 to setup a state-of-the-art cold storage facility in Unguja and the farm collection centers for horticultural farmers in Unguja and Pemba islands. “The program’s objective is to have such infrastructures across the country to allow farmers to have better access to domestic, regional and international markets” Ms Mkindi explains. Targeting over 8,000 small-scale farmers, the project will also enable processors in Zanzibar to access the quality packaging materials for fresh produces meant for export. Zanzibar’s Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources Sira Ubwa Mamboya says that a number of farmers in Isles are involved in subsistence horticultural farming, but they are keen to commercialize their undertakings. “We need technical support to take this lucrative horticultural farming to next level in a bid to stimulate the Zanzibar economy” Dr. Mamboya says. Precisely, she said, the farmers need to be taught on the best horticultural farming practices, linked to the international markets and the markets requirements. In Zanzibar, there are enormous opportunities for both production and marketing of horticultural products; especially due to the booming tourism industry; which attracts over 200,000 tourists annually. Dr. Mamboya says there are over 200 tourist hotels in Zanzibar, with staggering capacity of accommodating over 9,000 visitors at a time, all these demand horticultural produces. “There is very high demand for horticultural fresh products such as tomato, onion, irish potato, pineapple, banana and orange” the cabinet minister says. Available data show that each tourist hotel spends an average of $20,000 and $18,000 per year for vegetables and fruits purchases respectively. Apparently, however, farmers in Zanzibar can supply only 20 percent of horticultural products demand volumes in a year, with over 80 percent sourced from outside Zanzibar, mainly the Mainland. It is hoped that the project will help the farmers to embrace good agronomy practices in order to be able to bolster their production to meet domestic demands and export markets. TAHA has played a crucial role in representing a multi-million-dollars industry by providing technical guidance to farmers, advocating for policy changes, and promoting Tanzanian horticulture products locally and abroad. The sub-sector also employs nearly 350,000 local people, mostly unskilled women labour which others sectors do not prefer. Available records show that, the ‘green gold’, earns the economy, nearly $400 million annually. According to Tanzania’s Minister for agriculture and cooperatives, Christopher Chizza, the industry has been the fastest growing sub-sector; recording an average growth of 11 per cent per annum over the last six years. Increasingly, horticulture has become the main driver of agricultural development due to its nature as a commercial industry and the growing demand for such products in the major markets in both within and outside the country. Indeed, the potentials for further growth are enormous, especially due to the wide range of growing conditions that the country possesses, positioning the country to produce and trade most of horticultural crops throughout the year; and the increasing market opportunities at local, regional and international levels. However, the 2010 statistics from the United Nations Comtrade assumption of projections from 2010 to 2020 based on average annual growth rate of 25 per cent, Tanzania's horticulture exports would earn $1 billion million in 2018 and double in two years' time to reach $1.9 billion by 2020. The figure also suggests that more than one million Tanzanians will be working directly in horticulture industry by 2020. The global demand of horticulture on the other hand stands at $153 billion.