DAR ES SALAAM, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) on Tuesday launched the 12.5-million-U.S.-dollar Sustainable Regional Agricultural Extension (ENSURE) project to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability across the region.

The EAC said in a statement on Wednesday that the three-year project, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), is expected to increase the long-term sustainability of agriculture in the region by increasing access to robust extension services while improving the capacity of member states to provide responsive and reflexive extension services.

According to the statement, the project will focus on three key areas of intervention, namely creating an enabling environment for regional harmonized extension and input policies, deploying a regional pluralistic extension approach, and establishing a regional extension capacity-building program targeting transboundary pests and diseases, especially fall armyworms and desert locusts.

The statement said the ENSURE project is expected to benefit more than five million people across the region by improving agriculture extension systems and creating at least one million jobs.

Speaking during the project's launch, Andrea Aguer Ariik Malueth, EAC deputy secretary general in charge of infrastructure, productive, social, and political sectors, said the project begins at a pivotal moment as the EAC aims to transform its agricultural sector through various initiatives.

For his part, Innocent Musyabimana, AfDB's chief agricultural technologies officer for agricultural research, production, and sustainability, highlighted the importance of investment in agriculture for fostering regional development.

He said the AfDB is proud to support the ENSURE project as it aligns with AfDB's mission to improve food security and reduce poverty across the African continent.

The EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization of eight member states, namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, aiming to promote economic, political, and social integration in East Africa. Enditem

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