Kilimo Kwanza: Issue 22

Tuesday 12 October, 2010

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SUPPORTING THE PROMOTERS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION

Sunny timesfor Singidafarmers

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA

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The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA Tuesday 12 October, 2010

2 EDITORIAL

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Tanzania losing billions of shillingsin horticulture productionTANZANIA has been losingmillions of dollars every yearby underutilizing its huge po-tential in horticulture produc-tion. Tanzania’s potential ishigher than most Africancountries but it is yet to takeadvantage of the business.

Growing money on mangotrees in MkurangaThe sheer size of unutilizedarable land inTanzania canbe unsettling and when youchoose to do somethingabout it, the rewards can besatisfying, both psychologi-cally and financially.

VETA introduces affordablesolar powered water pumpsInvesting in irrigation devel-opment is one of the effectivemeans of increasing and stabi-lizing food and cash cropsproduction. It is in this regardthat one of the KilimoKwanza partners, theVoca-tional Educational andTrain-ing Authority (VETA) came upwith the economical solarpowered water pumps...

Sunny times for Singidasunflower farmersThere is a saying that Successusually comes to those whoare too busy to be looking forit. And so it did to Mr. RashidAlly Mamu, who got too busysetting up a sunflower pro-cessing operation in Singidato notice when the moneystarted rolling in.

TANZANIA has near infinite potentialin horticulture and, in fact, producesa lot more than it consumes. But isyet to tap that potential fully enough.This is for sure. Tanzania ranks ex-tremely poorly in the processing andconsumption of fruits and vegetablesand, as a result, most of these fragile

crops fetch throwaway prices or simply rot away forlack of a ready market. No one will deny this, and it isdespite the confirmed nutritional value of vegetablesand fruits.

Horticulture is a multimillion-dollar business anda big employer not only in advanced countries such asthe Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, UnitedStates, Japan and China but also in the likes of neigh-bouring Kenya. No doubt whatsoever. Details on thisappear elsewhere in this pull-out, acknowledged bynone other than Tanzania’s very own Agriculture,Food Security and Cooperatives ministry.

In any case, this is common knowledge, partly asillustrated by statistics from the Tanzania NationalBusiness Council.

The all but futile attempts made over the years toboost and improve flower, vegetable and fruit farmingand seek to enable the quality processing of the cropslocally before pumping them into the local and exportmarket also attest to this unfortunate fact.

Sadly, problem neither starts nor ends with horti-cultural crops but affects the country’s entire agricul-tural sector, the only difference lying in the degree ofseriousness.

Even fishing and animal husbandry, which haveattracted the attention of experts for much longer andshould therefore be faring much better, are still cryingout for assistance.

Experience from a wide range of countries wherehorticulture really stands as the intensive subset ofagriculture that deals with flowers, landscape plants,vegetables and fruits shows that it is not all that of amiracle for the sector to form the core of big business.

The going will definitely be tough indeed in the ab-sence of dedication and hard intelligent work aimed atfostering agroindustry without endangering the envi-ronment.

Just for the record, there are countries where hor-ticulture is focused on finding new and environmen-tally responsible ways of managing plants and pests tohelp increase crop and ornamental plant viability.

A number of universities in the US, among themSam Houston State University, place such a premiumon horticulture as a science dealing with productionand management of plants for food, comfort, feed,recreation and beauty that they offer it as one of theircore courses.

SHSU admits that plants play a crucial part in en-vironmental protection by re-vegetating and restoringland disturbed by human or natural activities, arrest-ing erosion, cleaning the air and water beautifying ur-ban and rural landscapes and recreation areas.

Horticulture is thus of special social consequencein that it improves the manner in which individualsand communities use plants for food and other pur-poses while repairing the environment and personalaesthetics. This is not to mention the well known factthat some of these plants are of immense medicinalvalue.

Now, we can bet that the likes of SokoineUniversity of Agriculture (SUA) and the government’sagricultural training institutes operating from variousregions in the country have all along been offering sim-ilar courses.

Having graduates able to work with others by us-ing crops and natural plants to help make Tanzania abetter place to live is surely something all of us shouldcherish.

A sure bonus here is that the graduates them-selves would have a wide array of careers open tothem, including serving as extension officers develop-ing greenhouses, vegetable farms and orchards orbotanical gardens.

They could also land well paying jobs at agricul-tural research institutions as well chemical and fer-tiliser firms.

The United States’ Unity College (Maine), whichenjoys distinguishing itself as America’sEnvironmental College, aptly notes that the demandfor horticultural services will continue to grow, theneed for environmental restoration and stopping ero-sion will require more experts in environmental horti-culture, and the need for bigger and better crops willincrease demand for workers in agriculture.

Just as agriculture generally, horticulture standsto benefit from mechanisation and enhanced farmmanagement efficiency. It is worth noting that thissubscribes to the very cornerstones of Tanzania’sKilimo Kwanza initiative.

It’s true that this will have an impact on job op-portunities somewhere along the line, but we should-n’t be so scared of the consequences as to ignore or un-derrate the importance of modern horticultural and al-lied practices.

The experts at our disposal are duty bound to helpin taking care of the ‘balancing act’ – so why should werisk continuing to lose millions of dollars every year byunnecessarily underutilising our huge potential inhorticulture?

Wallace MauggoEditor

Our horticulturecan do wonders

Artwork & Design: KN Mayunga To have your organisation promoted in Kilimo Kwanza, Call: 0787 571308, 0655 571308 0754 571308

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ANDTRAINING AUTHORITY (VETA)

BRIDGING OUR INNOVATIONS WITH

KILIMO KWANZA

• VETA has innovated Solar Powered Pumps Ideal forSmall Scale Pumped Irrigation Schemes in Rural andSemi-Urban Areas!

• Mass Production of these Pumps is Possible if Re-quested by users

• Water for Irrigation can be Sourced from:• River Stream• Well• Borehole, or• Reservoir• Harvested Rain Water• VETA’s innovation is a timely response to the National

Irrigation Policy of February 20, 2010. VETA is amongimplementing Stakeholders of the policy under Aca-demic and Research Institutions.

Location:VETA, Head Quarters, Chang’ombe RoadContacts: P.O. Box 2849, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIATel: +255 22 2863683/2863409Fax: +225 22 2863409E-mail: [email protected]: www.veta.go.tz

SSKKIILLLLEEDD LLAABBOOUURR FFOORRCCEE –– TTHHEE FFUUTTUURREE OOFF TTAANNZZAANNIIAA

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The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA

COVER STORY


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4 COVER STORY

By Bhoke Msama, Singida.

There is a saying thatSuccess usually comes tothose who are too busy tobe looking for it. And so itdid to Mr. Rashid AllyMamu, who got too busysetting up a sunflowerprocessing operation in

Singida to notice when the money startedrolling in. Even now, he is still too busywith the expansion that has seen more peo-ple, including unskilled ones who were notlucky to attend school, get gainful employ-ment.

After retiring from public service in2003, Mamu started a makeshift sunflowerprocessing plant which was registered in2007 by the Tanzania Food and DrugsAuthority (TFDA) and his products certi-fied by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards(TBS).

It is the high demand for sunflower oilin the country that prompted Mamu, theDirector of Nyemo Investment Company toinvest in sunflower production and process-ing. Accessing raw materials for sunfloweroil production was not a problem sincethere was plenty of sunflower in the region.“The availability of sunflower in Singidaencouraged me to invest in the processingindustry. So did the high demand for oilwhich does not contain too many chemi-cals,” says Mamu.

Singida is a major producer of sun-flower in Tanzania. Although it is grown inabundance, there were no reliable buyersand so the existence of Nyemo InvestmentCompany came as a blessing for farmers asit assured them of a market for their sun-flower.

According to a report by the SmallIndustries Development Organization(SIDO), the region depends on agriculture(both crop production and animal hus-bandry), commerce and small industries.Food crops grown include millet, sorghum,maize, cassava, sweet potatoes paddy andbeans, and cash crops include sunflower,cotton, finger millet groundnuts and onions.

The region receives rainfall of between500mm and 800mm per annum. The rainyseason commences in November up toApril. The dry season covers all monthsfrom May to October.

Agriculture in Singida region providesemployment to over 90% of the total work-ing population and there is about 1,134,400hectares suitable for growing various typesof crops.

The only available industries in the re-gion are small scale industries, usually pro-cessing industries which apply simple tech-nology that cannot meet the ever increasingconsumer demands. Most of these indus-tries are individually owned.

Mamu has a close working relationshipwith farmers in the village to ensure theconstant supply of sunflower for his plant.He has been working with more than 100farmers in the village together with collec-tion centres at Chamwino, Iramba, Kiteto,Kidarafa, Kalama to ensure the availabilityof raw materials (sunflower).

“We have collection centers in differentvillages and we have been working withfarmers from the village for production ofmaterials in order to ensure the constant ofsupply of materials,” he said.

Commenting on the market, Mamusays there is a high demand countrywideand beyond borders for cooking oil whichdoes not contain cholesterol. However, hesays there is a small distribution networkcountrywide.

Mamu says his company considers alltypes of consumers by packing the oil in dif-ferent packages such as half a litre, 1litre,5litres, 10litres, and 20litres to give a widerchoice to customers.

His plant can produce 1600 litres perday though the it only produces 1200 litresper day due to lack of sufficient raw mate-rials in some seasons. Mamu’s oil is of such

high quality as it has no chemicals added,but is cheap at the same time.

Mamu hopes to increase productionfrom the current 1200 litres to 2400 litresper day in the near future, so he goes formore market out of Singida and Tanzaniaas well. He currently employs ten people.

“We are also looking for partnershipswith others in agribusiness for better pro-duction and supply of quality seeds, provid-ing education to farmers and ensuringavailability of extension officers to everysunflower producer” says the proproetor.

He expressed appreciation to RuralLivelihood Development Company (RLDC)for providing education to farmers to im-prove productivity. This partnership withRLDC has enabled Nyemo Investments getquality raw materials from farmers.

Manase Kisula is also a sunflowerfarmer in Singida. He is also grateful toRLDC’s intervention saying farmers havebeen able to improve production as well asimproving quality of their produces.

“The training which we have been re-ceiving from RLDC and the extension offi-cers in our districts has changed my sun-flower production. I also have learnt how topreserve my sunflower before selling it tothe factories,” says Kisula.

He said although RLDC doesn’t providefree sunflower seeds, they have been help-ing farmers get the seeds from seed agentswithout delay.

Kisula says most farmers were gettingpoor harvest because they did notknow how to prepare the land properly atthe right time, nor were they using qualityseeds. He strongly encourages other farm-ers to use the extension officers for betterproduction of sunflower.

He says because of RLDC’s operations,his life has changed for the better. “The

marketing system has changed and it iseasy now to get markets even in the villagebecause there are collection centers,” henotes.

Fatma Huta, a sunflower grower saysher life has improved and production hasincreased since she started using qualityseeds from seed agents in her district.

“In Singida sunflower growth has im-pacted on people and many families arenow living better lives,” she says. “They arenow able to send their children to school,are building good houses and are using sun-flower by-product as feed for their live-stock,” she explained.

The Regional Commissioner forSingida, Dr. Parseko Kone says productionof cash crops in the region has increased,especially that of sunflower and sweet pota-toes. He added that honey from Singidahas already been acknowledged in the mar-ket and that the uniqueness of honey fromItigi village continues to add value to themarket.

The RC commended RLDC for theircontribution in making the market systemwork better for rural producers somethingwhich has improved their welfare.

Apart from providing training to farm-ers in Singida, RLDC also produces firstgrade seeds and encourages farmers to usetraditional fertilizers like mijingu to in-crease production.

In 2006, the yield for rural producers inSingida was Tshs 200,000 per acre but nowthe income is expected to increase to300,000 per acre due to the use of improvedseed varieties.

The Rural Livelihood DevelopmentCompany is an initiative of SwissDevelopment Cooperation which dedicatesits work to support and improve the lives ofrural producers.

By Lazaro Felix

The sheer size of unutilized arableland in Tanzania can be unsettling andwhen you choose to do something about it,the rewards can be satisfying, both psy-chologically and financially. FatmaRiyami, the Managing Director of NatureRipe Kilimanjaro Ltd, believesTanzanians can decisively kick out pover-ty if they make use of the idle land. Shehas done something about it at family lev-el, and so can we all.

Fatma’s family has invested in agri-culture and their efforts are paying off.Nature Ripe Kilimanjaro Ltd was estab-lished in 2005 as a five-family members’company. Today the company has 39 fam-ily shareholders.

“People are interested in buyingshares in our company because they seethe high quality of the mangoes we pro-duced and sold world wide,” she saysRiyami.

But success did not come by accident,as she explains: “Before embarking on themission, my husband and I did research tofind out how best to produce mangoes. Myhusband went to the United States andMiddle East. I went to Europe,” she said.

Riyami says it was her plant patholo-gist husband who initiated the idea ofplanting mangoes of the Florida type,which are widely known in the world mar-ket. The couple bought a farm atMkuranga in Coast Region where theystarted planting trees in 1992.

Their first mangoes were ready forsale in 2000 and so the couple took sam-ples to Oman and Dubai where people ap-preciated them. They started exportingmangoes to these countries.”

To achieve more exporting capacity,she said in 2005 they started a companyknown as Nature Ripe Kilimanjaro Ltdand started expanding mango exports toMiddle East where the demand in thosemarkets increased.

“It was a challenge to meet high de-mand of supplying mangoes by ourselves,so we mobilized the public aroundMkuranga and explained to them howthey could make a better life plantingmangoes for these markets,” Riyami ex-plained. Now the orders have increasedand come from as far as the Netherlandswhere samples were taken and receivedfavourable appreciation.

The company initiated a tree nurseryat Kinondoni near in Dar es Salaam forsupplying seedlings. Ninety percent of thenursery’s output is mangoes, and the rest

are other fruit varieties like tangerine,guava and oranges “The farmers get theirseedlings from our nursery and thay arealso trained in proper farming methods.”

The demand for seedlings from thenursery has been increasing. For exam-ple, some councils like Bagamoyo, Kilwa,some in Coastal regions and Zanzibarhave bought many mango seedling fromthe nursery. “In the coastal regions thereis the project titled Common Fund forCommodities where by about 600 farmersin Coast Region, Kilwa and Zanzibar areencouraged to at least have one acre ofmangoes,” she said

She explained all 600 farmers get themango seedlings from the nursery includ-ing other technical expertise like advice onproper spacing and how to tend the farms.“In some years to come some people in thecostal regions will kick out povertythrough from mango farming.”

The company also provides servicesand information to individuals who wantto learn more about mango farming evenat a small scale and may later can expandtheir production capacity. The nurseryalso attracts man visitors.

“We have been receiving guests whowish to know our activities; some are del-egates from World Trade Organization,farmers and the president of UnitedStates Dressage Federation and govern-ment officials,” she explained

Riyami encourages Tanzanians to use

the opportunities they have in the abun-dant land and the soil which supports avariety of crops provided proper agricul-tural methods are used to tend the land.

“We have tried to plant many fruitslike guava, pawpaw, watermelon, ba-nanas, pineapples and which flourishedand people have been admiring to our lit-tle plots,” says the commercial farmer.

The company owns 200 acres of farm-land but only 100 acres are in use, mostlyunder mangoes. They concentrate on hetype of mangoes that need three years toproduce fruits unlikely the local mangoesthat stay over eight years to produce.There are other plants like pineapplesthat are grown in small amounts betweenthe lines of mango trees.

Riyami notes that mangoes have moreopportunities in the country and outsidethe country especially in Dubai and Omanwhere Kenya, South Africa and India alsoexport. But there is demand also inTanzania.

In 2009 Kenya exported about 1,000tonnes of mangoes to Tanzanian marketand the reason was under production ca-pacity of the local farmers. Tanzania haslow production capacity resulting frompoor technology and a public tendency notto take up the many opportunities avail-able.

“Think of acres in various countries,in our farms we are planting 64 mangotrees in one acre, in Israel one acre con-

tains 120 mango trees and in SouthAfrican one acre sustains 1,000 trees,” sheexplained. “However the variation interms of the number of trees in an acredoes not affect quality, rather, it is theoutput depending on the kind of technolo-gy employed in the farm for example dripirrigation, proper weeding and usingchemicals to kill insects and disease. Weare now moving into increasing the capac-ity of mango trees in every acre from cur-rent 64 trees to 124 trees,” she explained

However the company has sufferedsome stagnation due to a number of fac-tors like poor storage facilities which leadsto losses during the harvesting period.

“We lack cooling facilities during fruittransportion from farms and for storage.”

The infrastructure network ofTanzania is also a major challenge to fruitfarmers.

Technology in general is a major hin-drance to expansion of fruit production asthere is hardly any processing capacity inthe country, meaning there is limited val-ue addition. Unreliable electricity supplyis another headache, as it makes coolingand irrigation erratic processes. Investingin expensive processing machinery with-out reliable power supply is a terribly highrisk for an entrepreneur to take.

On the whole, agribusiness is still ter-ribly underdeveloped with support servic-es like packaging being woefully inade-quate.

Sunny times for Singida sunflower farmers

Growing money on mangotrees in Mkuranga

Mr. Rashid Ally Mamu

Mr. Rashid Mamu does not regret investing insunflower processing.

By Felix Lazaro

FARMERS in Mkoma vil-lage in Mara Region willsoon be producing more,thanks to a new irrigationsystem to be introducedby the RyanguboIrrigation FarmersAssociation (RIFA).

About 150 farmers will benefit from thewind turbine technology that RIFA intendsto install to generate electricity to run theelectric water pumps used in irrigation.

This is the second technology that theassociation is introducing since it was es-tablished in February 1994. The first tech-nology, which is currently in use, is thewindmill pump. The introduction of thewind turbine means improved farming andproduction for RIFA farmers.

This will be a major development forRIFA farmers who have come a long way intheir search for improved farming. Thesefarmers established RIFA as an initiative toaddress drought problems caused by cli-matic changes that hit Tanzania between1980s and 1990s. This was a time whenrain was unpredictable, hence crops infarms dried and seeds never germinateddue to lack of water.

The situation was so risky among farm-ers who depended only on rainfall, as har-vesting remained poor with the majoritystarving of hunger and thirst.

As a result, in 1994 about 100 Mkoma

villagers met to discuss on how to find a so-lution to these problems. The only immedi-ate solution was to start irrigation farmingsince Lake Victoria could provide water forthe activity.

The problem was how could the starv-ing villagers with no technology get waterfrom a number of kilometers away to theirfarms? The challenge was however solvedwhen one of the villagers came up with theidea of getting a pump that could help get-ting water from the lake to the farms.

“I introduced the idea that it was betterif we used the windmill pump to get waterfrom the lake to irrigate our farms, but thiswas still a challenge as we had no money.The solution we thought was to form an as-sociation so we could write a proposal andget money from donors,” explains RobertMatiku, RIFA’s Managing Director.

The association managed to get 39m/-from the Britain Tanzania Society in theUnited Kingdom.

This was followed by a feasibility studydone from 1998 to 1999 in Suguti MusomaRural. The study proved that the use of thewindmill pump could help the farmers anda report was submitted to the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP).

The money enabled the farmers to builda tank with a capacity of 160,000litres atMkoma village which was connected to 350PVC pipes to transport water from LakeVictoria to the farms which were two kilo-metres away. This was a relief to the farm-ers as they could access water for both irri-gation and domestic use.

Matiku says although this technologyhelped the farmers, there were some chal-lenges like low pumping speed compared tothe needs and that there was more waterloss as the water was transported from thetank to the farms as only open fallowing ir-rigation system was used. This was a prob-lem endured from 2001 to 2003 when prop-er channeling of water using pipes was in-troduced.

The farmers’ hope to address hunger intheir area was still in question due to lowcapacity of the windmill pump. A more ad-vanced technology was needed as an alter-native. This necessitated the ongoing planto introduce the wind turbine to generateelectricity to run the electric water pumps.

This source of energy can pump 10,000to 50,000 litres of water in an hour depend-ing on the wind speed. According to a studydone by RIFA, the area of the project canhave wind for six to eight hours whichmeans more water would be available forfarming and domestic use.

“With such pumping speed of the windturbine, the 160,000 tank litres can be filledwithin three hours unlike the local wind-mill pump which takes three days to fill thesame tank, which is too risky for the farm-ers,” Matiku says.

To irrigate 40 acres of the land current-ly under RIFA project, 144,000 litres of wa-ter are needed per day.

Apart from pumping more water in aday as compared to the wind mill, anotheradvantage of using the wind turbine is thatit is free from ongoing operating costs. This

is something that farmers can afford sinceit only requires wind to operate unlike oth-er pumps that require electricity, diesel,petrol and even gas as sources of energy.

The wind turbine has been widely usedin developed countries like theNetherlands, the United State of Americaand Denmark. In Africa it is used in SouthAfrica.

Studies show that a wind turbine in-vestment pays for itself most quickly whenmost or all of the power is used on the farm,since the farmer is saving power at a retailprice, rather than selling it at a wholesaleprice. A well-maintained wind turbine canlast 30 years and hence it can be a prof-itable investment like any other long-terminvestment.

RIFA is currently working on getting a100m/- bank loan to facilitate the acquisi-tion of the new technology.

If obtained, the money will also be usedto finance other project related facilitiessuch as the construction of the pump housealong Lake Victoria for the security of theelectric pump, buying electric pumps, atractor, building crop storage facilities,pipes and milling machines to avoidwastage of maize and rice after harvesting.The money will also be used to fix machinesand pumps when needed.

The plan is to have 60 hectares underirrigation annually and if successfully in-stalled, the wind turbine technology willease the burden on women and childrenwho currently walk long distances to fetchwater.

By Felix Lazaro

DESPITE having countless opportuni-ties for irrigation, Tanzania has been per-forming poorly in the sector.

This is due to the fact that irrigation ismostly undertaken by small holder farmerswith little knowledge of agricultural watermanagement, it has been established.

Only a few large-scale farmers under-take commercial agriculture using efficientpressurized irrigation systems like drips,centre pivot and rain-gun.

Tanzania is second in Africa after theDRC for large volumes of water resourcesbut is currently only able to irrigate one percent of its potential irrigable land of 29.4million hectares. The country’s abundantfertile land only lies idle as waters fromKagera, Mara, Rufiji and Pangani rivers tomention but a few remain unutilized.Tanzania has also been blessed with nu-merous basins and plains.

The Head of Agricultural Engineeringat Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA),Prof. Valerian Silayo says the existing irri-gation infrastructure in Tanzania is stillpoor and inappropriate causing the overallwater use efficiency to be very low at an av-erage of 15-20%.

In his paper “Promotion of Irrigationand Value Addition for IncreasedProfitability of the Tanzanian AgriculturalSector” Prof. Silayo says most of the irrigat-ed areas in Tanzania are undersurface irri-gation and water distribution is usually byline and unlined canals and furrows andbasins. Sprinkler irrigation is used by a fewlarge-scale commercial farmers.

“Localized irrigation, in particular dripirrigation has only just begun to receive at-tention and is currently popular amongcommercial farmers on coffee and tea plan-tations including horticulture crop produc-tion but is rarely used by smallholders,”says the professor.

Prof. Silayo says the 1 per cent

Tanzania potential area for irrigation issmall compared to countries like Egyptwhich irrigates 77% of its irrigable land,Kenya 29% and South Africa 100%.

Prof. Silayo says the total water extrac-tion in Tanzania mainland in 2002 was es-timated to be 5,142 million litres whichwere only about 6% of the internal renew-able water resources. Agriculture was con-suming more water.

Agriculture consumed the largest sharewith 4,624 million litres which accounted toalmost 90% percent of the total water ex-traction as compared to the world averageof 70% and 86% for Africa.

Statistics show that among 4,624 mil-lions litres, 4,417 million litres are for irri-gation, 207 million litres for livestock and493 million litres for domestic use. Almostall irrigation water on the main land is sur-face water and groundwater utilization is0.2 of all irrigated areas.

In his 2008 paper “Why DevelopingCountries need Dramatic Increase of Water

Resources Productivity”, Prof. Mwandosyasays the total irrigated land in developingcountries in 2003 was 207,965,000 hectaresagainst the total world area of 277,098,000hectares, the area was about 17% of theworld land but provided 40% of the globalfood. However the National IrrigationMaster Plan of 2002 shows that the total ir-rigation potential of Tanzania is about 29.4million hectares with different suitabilitylevels. A total of 2.3 million hectares con-tain high potentiality, 4.8 million hectareshave medium potentiality while 22.3 mil-lion hectares have low potentiality.

Mr. Dunstan Mrutu, ExecutiveSecretary of the Tanzania NationalBusiness Council says the key factors thatmust always guide policies is that successin agricultural transformation will onlycome when the Tanzanian farmer is able toget the most crops for each drop of water,pointing out that irrigation systems haveplayed a significant contribution to food se-curity in countries like Sudan and Egypt.

By Miki Tasseni

JUST what sort of reforms are neededon the law relating to land holding, so thatchronic problems facing different groups ofland users are resolved is as yet unclear, asa certain convergence seems to be in themaking, but within a profound diversity.

A certain event is a case in point, or-ganized by the Tanzania GenderNetworking Program (TGNP) where twosignificant ideas were raised, first in themain proposals by TGNP and its close palsfrom Hakiardhi, the land rights lobby. Thenthere was the US envoy.

The latter’s remarks were focused onthe need for assurance of land ownership(unless it actually meant occupancy) rightsto women – and media reporting focused on’ownership’ which was a bit excessive. It isunlikely that the US envoy, despite beingan African-American, would actually havewished to delve into technicalities of landlaws and in what reform direction they needto be taken up, but chances are

that he is concerned with poor access forwomen. They produce most family food butare too insecure.

In other words there was probably nosuggestion from the US envoy about landownership as such but rather access to land,for instance in case the family head dies,and close relatives – who inherit the land onthe basis of the customary law regime –have other ideas.

The same would apply to a family housethey occupy if no title deed has been made

out in favor of the widow, as brothers comefirst in the right to inheritance. The logic isthat it is within clan land, and thus thewoman can’t ‘marry’ a man into clan land!

The problem about inheritance of landis keeping ‘purity’ of the clan on the onehand, and ensuring that interests of heirson a customary law basis prevail, includingright of disposal of that land as they see fit.A similar situation is underage marriages ofyoung girls arranged by their fathers in par-ticular, which the breath of women rightslobby sees as oppression of women – whichis true.

But finally it comes down to the samesituation as with land rights, that is to pre-vent pregnancy, carting a kid unrecognizedby a clan.

That is one problem with land laws andwomen’s rights which it is unlikely that get-togethers which start from the viewpoint ofgender can actually come to comprehend, orproduce viable suggestions as to how it canbe changed. Women’s access to land or in-heritance of houses for instance doesn’t

need a change in the law or custom – as cus-tom can’t be changed – but in relation tocommercial access.

If a woman purchases a piece of landand builds a house that will be hers as noclan issue arises, so it works.

What however was closer to land rightsper se and in relation to ensuring productiveactivity was the TGNP proposal in that get-together, where it was suggested that landtitles be issued to cattle herders so they canbe assured of grazing land.

It wasn’t the first time that the sugges-tion has come up, and in a way it representsa rather oblique mode or outlook on theproblem of land rights as a whole, as the se-curing of land rights for grazing is a bit au-dacious. It facilitates and then constrainsthe same herders.

What is surprising about that sugges-tion is that it is strangely quiet about own-ership of land by villagers – and their abili-ty to put such land to the market when it ismapped out (surveyed) and they have titledeeds. The emphasis among activists and

donor agencies is still to ensure that vil-lagers control their land against encroach-ments for instance in big biofuel projectsthat are being purveyed by the day by

TIC and other investment agencies, in-cluding chambers of commerce. They wishfor villages to retain land titles.

So the question is why there is a thrustto cattle herders owning (or being assured ofrights to land by title deeds) why the sameisn’t being suggested for villagers – havingto crowd as part of villages?

The answer may be twofold though ithasn’t been clarified or otherwise beenmade sufficiently clear to those who listenfrom outside. One aspect is that cattleherders tend to be more individual in char-acter and thus each may have grazing land,or within a family or clan of users of land forgrazing, respectively.

The other aspect is that it is the grazingland which is undefined in the Village LandAct of 1999, and thus it becomes easy to for-bid the use of this or that area for that pur-pose. In recent years herders have been

shifted from more habitable or usable pas-turelands into rather negative tsetse infest-ed areas in Lindi Region in particular,

the principal reason being that they hadno valid claim to residence –herding – inKilombero, Ihefu or other valley areas.

If they were registered on that landwould they have remained? In legal terms itis possible to suggest that activists are try-ing to create non-existent customary law, asherders passing through a district that isn’ttheir ancestral place cannot become bonafide occupants of that land, since they arelikely to move.

And creating such rights inter aliameans forfeiting the right to move, as suchright can’t be created each time a herdermoves – unless activists model the ‘bill ofrights’ of herders all the way, to bend tra-dition in that direction. One has natural ac-cess only to ancestral land.

Just how important these suggestionsare likely to come up when the new govern-ment takes office shall depend on demandsof Kilimo Kwanza as it touches on both

groups. There is a problem of the reductionof hunger and poverty in relation to women,as part of food self-sufficiency needs, andthen solving acute problems confrontingherders, though policy in that direction is abit fluid. Once rain is regular on any areawhich they occupy, pressure is lessened, butif it

fails, it is hard to see occupancy titleshelping.

In that sense a sort of policy implicationconvergence arises, that no real pressureshall be placed on the new government asregards women’s rights since those who arein a position to exercise such pressure are ina position of owning land, or houses, com-mercially.

Those who are part of villages don’tclaim land access rights in order to plantfood crops –as that is definitely within theirrights, or even on the basis of clan needsgenerally. It can’t be said that a clan willsell land and let its children starve, for lackof access.

In that case there is a glaring weaknessto tie the issue of land rights for women toproducing food for the family, since that is-n’t where it is located, but rather in the mo-bility of property and access to land as prop-erty for women.

In that aspect no limitations exist as towomen owning land in the sense of buying apiece of land for instance in urban areas, butactivists don’t have commerce in mind, butdestabilizing and eroding customary law inthat area. But so long as clans exist, onlyclan law can be used, not gender.

The Guardian KILIMO KWANZATuesday 12 October, 2010

7


6 NEWS NEWS

New irrigation technologyfor Ryangubo farmers

Activists, donors seeking midpointideas in land law reform projectCountry’s irrigation capacity yet to be realised

By Bhoke Msama

Investing in irrigation develop-ment is one of the effectivemeans of increasing and stabiliz-ing food and cash crops produc-tion. It is in this regard that oneof the Kilimo Kwanza partners,the Vocational Educational andTraining Authority (VETA) came

up with the economical solar powered waterpumps for irrigation. The aim being to helpeven the small holder farmers who can notafford to irrigate their farms using electricwater pumps given the high electricity tar-iffs.

Availability of the affordable waterpumps would in turn see more and more ir-rigable land used unlike is the case at themoment. Studies show the country’s irriga-tion potential as being estimated at 2.1 mil-lion hectares in mainland Tanzania and

8,521 hectares for Zanzibar. However, it is only 290,000 hectares of

the area which is under irrigation farming.Irrigation farming is important especiallywhen the drought effects are observed andcan pose a key threat to food production inthe country. It is through irrigation thathigh and stable yields can be obtained.

VETA’s solar powered water pumps canbe used for both small scale farmers andmedium scale farms.

The solar powered water pumps canalso be applicable in semi urban communi-ties where water is scarce and becomes amajor hurdle for the farmers to run theirday to day activities.

The pump is ideal for water for irriga-tion purposes in the rural areas and it isalso economical for the communities livingin absolute poverty that depend on farmingto earn their daily bread.

Know who innovated the pump? It’s nota Mzungu but an instructor with VETA,

Edmund Mrope. He did this in his quest toensure that a majority of Tanzanians bene-fited from irrigation farming and enjoyedincreased income for their households.

The machine has a pumping capacity of90 litres per minute, which can manage tomeet the irrigation needs of a small ormedium farm.

Mr Mrope says using the solar poweredwater pump can help the farmer to cut elec-tricity costs or the costs of manpower whichwould have previously been used as an al-ternative way of pumping water into thefarm.

He says farmers can incur fewer ex-penses when using this type of water pumpas it only requires minor maintenances andrepairs compared with the other machines.The solar powered water pump is also envi-ronmental friendly.

“We have invented this machine to en-sure that every house hold has an opportu-nity to access it at a much cheaper price and

enable them to increase production while atthe same time increasing income and foodsecurity for the families and their respec-tive communities,” says Mr Mrope.

VETA is striving to publicize the irriga-tion pumps to farmers through variouschannels including exhibitions.

Mrope called upon other key playerssuch as learning institutions, financial in-stitutions and the media among others tosupport VETA in its quest to fulfill its mis-sion. VETA was established by the act ofparliament of 1994 to guide the vocationaleducation and training system in Tanzania.

The institution’s role is coordinating,regulating, financing, providing and pro-moting vocational education to the peoplein need.

VETA’s technicians have been workinginto various innovations which are aimed atmaking lives for the majority of Tanzanianseasier and the solar powered water pumphas been one of the major breakthroughs.

The wind turbine will soon replace thewindmill technology which is currentlyused to generate power to run electricwater pumps for irrigation.

The solar powered water pumpsare a blessing to farmers whocan not afford electric waterpumps.

VETA introduces affordablesolar powered water pumps

Tea farmers in Tarime turn to Tobacco and Marijuana farming

By Bhoke Msama

Three years ago, a tea project wasstarted in Pemba, Nyakato, Sirari andMwema wards in Tarime district, givingfarmers hope of a bright future. Throughthe project, the farmers expected to saygood bye to poverty.

Today these farmers wish the projectwas never introduced. Despite embracing itwith both arms by doing their best to makeit a reality, these villagers are now poorerthan never before.

The government had promised to buildtwo tea factories in Soloneta andNyasoricho areas and assured the farmersthat market would not be a problem.Unfortunately, the areas selected for theconstruction of the factories remain un-touched today while tea rots in the farms.

Out of despair, some farmers have re-sorted to tobacco, marijuana and horticul-ture farming of which they are assured ofgetting their daily bread at least.

The tea project chairman and trainer,Mr. Emmanuel Mwichale says lack of fac-tories and markets have been hinderingfarmers from earning an income from teaproduction. According to him, two yearshave passed since the government prom-ised to build the factories but there is nosign that the factories will be constructedany time soon.

The government had told farmers toexpand their farms before the factoriescould be built. Some farmers did so and arenow frustrated that the government hasnot kept its promise.

Instead, the government has only beenproviding the farmers with agricultural in-puts such as fertilizers for planting, watercanes and money maker pumps for irriga-tion to mention but a few.

Baisanako Matiko is a tea farmer withnine children. He depends solely on agri-culture for a living and is therefore amongthe farmers who have a beef with the gov-ernment. Like many other farmers, Matikofulfilled the government’s condition to ex-pand their farms before the factories wereconstructed.

“When this project was launched in thisvillage, the government promised to give usa factory and help us with markets. As youcan see, I uprooted almost 2800 coffee treesto give way for tea. Today the tea is readyfor processing and I have already trimmedit more than three times waiting for theconstruction of factory which we don’t knowwhen it will be built,” says Matiko.

He said that agricultural officers visit-ed his farm and promised that every farmerwho would trim the tea once while waitingfor the factory’s construction would be paidTsh 5000 but until today the farmers arestill waiting to be paid.

Juma Magige has 18 children andthree wives and he depends on agricultureto take care of his family. He blames thegovernment for contributing to his poverty.

“What we are trimming down is themoney and the government is telling us

that they can’t build the factory until thefarmers expand their farms. We have teawhich is ready for harvesting, but we havenowhere to sell it. This way we farmers willnever walk away from poverty,” saidMagige.

He said in 2009, the government prom-ised to compensate farmers who had teawhich was ready for sale but never did so.

Turuka Marwa is a farmer in Gitengavillage, Mboji ward. Like Magige, he alsoblames the government for causing povertyamong farmers. He said the only way tosurvive in the agricultural sector is by mod-ernizing agriculture and that the govern-ment was letting them down. He is of theopinion that farmers should be allowed tosell their tea in Kenya.

“If there is no factory or markets inTanzania why did the government estab-lish this project? We should be allowed tosell in Kenyan because the tea is ready andwe have nowhere to store it.” Marwa said

He also thinks it would be wise if thegovernment allowed farmers to cultivatemarijuana rather than let them suffer withone cash crop (tea) which does not helpthem improve their life standard.

Charles Turuka also a farmer says;“The district has no cash crop compared toothers and this causes confusion to farm-ers. The government should identify onecash crop for farmers to concentrate on sothey can at least to improve their income.Here in Tarime we produce maize, coffee,tobacco, tea, cassava, millet, marijuana, ba-nanas and vegetables.” Turuka said.

He says many farmers have now shift-ed to marijuana and tobacco because theyare more beneficial than other crops liketea or maize. In Kyoruba village more peo-ple are now producing tobacco becausemany companies from Kenya provide themwith agricultural inputs as motivation tocontinue producing the crop.

Clarifying on the matter, the agricul-tural officer for the tea project, TobiasKangarawe said the government can notconstruct the factories without being surethere would be enough tea for processing.He said about 500 hectares are needed forthe construction of the factories and thattea farms should not be less than 300hectares in order to attract investors to in-vest in the tea project.

“The construction of the factory goeswith encouraging farmers to increase thesizes of their farms in order to attract in-vestors. An investor can not build a tea fac-tory without being sure of getting enoughtea for processing. Currently, what thefarmers here can produce is loss than tentones which are not enough,” Kangarawesaid, adding; “I accept that the project isgrowing very fast and farmers will need afactory in future but they should cultivatemore tea to meet investors’ demand first,”he said.

For farmers who have tea ready forsale, he said there was a plan to help themsell their tea in Kisii Kenya while they waitfor the factory construction.

Dar’s poorest survive ona single meal per day

By Angel Navuri

NOT so long ago, a pupil at a schoolin Tegeta fainted and was rushed byteachers to a nearby dispensary. Theteachers had assumed the boy was sickbut upon examination, it transpired thathunger was the problem.

The boy had gone to bed on a hungrystomach the previous night and hadn’ttaken breakfast that morning. Thiswould not have happened if the schoolhad a porridge for pupils programme likeis the case in some schools upcountry.

The Tegeta pupil is one of hundredsof children in Tanzania who live on onemeal a day. The one meal per day tragedythat strikes poor families both in ruraland urban areas was highlighted at a re-cent journalists’ training on children’s 10Agenda chip facilitated by the UnitedNations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

These poor families can not afford thestandard three meals a day given theirlow income status. Most live on less thana dollar a day.

Amina Hassan is a mother of fourwho earns a living by selling tomatoesand onions along the road side in Bunju.I met Amina recently and she looked sosad as she waited for customers.

“My children feed once a day becauseI don’t make much money from this busi-ness. The little money I earn does notmeet my family’s needs,” she said bitter-ly.

According to Amina, feedingon one meal per day has be-come the order of the dayin her family that herchildren are nowused to it. They goto school notthinking of hav-ing more thanone meal.

Cuddlingher little babyshe was carrying,Amina said; “Asyou can see mybaby is healthy butshe’s not feedingwell, but l have nochoice because my in-come is very low. Life is be-coming more difficult everyday,” she lamented.

Amina earns between 2000/- and3000/- a day and it is from this meager in-come that she is supposed to save for allher family expenses including rent andfood.

Since health care costs are too high,Amina and her children drink boiledMuarobaini (neem) to avoid falling sick.

“My source of income is low and themoney I earn is not enough to carter forall my needs. So what l do to avoid fallingsick is drink “muarobaini” at least oneglass per day. It really helps. For my kidsl give them two spoons every week,” sheexplained

Amina wishes she could get a loan tohelp her improve her business. She callsupon the government to make sure thatloans are accessed by many people, espe-cially women so that life can be manage-able.

“l am not that educated but l fail tounderstand our government because l re-member very well how the presidentpromised that we will have a better lifebut nothing has changed. In fact life isbecoming more difficult every day,”Amina noted.

Think life is hard for Amina becauseshe is a single mother? She is not. Herhusband, Hassan Ali is a car washer. Aliearns 3000/- per day but still the moneyis not enough because he has extendedfamily to take care of as well.

“On weekends l try my best for mykids to get three meals, but sometimes itgets really hard. l wonder what kind oflife this is that l am living. l really want-ed to start a reasonable business but lhave failed. I know my life cannot changeand l have accepted things the way theyare,” explained a despaired Ali.

Justa Mwaituka from Kiota forWomen's Health and Development (KI-WOHEDE), says there is a need to invest

in good nutrition. According to her, morethan a third of Tanzanian children do notreach their physical and mental potentialbecause of malnutrition, which is thecause for more than one third of childdeaths in Tanzania.

It is estimated that over 40,000Tanzanian children under five will die by2010 from causes related to malnutrition.The most damage is inflicted duringpregnancy and in the first two years of achild’s life, action must therefore focus onthis period of life.

According to Mwaituka good nutri-tion for children and women is essentialfor a strong economy. Mwaituka says thenew focus on agricultural developmenthas opened an opportunity for nutritionto be placed at the heart of Tanzania’sprogress.

She says inexpensive fortified foodsmust become widely available inTanzania, the relevant legislation, regu-lation and standards must be urgentlycompleted and enacted. Every health fa-cility should provide essential nutritionservices for children and women, intro-ducing vitamin A and iron supplements,counseling on how best to feed youngchildren and other family members, andtreatment for malnutrition.

Mwaituka is of the opinion that everydistrict should budget for and recruit anutrition focal person who has overall re-sponsibility for the delivery of nutritionservices for children and women. At thesame time, safety nets and social cash

transfers must reach vulnerablepregnant women and chil-

dren under the age of twoso that resources reachthem at the mostcritical age for en-suring good nutri-tion and healthdevelopment.

Every child-hood develop-ment investmentis another impor-tant aspect aschildren frompoorest communi-

ties are at greaterrisk of diseases and

malnutrition. They alsodo less well in school.“Parents in the poorest

communities should get help to makesure their children get the best start inlife. And support for the communitybased parenting and early childhood de-velopment programmes will help ensurechildren grow up healthy” said Mwaituka

Early childhood programmes focusedon the poorest families help parents toprovide a better start for their childrenand help close the gap between the richand the poor. Investment in early child-hood gives a seven fold return and aremuch more cost efficient than investingin remedial programmes later in a child’slife.

Parents in the poorest communitiesshould get help to make sure their chil-dren get the best start in life, and supportfor the community based parenting andearly childhood development pro-grammes will ensure children growhealthy, are well nourished and well pre-pared for school.

A national in-service training pro-gramme for practitioners should be es-tablished. Priority in training should begiven to those working in the poorestcommunities. Local committees shouldbe established at district and ward levelsthat will monitor the availability andhelp improve the quality of early childhood development centers.

Priority should be put in the follow-ing areas. Investing to save the lives ofchildren and women, good nutrition, bet-ter hygiene, sanitation and health facili-ties, early child hood development, quali-ty of education for all children, makingschools safe, protecting infants and ado-lescent girls from HIV, ,reduce teenagepregnancy, protect children from violenceand exploitation and children with dis-abilities.

If this is done, our children will havea better life and become resourceful lead-ers of tomorrow.

Agriculture MinisterStephen Wassira

By Lazaro Felix

TANZANIA has been los-ing millions of dollarsevery year by underutiliz-ing its huge potential inhorticulture production.Tanzania’s potential ishigher than most Africancountries but it is yet to

take advantage of the business that is in-creasingly becoming a source of foreign ex-change earnings and job creation.

The Executive Secretary of theTanzania National Business Council(TNBC), Dunstan Mrutu said at a recentengineers’ meeting on Kilimo Kwanza thatthe country had a wide range of agro-cli-mates suitable for the production of tropi-cal, subtropical and temperate fruits, veg-etables and spices. However, Mrutu said inmany of these agro-climatic zones, theavailable production potential was grosslyunder utilized.

“For example, Tanzania has the poten-tial to produce 2,000,000 metric tons of fruitworth at least one trillion shillings or aboutone billion dollars. In addition to fruit, ap-proximately 1,200,000 metric tons of veg-etables can be produced annually valued at600bn/-,” Mrutu said.

Mrutu said in spite of this huge capaci-ty, Kenya has been doing better as far ashorticulture exports are concerned. At atime Kenya exports horticulture amountingto USD 1.7bn, and employing 500,000 peo-ple while Tanzania exports horticultureamounting to USD130m employing 30,000people.

“These are crops with the highest jobcreation capacity and a combination of highexport earnings,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable exports are on therise and increasingly becoming an impor-tant source of foreign exchange earnings.

Mrutu said in the view of the private sector,the strategy for horticulture expansionmust be market oriented.

“In other words, all activities and pro-grammes need to be predicated on cropsand market chains for which there is ademonstrable market. Horticulture is notproduction driven. Markets need to be con-ceived as actual entities ready to buy andthe driver for production,” said Mrutu.

He noted that the consumption of fruitsand vegetables was less than half of the rec-ommended rate and said more should beproduced. The average consumption isabout 30 kilograms per capita in urban ar-

eas and about 17 kilograms per capita inrural areas. Mrutu recommended nutritioneducation and promotion of fruits and veg-etables as nutritional crops since this wouldfacilitate increased demand and hence in-creased production.

Mrutu anticipates that horticulturewould make the largest contribu tion in thetransformation of Tanzania’s agriculture.However, he said this will only be possiblewith the extension of the runway atMwanza airport to link with Arusha andKilimanjaro International Airport for aircargo combination of horticulture and fish.

The completion of Mbeya airport is an-

other requirement plus cold storage infra-structure for the realization of the potentialin the southern regions.

In its 2002 study on HorticultureDevelopment in Tanzania, The Ministry ofAgriculture, Food and Cooperatives statesin part; “To-date modern horticulture is amultimillion dollar business in advancedcountries such as Netherlands, Germany,France, Belgium, United States, Japan andChina.”

The study goes on saying that in Africa,South Africa takes the lead followed byKenya, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. It also saysthat Tanzania has the highest potential inAfrica in horticulture production but thatthis potential is yet to be realized.

Commenting on fruits and vegetablesinvestment in Tanzania, a don in theDepartment of Agricultural Engineeringand Land Planning at Sokoine Universityof Agriculture, Prof. Valerian Silayo saidthis was a highly marginalized area thathad not managed to attract investors. Prof.Silayo said even the few industries that ex-ist like Natural Choice and Dabaga werenot operating as expected. “The largeplants under the defunct National MillingCorporation collapsed soon after privatiza-tion or have changed business,” Prof. Silayosaid.

It’s outlined in the TanzaniaDevelopment Vision 2025 that throughagriculture, the government will be able toreduce the proportion of those living inpoverty by 50 per cent by 2010 and elimi-nate poverty by 2025.

However, this will only be realised if allthe ten pillars of Kilimo kwanza adopted toenable the country achieve a green revolu-tion will be implemented as planned.

This way, it will also be possible for thecountry to fully utilise its potential in horti-culture production and therefore earn themillions of dollars it has been losing in thebusiness.


8 NEWS

Tanzania losing billions of shillings in horticulture production

Power tillers lie idle inTandahimba District

By Angel Navuri, Tandahimba

AS the government pursues measuresto eliminate the use of the hand-hoe bymaking power tillers available at lowerprices, most farmers still find them too ex-pensive to afford.

In areas like Tandahimba District inMtwara Region, the majority of farmersdon’t find the tillers useful at all since theycannot afford to have them.

Out of the available 50 power tillers inthe district, only 12 have been given out tothe farmers so far. The remaining 38 lieidle in the District Commisioner’s officecompound with farmers claiming thatapart from the high price, the tillers cannothandle the hard land in theirfarms.

However, the DistrictCommissioner, AsnaMwilima says thetillers will be issuedout after the generalelections scheduledfor October 31.

According tofarmers interviewed,the machines are notstrong enough for theirtype of land which hasbecome hard having notbeen cultivated for years.

The price of one powertiller stands at 3,800 US Dollars(over 4.5m/-) but goes up due to additionaloptional equipment attached such as waterpumps and paddlers.

“We can’t deny that the government istrying to help farmers, but the power tillersare not strong for this type of soil and thefact that many trees have to be uprooted.The power tillers have been lying here forso long as farmers are not interested. At thesame time they are too expensive,” saidKhalid Omar, a farmer.

Omar advised the government to dis-tribute the power tillers to areas wherefarmers can make good use of them.

He added that the power tillers are notgiven to individual farmers but to groups,

so they can pool resources, but still farmersfind the price too high.

Neither does the fact that the TanzaniaInvestment Bank (TIB) is offering loans tofarmers through its Agricultural ProjectsFinancing Window seem to help matters.TIB gives guidelines for “specific terms andconditions” to borrowers, for instance, aborrower must have acceptable legal sta-tus, e.g. they should be members of cooper-atives, SACCOS, Micro-financeInstitutions and Associations.

According to Omar the farmers are un-willing to borrow the power tillers becausethe price is too high. The government set-ting aside 120bn/-, which according toFinance Minister Mustafa Mkullo (pic-

tured), was allocated to KilimoKwanza” during 2009/10 fi-

nancial year. The agricul-ture budget is 666.9bn/-meant to help thefarmers do away withsubsistence farming.

Tandahimbaleads in cashew nutsproduction and ac-cording to Mwilima,the expectation thisseason is to harvestover 30 tonnes of cash-

es nuts.In 2005, 42,673

hectares were cultivated andthese have been expanded to 71,453

hectares this year. A total of 9bn/- wasearned in 2005 and the expectation is mak-ing more than 20bn/- this year.

Ninety five per cent of farmers in thedistrict depend on cashew nuts farmingand market is not a problem since they selltheir cashew nuts to cooperatives.

Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said re-cently that the government has continuedto address challenges faced by farmers todifferent degrees in collaboration with var-ious stakeholders.

Farmers in Tandahimba hope the gov-ernment will soon come up with a solutionto the power tiller problem so they may beable to improve their farming.

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Kilimo Kwanza: Issue 22