Over 40,000 farmers are expected to boost productivity in agriculture sector as OCP Africa, a subsidiary of OCP Group – a world leader in the phosphate industry launched OCP School Lab project in the Southern Highlands.
Launched in Rukwa Saturday, the project aims at offering interactive training on good agricultural practices, adapted to specific crops in the beneficiary regions.
On May 21, 2021, farmers and regional government leaders met at Sumbawanga town to experience high technology for fertilizer recommendations based on soil, yield target and crop nutrition. They interacted with experts and benefited from knowledge that will make their farming experience, improve.
OCP AFRICA, through its subsidiary OCP TANZANIA LTD, capitalizing from the previous experiences of the first roll out of OCP School Lab in 2019, launched the second phase among farmers in four regions, beginning with Rukwa, followed by Mbeya, Iringa and Morogoro, in partnership with experts from Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Departments (TARI Uyole Center, Regional Administration and Local Government).
OCP TANZANIA Ltd provides farmers with one on one advice on interventions and crop nutrition recommendations for maize, rice, potatoes and Sunflower crop to improve their farming practices and enhance yields.
This campaign is a continuation of 2019 OCP school lab that was implemented in Njombe and Songwe regions of which 20,000 farmers were reached and benefited.
The Soil analysis results in these regions revealed that, apart from phosphorus and nitrogen deficiencies which have been addressed for many years, potassium, sulphur and zinc were also limiting.
This finding suggesting that for farmer to get the expected yield, they need to use fertilizers which will supply the deficient nutrients. Furthermore, most soils were acidic, this calling for the use of agriculture lime.
Representing Rukwa Regional Commissioner at a launching ceremony, Kalambo District Commissioner Mr Kalolius Misungwi said:
“Agriculture has employed over 65% of Tanzanians national wide, and throughout the years assured food security for 100% as well as raw materials for our industries.
“However, the ratio of the Tanzanians doing agriculture is irrelevant to the total population of Tanzania and this is due to less productivity of agricultural products country wide. Operation of this project will create impact in improving agricultural productivity.”
He congratulated OCP Africa for coming up with the briliant initiative saying the OCP SCHOOL LAB will reach about 40,000 farmers from 400 villages in Rukwa, Mbeya, Morogoro and Iringa.
He was optimistic that the initiative will shade light on various issues including, but not limited to, soil.
Speaking at the official launch of the second phase of the program in Sumbawanga town, the capital town of Rukwa Region, the OCP Tanzania country manager, Dr. Mshindo Msolla stated the organisation in collaboration with the Tanzania’s Government have created a regional drive to measure soil quality of the land of farmers in over 100 village in Rukwa region.
The aim is to support the farmers with the knowledge about the quality of soil of their land at no cost to the villagers.
The results will be shared with them together with free advice on what needs to be done so as to gain optimum yield from their land. In each village, over 100 farmers will be educated and empowered on best practice for their produce farming, be it maize, rice or sunflower so as to increase their production of crops per acreage. Thus we expect minimum of 10,000 farmers from Rukwa region to benefit from this initiative”.
OCP School Lab campaign in Tanzania will run through 400 villages to reach over 40,000 farmers who will be benefiting from training on good agricultural practices by the end of 2021.
This project will also provide fertilizer recommendations to 14,000, who will be representative of the other farmers fields by using latest soil analysis technology, which uses simple infrared scanning that produces same day soil test results with field and crop field and crop specific, lime and fertilizer recommendation.
“It is imperative that our farmers have access to latest technology that can assist in increasing yield, the more the crop production, thus alleviating poverty. The OCP School lab project is a rare opportunity, thus we urge all farmers to make the most out of this service,“ Dr Mshindo Msolla said.
Since 2017, more than 390,000 farmers in 8 African countries have benefited from OCP School Labs, namely in Nigeria, Togo, Guinea, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
Tanzania will now join the list of countries that is benefiting from this project.
2021 OCP School Lab is implemented in partnership with Government of United Republic of Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government and together with key partners such as TARI (Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute) that are specialized in the development of agriculture.
“The OCP school lab program is now a powerful brand and tool designed to develop African agriculture as a whole and help farmers to improve their productivity by offering them a wide range of services from demonstrations and interactive training sessions on good agricultural practices to advice,” Dr. Msolla concluded.
