Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Ministry of Agriculture has prepared guidelines on application of lime that will be used by extension officers in teaching farmers on ways of eliminating soil acidity and improving quality of soil before sawing seeds.
Agriculture Minister Adolf Mkenda said yesterday the ministry considers the guidelines as an essential tool for extension officers in fighting soil acidity which he says is currently a serious problem in the country.
“Most of our farmers are not accustomed to checking the health of the soil before ploughing, but soil layers have to be examined before planting for productivity to be achieved.”
Dr Mkenda said: ““We want to build a culture of farmers examining the soil to ascertain its health well before ploughing and planting”.
It was not immediately clear when the document will be distributed, but the minister said the guidelines and provision of motor vehicles to extension officers is part of the government’s efforts to ensure farming rewards handsomely both the farmers and the nation.
“We want to eliminate soil acidity using extension officers. That is the essence of having the guidelines,’ Professor Mkenda explained.
Mid last week, the minister also told farming experts, development planners, investors, and government officials who were meeting here that lime has proved to be a cure of soil acidity, and appealed to agricultural stakeholders to direct great efforts towards educating farmers on importance and immediate need to use lime as part of investment in farming. “Lime has proved to be a cure of soil acidity.
Therefore, we must collectively educate farmers on the problem in the soil they are using and the amount of lime they need to eliminate the problem,” he said.
Professor Mkenda said because of freight costs lime produced in Dodoma is costly to farmers in the southern highlands regions where soil acidity is a serious problem.
But the owner of Highland Building Company, Mr Djovita Diyami, has said he was ready to work with government to establish a lime factory at Nanyala where he says he has six million tonnes of raw materials for producing lime required by farmers in southern highlands.
Morogoro and southern highlands regions are jointly considered to be Tanzania’s grain basket, but experts said serious homework has to be made well before the block produces a lot of cereals for local and export markets.
