Africa-Press – Tanzania. CHABUMA Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS) in Chamwino District is looking for more than 300 members to expand and develop the Chinangali farm grapes.
The need for more members come after Chabuma Amcos with a total of 600 hectares suitable for grape cultivation has registered only 295 members where each cultivates one hectare of grapes.
This was stated recently by the interim chairman of the Chabuma Amcos board, David Mwaka and said that the board is responsible to revive the Chinangali farm. He said Chabuma works cooperatively from seed preparation, nurseries and planting in the field at the same time and those who follow all grapes cultivation procedures.
“We want to revive this farm and this is why we are looking for more members who are truly committed and know what cooperation means and who will be responsible for developing our farm, ”said Mwaka He added that those who want to become members of Amcos should be people who can be responsible for developing the field.
Mr Mwaka said Chabuma will make the crop a model and strategic crop that will be emulated by other farmers in the country. In addition, he said Amcos has put in place a strategy to be able to produce together and find a market that will give farmers greater profits and increase their motivation for mass farming.
Mr Mwaka said in order for Chabumna Amcos to work together they will lend inputs to members who will not be able to afford operating costs. He said the mechanism that will be put in place by Chabuma is to find one buyer and they will manage the issue of the sale of grapes so that farmers can sell at a fixed price and the government will get a legitimate tax.
“For example, if we produce in large quantities and find a market we will ask the ministry to put in place strategies and we will try to ensure that there is a chain to see every area gets legitimate money, the tax will be paid accordingly and the nation earns its revenue. The old system of depressing farmers will not exist,” said Mwaka, adding that we will be selling our grapes in ways that are accurate and safe to collect revenue.
He said the system will also help keep track of the yields and chain value of the grapes. For his part agricultural officer as well as Chinangali Acting Farm manager, Steven Zakayo said Chabuma has prepared seedlings for the entire 295 hectare farm.
He said Chabuma will monitor closely and if a member is not able to move at the speed of the Amcos they will continue with the fieldwork at the end of the day they should pay the member fine or revoke the membership.
“We do not want Chabuma to return to where it came from. We want Chabuma to stand as a Chabuma and the person to stand as a person regardless of his position or rank,” said Zakayo Chabuma Amcos originally had more than 961 members where they established a 1200 hectare grape farm which contributed to the farm achieving the highest grape production in 2013 almost to 600 tons.
Since 2017 grape production in the field has declined to lead to a decrease in farmers’ incomes as well as a lack of consistent leadership and poor management which has led to farmers abandoning their farms. TARI Director General, Dr Geoffrey Mkamilo said the order was implemented and they were able to establish 400,000 grapes seedling nurseries where it will be distributed to farmers in need.
