KAGERA IN DIRE NEED OF EXTENSION OFFICERS

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AfricaPress-Tanzania: KAGERA Region is facing an acute shortage of Agricultural Extension Officers (AEO), which negatively affects the agricultural sector, it has been disclosed.

Kagera Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Professor Faustin Kamuzora told the media in an interview that while the region has a total of 732 villages, there are only 386 number of agricultural officers.

“Villages with agricultural experts are 194 only, an equivalent of 26.5 per cent of the requirement. About 538 villages lack the agricultural experts while out of the 386 experts only 87 experts have reliable transport using motorcycles,” revealed Prof Kamuzora.

“We have already channeled the request to the government for necessary replacement,” he noted.

Despite the challenge, Kagera Region has continued to produce sufficiently. According to Prof Kamuzora, the production of food commodities increased from 2,445,547 metric tonnes during 2018/2019 season to 3, 359,276 metric tonnes during 2019/2020 season.

“We are happy that the region has sufficient food security for both local consumption and for export purposes,” he said.

Prof Kamuzora said during the 2019/2020 season the region’s target was to produce 3,631,067 metric tonnes of food crops while actual performance was 3,359,276 metric tonnes.

“This was equivalent to 92.514 per cent performance,” he remarked.

During 2018/2019 season the region’s target was to produce 2,211,890 tonnes while actual performance was 2,445,547 metric tonnes. The increase was about 233,657 metric tonnes.

During the 2019/2020 season, the region’s target was to produce 86,452 metric tonnes of cash crops while actual performance was 86,215 metric tonnes–an equivalent to 99.72 per cent performance.

He explained that a total of 2,218,318 metric tonnes of the staple bananas were produced during the 2019/2020 season, surpassing the region’s target of 2,211,890 metric tonnes. The target for cereal crops was to produce 297,049 tonnes with 258,653 metric tonnes realised.

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