AfricaPress-Tanzania: SERENGETI Breweries Limited (SBL), has announced its intention to resume issuing scholarships to students pursuing agriculture related courses following the government move to reopen colleges on June 1st as coronavirus cases have drastically declined.
The company’s statement issued in Dar es Salaam yesterday shows that SBL has concluded agreements with two more agricultural colleges in Iringa and Kagera regions that will admit 20 students’ beneficiaries of SBL’s Kilimo viwanda scholar- ship program.
According to SBL Corporate Relations Director, John Wanyancha, two other colleges namely Bagamoyo based Kaole Wazazi College of Agriculture and Kilacha Agriculture and Livestock Training Center in Kilimanjaro have already signed a contract with SBL.
The two colleges have already admitted 20 students under the program.
Targeting students from farming communities whose families cannot afford to pay their tuition fees, Kilimo viwanda scholarship program aims to offer scholarships to a total of 40 students from farming communities every year to pursue higher education from local agricultural institutions.
“We believe this program will go a long way in strengthening the existing pool of agricultural experts in the country which is necessary in helping farmers increase productivity and ultimately their incomes,” Wanyancha said The scholarship program is in line with the company’s objective to increase its uptake of cereals used in beer production including maize, barley and sorghum.
Last year, he said, SBL procured over 17,000 tonnes of grains from local farmers, equivalent to 70 percent of its annual raw material requirement.
“SBL’s ambition is to increase its sourcing of local raw materials to 85 percent that’s why we find it important to support the government in training specialists such as field extension officers, agronomists and others.
We currently source grains from a network of 400 farmers in various regions across the country,” he said.
