AfricaPress-Tanzania: MAIZE farmers in Malagano village, Rukwa region said yesterday that the pre-delivery training stint of cooperative members and leaders in the use will significantly help them to improve yields.
The training is jointly conducted by the Agricom Africa and government in Rukwa region in order to increase maize production in the region.
Malagano village is the region’s grain basket, accounting for roughly 60 per cent of maize produced in the region.
The regional government wants to use the initiative launched by the private company to ensure the region’s 574,291 hectares of arable land are used to the maximum to produced cereals, especially maize, for local and export markets.
A villager, Mr Gasper Mpepo, claimed that their village is the biggest producer of maize in Rukwa.
“Maize is in great demand locally and in neighbouring countries. We need better and bigger tools to produce more maize for these markets,” Mr Mpepo told the ‘africa-press’.
Malagano AMCOS Chairman, Mr Norbert Sikombe, said the society would ensure members have the land tilled in time and entice farmers to increase cultivation area.
He described the joint private public farm implements supply initiative as a very welcome development. Rukwa region’s crossborder trade in foodstuffs is poised to grow further because a good number of the region’s residents live in Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Diaspora statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (2016) show that Rukwa Region has some 16,563 Rukwa residents living in Zambia (67 per cent) and DRC (17 per cent).
“We want to sell more foodstuffs to Zambia and Congo because they want our maize and other crops every year,” Mr Mpepo said.
The pre-delivery training of villagers and their cooperative leaders is conducted by Agricom Africa workers before the company supplies tractors and other implements to cooperative societies is a special tripartite arrangement between the company, the regional leadership and cooperative unions.
Maize is the region’s dominant annual crop, followed by paddy, finger millet, sorghum, wheat and bulrush millet.
Maize constitutes 73.6 per cent of total area planted with annual crops and tractors would increase maize and vegetable production in the region.
Agricom Africa Acting General Manager, Mr Remmy Nindi, said the company was committed to the arrangement and would supply tractors in time.
“Rukwa Region can produce more maize that it currently produces by using tractors and by improving extension services to farmers,” he said.
