Tanzania Horticulture Agency Calls for Affordable Farm Technology

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Tanzania Horticulture Association CEO Jacqueline Mkindi has been a strong advocate for stronger extension services, GAP and access to crop inputs.

The introduction of affordable, appropriate and user-friendly technology holds the key to transformation of Eastern Africa’s agriculture.

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New technology to achieve better production, supply and marketing systems it must  “be affordable, appropriate, available and user friendly,” Tanzania Horticulture Association (TAHA) CEO Jacqueline Mkindi told attendees at the Farm Chemicals International Trade Summit – Africa in Dar es Salaam on May 13.

She said there have been cases of farmers being reluctant to embrace certain production technologies simply because the factors of affordability, accessibility and convenience of their application were not considered at the time of introduction.

However, the introduction of good agricultural practices, such as raised-bed technology, crop spacing and seeding starter packs have resulted in tremendous improvement in both the quantity and quality of farm produce in Tanzania. Many of these technologies are simple and inexpensive, but there is a dire need for more better transfer of this knowledge to replicate what has already been achieved.

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“Because of the success of some of these technologies, demand for something like seeding raising technology has been high, which creates opportunity for investors,” she added.

Mkindi emphasized the role of the private sector, in partnership with the government, in ensuring farmers get the right farm inputs, embrace better production methods and also gain access to the domestic, regional and international market.

“TAHA is working hard to ensure farmers in Tanzania get GAP certification despite existing barriers to achieving quality production and access to the market,” she said.

High-level inefficiencies in some regions of Tanzania and complex systems, procedures and rules imposed by the government has hampered faster transformation of agricultural enterprises into commercially viable ventures.

Mkindi said major challenges facing the Tanzania horticultural producers include lack of access to the market and poor physical infrastructure. That infrastructure is both general – roads, rails, electricity, border security and air transportation – as well as agriculture infrastructure, including cold storage facilities, post-harvest crop protection and produce brokers that can access various markets.

However, TAHA jointly with other organizations have been pushing for the implementation of some government policies that would address the existing challenges.

“TAHA is advocating for an enabling environment and pushing for public sector funding to enable the farmers and other stakeholders in the horticulture sector improve their input to the whole supply value chain,” she said.

She challenged agrochemical dealers to work together with farmers and institutions such as TAHA in ensuring dissemination of the right information on production and market trends not only Tanzania but in the East African region.

She advocated for the empowerment of women, noting that 65% of the farmers in the region are women while “more than 80% of the food on our tables is produced by women.”

Managing director of Twiga Chemicals Anantharaman Ramamurthy told the forum it is critical in the agricultural sector that distribution, technical support and agronomic advising are integrated.

“Distribution of goods is incomplete unless it goes together with technical advice and support,” he said.

In his presentation, dubbed ‘How to Integreate Distribution, Technical Support and Agronomic Advising through the Value Chain’, Ramamurthy said agrochemical manufacturers should create avenues of communicating with the end users of their products to know the outcome of the farm input’s application by the farmer.

“The company should linked to the small farmer through main distributors or medium-sized farmers such as cooperatives and stockists,” he said.

He also challenged manufacturers and importers of farm inputs to always respond to feedback from farmers and those who supply them with the products and technical information.

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