Tanga small-scale sisal farmers break production record

By Peter Mohamed

A Tanga small-scale farmer

Historically, sisal cultivation has been the preserve of commercial farmers. These were the people who owned large chunks of land where they grew the crop, processed it and exported the finished product in form of line fibre.
All along, producers of wealth for such farmers were able bodied citizens who worked as labourers for the business tycoons.


In effect, the people knew little then, that standing on their own feet and organized, they could also make strides and become successful in the same industry.

In Tanzania, change towards this direction came in 1999, when sensitized sufficiently enough, a few dozens of peasant farmers miraculously invaded a territory thought not to belong to them.

In course of time, they gradually made strides in small scale farming - under the guidance and expertise of management experts from Katani Limited, a Tanga based sisal processing and marketing entity.

It all started at Mwelya – a little known location,situated a few kilometres from Mombo mini town. The spot, common only to those engaged in sisal farming, was picked as a pilot area under a small holders and out growers system (SISO).
The settlement, a sisal designated area in Korogwe district along the Tanga – Moshi highway, saw the farmers, now 306, produce 156 tons in 2005.

As time went by, the trend slowly picked up; and last year the record had been pushed upwards to 1,704 tons - over ten times the original production.

“Under the SISO, production of line fibre from its five estates, has gradually been recording an upward trend year in, year out, from 854 tons in 2005 to 4,307 tons in 2013”, said Salum Shamte, Katani Limited Managing Director (MD) during a visit of Mwelya Estate by President Jakaya Kikwete last week.

Shamte told the president at a gathering attended by small scale farmers and villagers surrounding the well maintained plantation, that under SISO, 1162 members had already planted sisal at an area covering 18.700 acres. The ultimate objective, said Shamte, is to reach a target of 22,000 acres by 2018.

“The increase in the production of line fibre has gone in tandem with the boost in farmers income, whereby at this estate alone, farmers earned 1.2 bn- in 2013 against 53m/= earned in 2005’, explained the MD, himself a small scale farmer.

He said through income generated from sale of sisal leaves, farmers have been able to fight poverty and improve the quality of their lives.“We at SISO, can proudly say better life for everybody in the sisal industry is possible”, boasted Shamte.

“Through engagement in sisal farming, the farmers are assured of food security in that they grow food crops between sisal rows”.

He said the type of farming had also created employment opportunities where a total of 3300 people have steady jobs.“In village environment, the attainment is certainly something remarkable”.

In a bid to ensure that the farmers are afforded the necessary service in the processing of their products, Katani Limited has invested over 30m/= towards rehabilitation of its decorticators, tractors, sisal leaves ferrying wagons, water and road infrastructure, excavators and graders as well as training its workforce,he said.

He hailed the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for providing grant to Katani Limited under an agreement entered between them.

“Surely, if it wasn’t for NSSF extending the credit to us, it would not have been easy for us to attain our desired goals; for they have been issuing long term and affordable loans to us’, he said, adding that most of the farmers have joined the fund and were now accessing to all the benefits provided by NSSF.

Katani Limited, he told the president, had invented a gadget which would be used in the ferrying of sisal leaves from estates to processing factories, adding that the machine would reduce the farmers task tremendously as well as increase productivity threshold.

Among the challenges facing the company, said Shamte, were lack of market for floor carpets produced at their main factory - TANCORD at Ngomeni.

He told the president “Mr. President, we produce floor carpets which carry international standards, but we have no reliable markets. We humbly request that the former arrangement is reverted - whereby the carpets produced from our own sisal was used in government offices in order to widen the market for this item.’

The MD decried the recently revised tariff for electricity, calling on a special tariff for agricultural crop processors which he said was commonplace in other countries.

Earlier, Fredrick Malika, SISO Chairman, told the president that the SISO arrangement had given the wananchi opportunity to own the sisal plantations which were previously under the ownership of settlers.“It is worth noting that among the 1162 farmers within the SISO, 177 of them are women”, said Malika.

“When we first engaged in small scale farming and after securing small plots each on which to cultivate sisal, not many people liked the idea. In the course of time, the villages surrounded by the sisal designated area have started growing sisal in their individual traditional plots”, said the SISO Chairman-one of the pioneers of small scale farming. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN