Kagera encouraged to exploit EAC markets

MEDDY MULISA in Bukoba

BANANAS at the port in Bukoba.

FARMERS in Kagera Region have been encouraged to exploit opportunities offered through the East African Community (EAC) common markets. Efforts should also be directed to adopt agribusiness technologies to increase value of the crop.

The region needs to boost the agriculture value-chains and the transformation of agro raw materials into sustainable and highly marketable commodities which are competitive at regional and international markets.

Strategies should aim at streamlining coffee production through planting improved varieties resistant to Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD), and involve the youth in the agricultural sector. This will minimize the increasing rural-urban migration especially by youths in search of employment.

Joint efforts were needed to revamp coffee production in the region. Kagera Region produces an average of 21,000 tonnes of coffee annually. For quite a long time the average production stood at 0.32 kg per tree due to lack of proper management. Most of the coffee trees are 60 years old. During a five-year period coffee production in the region dropped from 32,107 metric tonnes during 2014/15 to 25,517 tonnes during 2015/16.

The Kagera Regional Commissioner (RC), Salum Kijuu appealed to farmers in the region to use robusta varieties that are resistant to Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD) to improve their incomes, also urging other stakeholders to take appropriate measures to increase coffee production. We need a paradigm shift from subsistence agriculture to agri-business, which offers a path to reduce food insecurity and boost regions’ competitiveness in the agricultural sector.

Farmers have unanimously agreed to adopt “fair trade” practices as an effective strategy to deliver its smallholder farmers from poverty. The decision was reached during a stakeholders’ meeting held at Bunazi Township under the chairmanship of Nkenge Member of Parliament (MP), Dr Diodorus Kamala.

“For quite a long time our coffee farmers did not benefit much from coffee farming due to various reasons including low coffee quality. We are now focusing on revitalizing coffee production including irrigation…. to meet global market standards for coffee,” he said.

The farmers would work with other stakeholders such as Kagera Cooperative Union (KCU) to observe fair trade as a way to save farmers from private buyers who were exploiting them by manipulating and paying them ‘very low prices”. Through social premiums paid through Fair Trade the coffee farmers would benefit much through increased and quality coffee.

Dr Kamala was visibly disappointed by reports indicating that some private coffee farmers had turned the direct coffee export exercise into direct purchase by buying coffee straight from farmers at the village level. “This trend should stop forthwith as it posed a risk to coffee production,” he said, also advising farmers to diversify and start growing sugarcane and sunflower as alternative cash crops to the traditional coffee.

The Misenyi District Council was also advised to formulate by-laws to protect coffee crop. Efforts by the Fifth Phase Government under President John Magufuli to fight corruption and spearhead accountability will definitely attract more investors.

Under the leadership of Dr Magufuli, the government has set out to diversify the economy and address the fundamental infrastructural issues hindering productive activities. Leaders from eleven regions including Regional Commissioners last week held a good neighborliness meeting in Bukoba Municipality and unanimously agreed to promote industrialization agenda.

They also visited AMIMZA Coffee Company, a leading instant coffee processing plant in East and Central Africa. The company has installed capacity to process about 6,000 tons of instant coffee annually. The company director, Amir Hamza, informed the leaders that apart from processing instant coffee it was also running a coffee nursery for organic robusta varieties for distribution to the farmers.

The company was established in 1994 and in 2015 the new instant coffee factory was completed, and today it is the largest instant coffee plant in East and Central Africa. Also known as Coffee Canephora, this variety is believed to have originated in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Robusta coffee accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s coffee consumption and is known for its strong, earthy flavor and its acidity. Tanzania coffee production averages between 30,000-40,000 metric tons each year of which approximately 70 percent is Arabica and 30 percent is Robusta.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa announced the government’s resolve to scrap off the levies that were threatening to cripple the agricultural sector as he unveiled his office’s budget estimates for the 2017/2018 fiscal year. The government was planning to revive the cultivation of five major cash crops of coffee, cotton, tea, cashew nuts, and tobacco in the coming farming season.

The scrapped levies included the 450,000/- ginners paid as Uhuru Torch contribution and 250,000/- meeting fee that the district councils used to collect from cotton buyers. The government had abolished the 800,000/- fire and rescue levy in tea and 250 US dollar (over 500,000/-) coffee processing fee.

The move to boost agricultural sector was in line with government’s pledges to farmers. The government had also improved warehouse receipt system, raising the cashew nuts prices to a record 3,800/- from 1,200/- per kilogramme.

The premier recapped the government’s resolve to fight corruption, drug abuse and build a strong and competitive economy as the country aspires to become a semi-industrial middle income nation. He directed the regional commissioners to make sure that district extension officers worked closely with farmers at all the stages, from farm preparation to harvesting.

Coffee production in Tanzania has stagnated over the past ten years but plans are underway to boost productivity through increased use of inputs, introduction of pests and disease resistant trees as well as setting up small and medium scale coffee processing plants. Coffee is grown in Bukoba, Muleba, Karagwe, Kyerwa, Ngara and Misenyi Districts in the western areas along Lake Victoria. This constitutes 30 per cent of the total coffee production in Tanzania.

Coffee is vital to the economy of East and Central Africa, providing a major source of foreign exchange earnings and as a cash crop, supporting the livelihoods of millions involved in cultivation, processing, marketing and export.

Coffee exports earned the country USD 135 million (about 294.4bn/-) in foreign exchange during the 2015/16 farming season as the country produced 59,000 metric tonnes, which is above average annual production of 50,000 tonnes. It is estimated that a total area of 265,000 hectares is occupied by arabica and robusta coffee farms. Average production for the past five years (2004/05-2008/09) is 51,777 tonnes of coffee.

Average production of coffee in Tanzania stands at 50,000 metric tonnes (about 900,000 sacks) but the rate is likely to drop to 48,000 tonnes in the coming farming season. Tanzania mainly exports its coffee to Japan (Arabica) and Italy (Robusta). China and Russia are among new markets for Tanzanian coffee.