CHINESE Ambassador to Tanzania Ms Wang Ke
(third right, front row) is flanked by embassy and government officials,
in a souvenir photo after launching a training titled: Benefiting
Tanzania with Chinese Rice Cultivation Technology 2018.(Photo by Issa
Yussuf)
WHEN the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania Ms Wang Ke visited rice farmers in Cheju village, South Unguja Region, she enthusiastically joined farmers, braving rains, to plant rice seedlings, a rare experience in her life.
After the planting, Ms Ke addressed the
farmers, community leaders, government officials and members of the
ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi saying: “It is a difficult undertaking,
working in a wetland and mud is a challenge.
We should support you to improve farming
by using modern Chinese technology,” Dressed in white T-Shirts printed
‘Production Up, Poverty Down’ and gumboots, the ambassador accompanied
by an officer from her office and others from the Zanzibar government
were there to witness the launch of “Benefiting Tanzania with Chinese
Rice Cultivation Technology 2018.
” This is the first ever boost in rice
production and according to the ambassador and other speakers at the
colourful launching ceremony held with the ‘Cheju Village Rice farms’,
the project is anticipated to drastically increase production.
Lack of skills/technology, equipment,
old mindset and continued rain dependence are main reasons that the
Minister responsible for Agriculture Mr Rashid Ali Juma and Minister of
State (Second Vice-President’s Office) Mr Mohamed Aboud Mohamed
mentioned as challenges hampering rice farming.
“We need to change everything for us to
move forward in agriculture. Farmers are only growing rice on only a
small portion of more than three thousand hectares. Large area of land
allocated to rice is still underutilised,” Mr Juma said.
Mr Ali Uzia Khamis- Irrigation officer
said that Cheju has about 605 rice farmers farming on only 90 hectares
(900 plots) out of 1,500 hectares allocated for irrigation and the
production/harvest, twice a year, farmers benefit from only small tons
of rice.
“Benefiting Tanzania with Chinese Rice
Cultivation Technology 2018” project starts as a pilot on four plots
with training of four farmers about the new technology to increase
production in short period of time.
China ambassador to Tanzania said the
new rice farming technology from her country will make changes to the
farmers in both Zanzibar and the mainland where the practice has already
started in Morogoro Region.
Ms Ke said that such moves not only end
the history of huge food shortages, but also enable Tanzania to provide
agricultural exports to neighbouring countries in bumper harvest years,
“Under the leadership of President Shein and the Zanzibar government,
Zanzibar’s agriculture has achieved rapid development in recent years,
and China is sincerely happy about this.” She said that at the same
time, it should also be noted that the abundant agricultural resources
in Zanzibar have not been effectively developed.
Crop planting is still in the mode of
typical primitive small-scale farming economy.Household farming is
scattered, farming methods are backward, strains are of poor quality,
and yield is not high. The provision of rice, flour, edible oil and many
other kinds of food still depends on imports, “So, there is still a
long way to go for the agricultural development in Zanzibar.
China and Zanzibar developed a close
firm friendship. Ms Ke informed the gathering that China has always been
actively supporting the development of people’s livelihood and
engineering construction in Zanzibar.
In the 1960s and 1970s, China
successively launched aid projects of agricultural machinery factory,
Mahonda Sugar Factory, sugarcane farm, to mention a few.
The campaign or the new project is
implemented by “China-Aided Agricultural Technology Demonstration
Centre,” which since its establishment in 2011, has carried out more
than 30 specialized technical trainings in five fields: rice, corn,
vegetable, banana tissue culture and hen-raising, with more than 5,000
participating trainees.
She said that the average yield of rice
in the demonstration centre is as high as 8-12 tons per hectare, while
the average yield of rice in Tanzania is only two tons per hectare. “Now
more and more farmers in Tanzania adopt Chinese rice cultivation
techniques and enjoy bumper harvests.”
Ms Wang Ke said that so far the
Tanzanian farmers highly prefer this Chinese rice technology, and come
to study in the demonstration centre. Out of admiration one after
another since this technology can help them significantly increase rice
production.
Thus increase their house hold income.
Prof Chen Hualin- Director, ‘China-Aided Agricultural Technology
Demonstration Centre’ undertaken by the ‘Tanzanian Demonstration Centre
of China Agricultural Technology and has been implementing for 3 years
in some parts of the country. He said the ‘Tanzanian Demonstration
Centre of China Agricultural Technology’ is a Chinese
government-to-Tanzania agricultural aid project which was the result of
the Beijing Summit of the 3rd China-Africa cooperation forum and
undertaken by Chongqing Zhongye Seed Industry Co., Ltd. Located in
Dakawa, Morogoro, the Centre has carried out the trials, demonstrations
and technical trainings to share experience of Chinese agricultural
development with Tanzania side and help local farmers improve the output
of food crops, played an important role in promoting Tanzania’s
agricultural development and improving people’s livelihood.
Through technical cooperation, the
advanced agricultural technologies and a batch of rice, maize and
vegetable varieties have been introduced from China to Tanzania, and
after several years of trials and demonstrations, the performance were
good in the fields of rice, corn, vegetables, banana tissue culture and
layers chicken breeding, etc.
Prof Hualin said “We are happy to
receive good comments from local farmers, officials and experts, More
than 30 terms of intensive training programs have been held for 1,800
local farmers and sporadically technical training and consultation have
been done for 2,800 local farmers.” In the season of 2015/2016, the
experts from the centre gave technical support to Mr Zulfika Mituro, a
local farmer in Rufiji district, Coast region.
By using Chinese technology, his rice
production reached 9.3 tons per hectare, attracting flocks of local
farmers visiting his farm. Mr Mituro said that since he started applying
the new technology, he has increased rice production in Rufiji from
below 15 tons to 36 tons per hectare, as he called rice farmers in the
country to accept the new method and follow the guidelines for better
production.
Prof Chen Hualin said program has
improved the local farmers’ level of agricultural technology, for
example, by implementing the village-level rice cultivation
demonstration project in Dakawa ward in 2017, the rice in the
demonstration plots performed well and produced high yields.
He said with the unit yields of the two
rain-fed demonstration plots averaged 8.1tons per hectare and 8.6 tons
maximum; and the unit yield of the four irrigation demonstration plots
averaged 9 tons per hectare and 10.1 tons maximum.
Prof Hualin said that the Chinese
technology has played an excellent example to increase the production
for 2,000 farmers on more than 1,000 hectares of paddy field in the
Dakawa Rice Production Area in Morogoro. The Demonstration Centre
provides the farmers in the demonstration plots with technical supports
by sending Chinese experts to the sites, with technical guidelines,
seeds, fertilizers as well as, to some extent, the mini agricultural
machineries and tools as the supporting gifts, such as mini tillers,
water pumps, mini threshing machines, motorcycles, knapsack sprayers,
hoes and sickles, etc. Hualin- agricultural experts said
“We believe, through the technology
transferring program in favour of local farmers, by carrying out the
program for demonstrations and promotion of Chinese agricultural
technology, agricultural machinery display and technical training, it
will benefit local farmers, and improve local farmer’s agricultural
technical level,” adding that it will also.
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