New processing plant to transform grape farming

By Dickson Ng’hily

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Dodoma. In the quest to keep grapes profitable, plans are under way to construct a processing facility at the Chinagali Vineyard in Chamwino District in Dodoma,

whereby grapes will be processed into syrup, after which it will be sold to wineries.

Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe said the move follows government commitment to promote modern irrigated grape farming which will bring tangible benefits to small-scale growers.

“This is a 600-acres farm, we are going to divide it into blocks, the government intends to implement a block farming system, and this is a model, already 200 farmers have been identified for the phase which consist of 300 acres, we are going to give them freely,” Mr Bashe said.

“The land has been cleared, a modern irrigation system is being installed, we also did some soil analysis and we discovered that the land needs some lime and manure, some of which have been delivered on site, we expect to plant our seeds between September and October.”

According to the minister, the Chinagali Vineyard which will be operated under Chabuma Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS), will not only grow grapes, but also process a grape liquid after each harvest.

“An important part of growing grapes is to make money, so it is a business, we are not going to concentrate only on the farming aspect and sell our purple harvests, but we will also process and sell it to wineries, by processing, you generate more income than selling it as grapes,” he elaborated.

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“For instance,” the minister elaborated: “A kilo of grapes is sold at about Sh1,000, but on the other hand you will need 1.2 tons of grapes to process 1 ton of its juice which sells at almost 3,000 per litre, so you earn more.”

Mr Bashe further explained that regardless of the potential of grapes, smallholder farmers in Tanzania were facing production, and marketing challeges, but with this new block farming system, the government has answered almost all the obstacles and setbacks.

Commenting, Mr David Mwaka, Chabuma Amcos official said: “We appreciate government efforts to revive this farm.

“In fact, 90 percent of all preparations have been completed, so, we are trying to sort out members who are committed and each one will be given his/her block to continue farming.”

According to him, he doesn’t want Chabuma vineyard to return to where it was as farmers left it idle for many years.

He adds, saying: “The government support, we are going to have all farm inputs at affordable price, there is no need to fear, lets commit ourselves for the development of the industry.”