Rice production up 40pc in 7 years

Dar es Salaam. Over 25,000 rice farmers in Tanzania have improved yields by nearly 40 per cent following a farming training provided by the ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) over the last seven years.

The statement issued by Jica Tanzania said the training was offered through the “Project for Supporting Rice Industry Development in Tanzania (TANRICE2)”, which started in 2012.  In irrigation, farmers have experienced an average of 40 per cent increase of yields (3.2 tonnes per hectare to 4.5 tonnes per hectare) after adopting techniques from the training.
The statement said the series of rice farming training programmes by TANRICE2 has reached to extension officers and farmers in both irrigated and rain-fed conditions throughout the country (90 irrigation schemes and 77 rain-fed areas).
“Through such programmes, farmers have learned many lessons such as irrigation scheme management, gender, marketing and agricultural machinery,” said a statement.
“The project has scored many achievements including the dramatic increase of the adoption of improved rice farming techniques, such as the adoption of the straight row planting from 3.5 per cent to 62.0 per cent,”
It also improved the use of improved rice variety from 2.5 per cent to 59.3 per cent, and application of fertilizer from 19.0 per cent to 56.3 per cent in rain-fed lowland rice cultivation before and after the project, respectively.
On October 30, 2019, the project’s Steering Committee meeting will be held to review the last seven years’ outputs of TANRICE2 at the Kilimanjaro Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) in Moshi.
Implementers of rice farming training programmes will present the progress of the project.