Njombe gets lucrative cash crop

Arusha. When Rudolf Hass was breeding an avocado variety at La Habra Heights in California 91 years ago, he did not know that almost a century to come his efforts would contribute immensely to fight against poverty somewhere in Africa, Njombe to be precise.

The Hass avocado or persea Americana, as scientists call it, is slowly but surely substituting the traditional pine trees, maize and Irish potatoes to become the major cash crop in Njombe.

“Farmers’ earnings are rising given attractive Hass avocado prices,” Njombe Regional Commissioner Christopher ole Sendeka says.

Thanks to the then amateur horticulturalist for making the emerging lucrative cash crop compatible with the climate of

Hass avocados thrive in Njombe, which is 1,200-2,200 metres above sea level.

Temperature of Njombe -- the headquarters of the newly region -- declines up to minus degrees Celsius at night towards the end of July.

The climate and soil give Njombe an added advantage over other areas globally, as its avocados delay to mature and reach the market when Mexico and other major producers elsewhere are out of stock.

“Before I embarked on avocado farming, I owned a bicycle. Now I have a motorcycle, a pickup truck for carrying inputs to the farm and a Toyota RAV4, which I call Shikamoo Parachichi in respect of the crop,” says Mr Erasto Ngole, 45, a resident of Itulike Village.

The former village executive officer and Makambako Weighbridge revenue collector had never seen any promising opportunity in the civil service and resigned to grow avocados.

But Mr Ngole unknowingly attempted to produce other varieties of avocado when he turned down he resigned in 2008.

He raised 114 seedlings of the crop in June, grafted them in November before he planted them in March the following year, as Enterprise Works and Techno Save closely guided him one after the other.

Despite the 2.5-year technical support he got from both US non-governmental organisations, he could not make his dream profit from the crop, as he harvested barely three tonnes a season.“My fellow villagers nearly ostracised me; they thought I was crazy to grow fruit trees instead of traditional food and cash crops,” he recalls.

However, the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) rescued him in 2016 when it went to Njombe to proceed from where the US NGO had left.

Taha imparted skills on avodaco management to Mr Ngole and his fellow villagers and introduced the Hass variety.

Much as he realised where he went wrong, he harvested 11.7 tonnes worth Sh10.4 million last year, up from about Sh3 million he used to earn seasonally.

“I have already harvested 13 tonnes from 302 avocado trees and earned Sh16.8 million. I’ll harvest five more tonnes before the season elapses. Avocados have completely changed my life; had Taha arrived four years back, I would be damn rich. Actually, I beat some civil servants in our ward as they still ride motorcycles.”

He pays college fees for some of his children, has transferred others from ordinary primary schools to English medium ones and accomplished building his third house within the farm last year.

“My children would be pickpockets if I did not engage in avocado farming,” he quips. He pleads with Taha to consider deploying more agronomists.

“One agronomist cannot effectively serve the entire region. Moreover, his assistants should be provided with motorcycles and handsome perks to motivate them to visit as many groups of avocado growers as possible.” Njombe avocado growers also urged the government to improve irrigation schemes and roads to boost production.Mr Damas Kisalala, who is a Taha agronomist for Njombe, says the organisation carried out research on marketing, production and expertise before it engaged in promoting avocado farming in 2016.

The research found out that an avocado tree in Njombe produced 10-30 kilos of the fruit instead of the required average of 80 kilos a season.

Taha resolved to improve the production of the existing avocado trees to between 50-80 kilos of the fruit each and increased production of Hass avocados.

“Even if we produce millions of tonnes of avocados, we’re assured of selling all the fruit during the off seasons,” Mr Kisalala says.

Eight foreign firms have separately ordered 800,000 tonnes of avocados, more than 600 tonnes produced in 2016 and 800 produced tonnes by June this year in Njombe.

Taha intends to increase Njombe’s production of Hass avocados to 1 million tonnes annually to satisfy demand.

According to Njombe Town Council agricultural officer Nolasco Kilumile, the government is working on numerous challenges facing the new cash crop.

“Most avocado farms are in remote areas where roads and bridges ought to be built,” he says.

The council planned to build a park house back in 2013, but owing to financial constraints, the project was stalled. “The central government finally linked us up with Taha which agreed to construct the building,” he says.

While Nundu Village offered Sh15 million worth of a plot, the town council surveyed the site and constructed the water, road and electricity infrastructure for the centre.

The town council is currently mulling over constructing a plant for processing rejected avocados into cosmetics and cooking oil. “We assure the farmers that no avocado will be thrown away,” says Kilumile.