Morogoro in race to attain high yields for food crops

Dar es Salaam. Morogoro is intensifying efforts to increase agricultural productivity as it aims to become Tanzania’s foremost breadbasket region.

The top food crop producing regions that have been battling for domestic recognition are Ruvuma, Mbeya, Morogoro, Iringa, Rukwa, Njombe and Katavi.

Morogoro Regional Commissioner Fatma Mwassa said the plan could be realised due to available opportunities including a rapid population growth, conducive weather and the regions’ size.

She said the region is collaborating with the ministry of Agriculture in mobilizing the youth to fully engage in block farming.

She said jointly the ministry and regional authorities were working on modernising agriculture with the focus on benefiting from the irrigation schemes and better use of agriculture inputs.

The regional commissioner was speaking during an interview with a team of journalists who paid a courtesy call on her office last week.

The team arrived in the region to assess its achievement in the provision of subsidized fertilizer.

Before arriving in the region, the team toured the northern regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara for a similar purpose.

During an interview, the regional boss outlined opportunities that could make the region a food production leader such as the presence of conducive weather, rapid population growth and the large size of the region.

“We are determined to increase crop production in a move that will enable us to hold the first or second position among regions that produce high quantities of food crops in the country,” she said.

According to her, currently the region holds the third or fourth position on a list of high food crop producers.

Detailing on the possibility, she said the region has a large size of 73,039 square kilometres, 960,000 hectares being conducive for agriculture activities.

Furthermore, she said the government has increased the irrigation budget allocated for the region with a total of 39 schemes in order to support its expansion plans.

She said Sh15 billion in the prevailing fiscal year has been allocated for expansion of irrigation activities, noting, however, that more funds would be pumped in the coming financial year.

The RC said despite the size, the government has recently given back about 68 large farms to citizens for agriculture development especially for the youth.

“The region has fertile soil with enough water. It receives an average of 600 millimetres to 1,800 millimetres of rainfall annually. Some places like the Uluguru Mountains receive an average of 2,800 millimetres per year,” she said.

“This is a high amount of rainfall. Some farmers have been farming twice a year, but most of them are not applying fertilizer, believing that they could harvest high yields,” she added.

She said the region was holding the fourth position with a population of 3.1 million, 65 percent of them engage in agriculture activities. The RC said the region was leading in rice production harvesting double the amount of yields recorded by the second producing region in the ranking. Ms Mwassa said the region was also second in sugarcane production, sixth and 12th respectively in banana and maize production.

Subsidized fertilizer

Furthermore, the regional commissioner commended President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s decision to introduce subsidized fertilizer aimed at benefiting farmers, especially small scale growers.

She said the region had an average of 488,000 farmers who were eligible to receive subsidized fertilizer, noting, however, that 142,000 had been registered to benefit from the scheme.

“As of February 5, 2023, we have managed to provide 3,906 tonnes of subsidized fertilizer to 7,500 farmers worth Sh4.1 billion,” she said.

Furthermore, she said the fertilizer is applied in rice, sugarcane and horticulture production, hinting that most of the 142,000 registered farmers will start collecting fertilizer in February and March, 2023 at the start of the farming season.

“My belief is that farmers will use all the issued fertilizer in their respective farms, although the amount could be insufficient due to the ongoing expansion in the rice, sugarcane and horticulture farming,” she said.

According to her, the regional authorities are now mobilizing farmers to understand the importance of fertilizer application in improving crop yields in their farms.

Modern farming

She said more emphasis is directed towards mobilizing modern farming through the accurate use of fertilizer that should usually differ from one place to another, depending on the soil health.

According to her, farmers’ enthusiasm has been growing each passing day, noting that the graph of produced crops keeps increasing on a daily basis.

“For instance, 40 bags of rice are produced from one acre in Mkindo Irrigation Scheme due to the effective use of fertilizer. Under this setup farmers harvesting less get 36 bags of rice,” she said.

“We have been taking farmers from different places across the region for study tours at the scheme. The purpose of this is to increase their understanding on the use of fertilizer that should ultimately be replicated in their farms,” she added. She underscored that most importantly, farmers are now fighting for the possession of agricultural land, which, on the contrary, they lease once provided.

Youth engagement plan

The regional commissioner said, in collaboration with the minister of Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, they have inspected irrigation schemes and potential places in the region that would be provided to the youth.

“We have decided to engage the youth in block farming. Farms with irrigation potential will be equipped with pre-requisite infrastructures,” she said.

“Likewise, all farms with irrigation infrastructures will be fenced to protect them from livestock invasion. The youth who will be involved in the programme will be trained, provided with modern equipment and agriculture inputs such as quality seeds in order to enable them to maximize yields they get per acre,” she added.

She said currently a farmer owning 10 acres gets 80 bags, describing it as a loss of resources such as land, seeds and fertilizers.

Infrastructure development

Ms Mwassa said the absence of enough warehouses that could be used for fertilizer storage in rural areas as well as transport disruptions during the rainy season have adversely hindered the smooth fertilizer distribution to farmers.

“We have learnt that we are supposed to support warehouse construction even through the use of funds from our councils. Sh1 billion that has been allocated for that purpose this fiscal year is insufficient,” he said.

“Therefore, we are thankful to the government, the Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) and the minister for Agriculture. Citizens have expressed their trust and confidence in the ministry because they are witnessing the ongoing struggles,” added Ms Mwassa.

The region’s commitment

Exceptionally, she thanked President Hassan on behalf of Morogoro residents for the outstanding leadership and attracting development in the sectors of education and health.

“We promise the president that we value the subsidized fertilizer she has given to farmers. We are going to supervise and ensure that the issued fertilizer increases efficiency to individual citizens,” she said.

“We are assuring the president that we are going to improve the income of individual citizens and the nation at large,” she added.

She called on citizens to tap the opportunities in order to address the growing challenge of inflation in the country. “Morogoro residents are not expected to be grappling with food shortages. People should actively engage in farming activities because poverty and food shortages are a shame,” she said.

“Being the Morogoro regional commissioner, I’m not going to believe in asking for food assistance because that is a shame. I’m a believer of informing the government about the surplus we have and inviting the National Food Reserves Agency (NFRA) to procure for the interest of the nation,” she added.