Firm to support schools in sisal production
What you need to know:
- Mr Shamte said the company had spent nearly two decades to make people believe that sisal could be the hope for small-scale farmers to raise themselves from poverty to wealth, turning age-old notion of sisal being a plantation crop for big wealthy investors.
Katani Limited has promised to continue supporting schools in sisal producing areas to engage in sisal production. This was said by Katani Limited Development Director Juma Shamte in an interview with The Citizen in Tanga. Mr Shamte said the company had spent nearly two decades to make people believe that sisal could be the hope for small-scale farmers to raise themselves from poverty to wealth, turning age-old notion of sisal being a plantation crop for big wealthy investors. “There are about 1,230 smallholder sisal farmers under the Sisal Smallholder and Outgrower Scheme (SISO) and with several others outside the scheme,” he said. He said the smallholder farmers contributed about 37.5 per cent of the total national sisal fibre production. He noted that the company’s strategy was to target schoolchildren and prepare a generation that had the right sisal mentality. He said they hoped the new drive to target schools could boost smallholder sisal production in Tanga Region. (George Sembony)
“This can result in productive use of sisal estates, whose title deeds were recently struck off by President John Magufuli, who directed that they be distributed to people free of charge,” he said. (By George Sembony)
