Why farmers should start condering sorghum

Dar es Salaam. Although farmers do not consider it as a potential commercial crop, its increased industrial demand in local and foreign markets, has made sorghum farming a lucrative business one can venture into, The Citizen can report.

Being the fifth most cultivated cereal crop in the world, sorghum production (globally) is estimated at approximately 63.9 metric tons, of which more than 80 percent of the production is used as feed and its consumption as food is growing rapidly.

Last year for instance, the value of sorghum and sorghum seed market was estimated at $11.8 billion.

This made countries around the world to heavily invest in expanding the sorghum seed business to take advantage of growing use of sorghum.

Besides, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), indicates that at least 812,488 hectare were planted with sorghum at the national level and 464,249 tons were yielded, with Dodoma being the leading region cultivating at least 257,690 ha which yielded 133,976 tons.

The second region was Singida which ploughed 98,263 ha which produced 65,533 tons of sorghum, Simiyu was the third, tilling 76,620 ha which produced 42,168 tons of sorghum, followed by Ruvuma and Kilimanjaro producing 34 tons and 86 tones from 620ha and 101 ha respctively.

Speaking exclusively to The Citizen Seed Gold, Dr Paul Mkailwa, an independent economist said: “Tanzania as a country and its farmers, have not yet benefited from the crop’s economic potential due to limited access to information, as well as lack of credit facilities which has contributed to low sorghum production and product development.”

Adding that: “Tanzania produces approximately 0.5 million tons annually, we grow both traditional and improved varieties and the farmers are producing mainly for subsistence and the surplus is sold to major local markets, or to large businesses which then sells to the local industry.”

According to him, 85 percent of sorghum produced in Tanzania is for food consumption at the household level. Moreover, sorghum grains can be a source of industrial starch to process animal and poultry feeds.

On the other hand, Dr Mkailwa explained the commercial use of the crop saying: “It is also used in the brewery, where beers and soft drinks are processed. Tanzania Breweries (TBL) sourced 74 percent of its raw materials locally. Last year, TBL’s demand for sorghum stood at 10,000 tons, this is the market to tackle.”

According to him, there was need for local farmers to venture into commercial sorghum farming, with more efforts needed from agriculture stakeholders to support farmers especially with the high demand for the crop in local and foreign markets.

“We can empower farmers by supporting them through credits, improved seed, and fertiliser,” he said.

Adding: “Previously, farmers never wanted to improve their yields because they lacked access to commercial markets. Markets such as the brewery industry and animal feeds fuels sorghum demand, farmers should respond to it.”

It is said that commercialisation of sorghum in Tanzania is moving at a slow pace, moreover, there are some business entities that are attempting to add value through the crop’s uses in brewing, baking and animal feed.

Therefore, linking farmers to the said commercial markets could stimulate the production and adoption of new technologies, including improved seed varieties.

A journal dubbed ‘Sorghum Production Constraints, Trait Preferences, and Strategies to Combat Drought in Tanzania’ by Mr Andekelile Mwamahonje, an agricultural research officer for Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) suggested that adopting improved sorghum seeds and good agronomic practices was crucial to enhance sorghum production.

“Strengthening agro-dealers, subsidised seed inputs, and extension of service delivery may contribute seed and knowledge access to farmers for increasing the adoption rate of improved sorghum seeds.

The report recommended the application of fertilizers in hybrid sorghum varieties to attain a potential yield of 10 tons per hectare.

Commenting on, Ms Juliet Tembo, a farmer in Ruvuma, said: “We’ve heard about the potential of sorghum farming, but we need to study the trend befotre venturing into farming.”

She said it was always important to conducts research to understand the market before venturing into any commercial business as that gave farmers a rough idea of the expectations.

“You also need to understand market accessibility, access to improved seed varieties, as our traditional seed don’t do much, but many farmers still use them, and with application to traditional harvest methods, lead to poor quality grain hence low incomes,” she said.

Ms Tembo further explained that farmers need to access improved seed if they are to benefit from the crop. Adding: “You can’t go commercially by just utilising traditional seeds, I think those responsible with improved seeds and their multiplications, needs to play a big role in making them available to the farmers.”

But, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat), indicated that farmers in the country, prefer environmental stress-tolerant sorghum varieties as they are proven to provide harvest even in bad years.

“Empirical findings showed that farmers had strong preferences for sorghum varieties that were tolerant to environmental stresses, high yielding, early maturing, fetching higher grain prices, and white in colour,” reads part of Icrisat report.

While sorghum is used mostly for food purposes, its demand has grown rapidly in Tanzania over the past few years as it is widely used to produce clear (lager) beer, non-alcoholic drinks, and bioenergy drink production.

Sorghum is well-adapted to arid and semi-arid environments with limited rainfall and high temperatures, where other cereal crops such as maize cannot grow.

Available data shows that a total of 6.2 million hectare is used for cereal crop production, of which 0.9 million hectare (15 percent) is under sorghum cultivation with major growing regions include Dodoma, Singida, Simiyu, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Mwanza, which together produce 50 percent of the country’s commercial sorghum output.

It is said that over 70 percent of sorghum produced is used for flour and animal feed.

Its production is forecasted to increase from the current levels of 1,000,000 metric tons up to 1,843,000 metric tons in the year 2025.