Govt advised to invest in tea farming tech transfer

The Tea Research Institute of Tanzania (TRIT) has recommended that the GBP 7.5m that was recently injected into Southern Highlands tea farming be invested in technology transfer to boost production.

Emmanuel Simbua, TRIT Executive Director made the recommendation recently in a phone interview, insisting that small scale farmers need technology to stimulate production.
Dr Simbua also said that small scale farmers cannot afford to apply modern irrigation schemes such as the drip irrigation, necessitating assistance so as to acquire the technology.

“The climate condition from March to November in most of the tea growing areas in Southern highlands is dry, making the small scale tea farmers harvest very little. Irrigation would help them to increase their yields,” he said.

He pointed out that tea needs special extension officers who know how to treat tea physically so as to help farmers to use better methods needed to increase production as well as the quality.

He cited poor infrastructure as one of the major challenges facing the farmers. Normally, it takes 4-6 hours to ferry the green tea from their farms to the processing factory but the farmers are experiencing unnecessary delays.

“The road problem makes the green tea leaves reach the factories late, causing decline in quality. We need to improve the infrastructure so as to enable the farmers produce to reach the factory on time,” he said.

He added: “Large scale farmers use appropriate technology to boost their production but small scale farmers have no access to technology mainly due to limited capital.”

TRIT was established in 1996 as an autonomous organisation representing the government of Tanzania and the Tea industry.

TRIT aims to support the development of both small and large scale producers through appropriate, cost effective, high quality research and technology transfer, to ensure the sustainability of the industry.

Earlier this month, the UK based Department for International Development (DFID) announced plans to invest in four agricultural projects in Tanzania totaling GBP 20 million.

Of that amount, GBP7.5m was to be injected into Southern Highlands tea farming; GBP6.7m into Kilombero Plantations (East Africa's largest rice producer); GBP3.3m into Equity for Africa , a small-scale agriculture financer; and GPB2.5m into construction of hydropower plant via Tanesco. 

SOURCE: IPPMEDIA

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