Tanzania trains pepper farmers on organic farming

More than 250 pepper farmers in Tanzania have been trained in organic farming to boost their productivity and increase income. Director of Katoro Fresh Business, Mr Tendi Lushinge facilitated the training under the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) support.

Katoro Fresh Business is specialized in pepper farming, said they continue to train other young people. They are currently selling their products to Zambia, Kenya and local companies.

The training mainly targeted young men and women who are excited about opportunities. Apart from teaching them agro ecology TARI also taught them the best production of organic fertilizers by using rice husks and legume residues.

Class farms

“The young people we trained have been able to cultivate and now own large pepper fields about 370 acres and we continue to monitor them so that they can continue to do well in the pepper market. We give them education but we continue to monitor the quality of the fertilizer used since we used to buy their products,” said Mr Tendi.

Mr Lushinge said based on the knowledge gained by TARI, they have established class farms in Katavi Region 2 hectares, Dodoma 2.5 hectares, and Kahama 4 hectares. TARI through AGRO_CONNECT provides capacity building training to citizens to add value chain. Lushinge said one kilogramme of dried peppers sells for between 5,200/- to 6,000/- and one tonne of sells up to 9m/-.

“In agriculture there is a lot of wealth. If you enter the value chain you can sell technology, and make a lot of money not necessarily to farm because many young people are afraid to farm,” said Lushinge.