Small farmers to benefit from value chain model

                                          SAGCOT Chief Executive Officer, Geoffrey Kirenga

 

At least 5,000 farmers are targeted to benefit from the value chain models which create sustainable smallholder engagement in improved agriculture introduced by the Kilombero Plantation Limited (KPL) under the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor (SAGCOT).

Giving a presentation during the East Africa Agribusiness Congress held in Dar es Salaam recently, SAGCOT Chief Executive Officer, Geoffrey Kirenga said SAGCOT was introduced to act as an agribusiness broker and a facilitator but also a medium for partners to invest, connect, plan and prosper in agriculture.
Kirenga urged that SAGCOT aims at catalysing commercially successful agribusiness in the country.

“We seek to strengthen the ability of the southern agriculture corridor to reach its’ full potential…we are interested in large scale agriculture,” he noted.

According to Kirenga, KPL, a public-private partnership between Rufiji Basin Development Authority (RUBADA) (8.7 percent) and Agriculture (91.3 percent), was established in July 2008 to redevelop the Mngeta Farm where USD 30 million has been invested in irrigation in a 215-hectare land.

He said through the public-private partnership which also involves smallholder farmers around the area, they aim at building capacities and educating farmers in order to lift their yields.

Kirenga noted that when fully irrigated, Mngeta farm will produce 33,000 tonnes of milled rice per year, 5,000 tonnes of rotational crops such as beans and pulses and 1.5 Megawatts of surplus biomass power for rural electrification.

He said Kilombero smallholder farmers are expected to lift their yields from three tonnes per hectare to over five tonnes by 2016.

He said at least 250 families have been incorporated in the system while 1,350 others are to join soon. He said the target is to involve at least 50,000 families of farmers by 2016.