Improved seeds turn into fortune

Dar es Salaam. For many years Mr Wilfred Mbise, a farmer in Situa-Mbogo Village in Arusha District, has been relying on cultivating traditional coffee and dairy farming as the source of income for his family.

The 56-year-old father of five children had for years struggled to pay school fees for the four children who are already in secondary school, and one who is still in primary school.

But lured by a ready market and better returns, the family has shifted to farming tissue culture bananas which grow faster and give increased yields compared to the traditional species.

Speaking on the benefits of the new mode of farming, Mr Mbise says now he can easily pay a total of Sh3 million ($1,875) per year in school fees for the children. The money is income from the farm. He now smiles all the way to the bank because the harvest is now earning him much more than any other crop that the family has been planting in a region which is mostly semi-arid.

His wife, Mrs Regina Mbise, says: “Had we started this type of farming many years ago we would be economically stable right now.”

Mr Mbise, the pioneer farmer of tissue banana in the village, simply says that what the family gets from the farm was not possible three years ago before they ventured into improved agricultural technology. He started with only 20 plantlets on a one and half hectare farm that he bought about three years ago.

“My plantlets are now mature and produce more than three times without a halt…I sell the new plantlets to other farmers,” he said with a smile. The initial 20 plantlets, according to the farmer, produced four plantlets each after four months, giving him 80 new ones. The number doubled several months later and he managed to sell 400 plantlets at a cost of Sh 2,000 or $ 1.5 each to other farmers, earning him a total of Sh 800,000 about $500 in return.

Currently, the family farm has over 560 plantlets ready for sale, which translates to Sh1,120,000 or about $700. The increased family income, mainly through improved banana seeds, according to the farmer, has enabled him to venture into goat and poultry-keeping.

From the initial income earned from the sale of plantlets, Mr Mbise bought two dairy goats at Sh110,000 each. The goats have reproduced several times and he sells the young ones to other farmers at Sh150,000 each. The family links their success to advice given by the Research on Community and Development Association (Recoda), a local non-governmental organisation.

The NGO aims at bridging the technology gap in development through research, consultancy, capacity building and facilitating community-based projects geared towards poverty alleviation.

But for Yohana Amrose, one of the farmers in the village who has not adopted the new technology, the harvest is not good at all. He said: “After seeing improved life for Mr Mbise, I have enrolled this year in the programme and hope I will see positive change too.” Currently, about 5o farmers in the village are working with Recoda to increase their incomes.

Recoda executive director Dominic Ringo told this reporter that through the Rural Initiatives for Participatory Agricultural Transformation (RIPAT) programme, the organisation has been able to reach many rural farmers.

He noted that the aim is to bridge agricultural technology gap and to ensure farmers take full charge of their own development.

The goal, according to Mr Ringo, is to improve the living standards of Tanzanians while at the same time reducing poverty and ensuring food security among small scale farmers who constitute about 70-80 per cent of the national population.

The organisational strategy is to develop a model for ensuring adoption and diffusion of agricultural technologies. “We believe people cannot be developed...they can only develop themselves,” he said.

Mr Ringo describes the Mbise family as a hard working group that has tapped into the new technology on banana farming and has become a ‘trendsetter’ among others. He said the improved banana seeds were imported from Kenya by Mr Ally Mbwana, the Banana coordinator in Tanzania, several years ago to help improve the quality of the crop in the country. Scientists have proposed the use of improved seeds such as tissue culture for bananas in an effort to fight crop diseases and climate change. With the Plant Breeders Right Act in the offing, researchers and breeders will be free to supply more improved seeds and agricultural technology.

But, unlike Mr Mbise, many farmers in the country still struggle to obtain improved seeds and fertilizers, as the national seed production capacity is low.

According to records from the ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, demand for quality seeds is about 120,000 metric tonnes but less than 20,000 metric tonnes are available. The formal seed system thus accounts for about 10 per cent of seed demand.

But the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) – a government agency which promotes itself as “The Source of High Quality Agricultural Seeds,” - believes they have the capacity to produce enough seeds for all farmers in the country. ASA is also the sole source of public variety foundational seeds.

Its main role is to produce, process and market sufficient high quality agricultural seeds for the local and international farming communities by using modern management and appropriate technologies to enhance food security.

Zawadieli Mringi, the ASA farm manager in Arusha, argues that there are enough seeds for farmers in the country despite reports that the organisation has failed to supply enough seeds to them.

Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Christopher Chiza, who talked to The Citizen on phone from Dodoma, admitted that there are challenges in provision of seeds, but said plans are underway to end the problems.

He cited the Plant Breeders Right Bill passed by Parliament last year which will soon become law as a big step to ensure improved seeds in the country. “It will allow private companies to get new hybrid seeds developed by researchers, thus increase availability of seeds in the country” he noted.

He said that ASA increased production of hybrid seeds from 1,881 tonnes during the 2010/11 season to 4,000 tonnes last year. According to the minister, an agreement between ASA and the Prisons Department will enable production of 3,000 tonnes of hybrid seeds while another 15,000 tonnes will be produced by private companies.

Interviews with other stakeholders have, however, revealed failures in the operations of the organisation. According to a reliable source within the organisation, ASA’s foundation seed production is unable to meet demand.

Its certified seed production and marketing, which, according to ASA, is intended only to address traditional crops which are of no interest to the private sector, still competes with the private sector.

It was also revealed that as a result of financial constraints, there is only limited public sector breeding in Tanzania, and no maintenance breeding. This has resulted in the loss of a number of valuable public seeds.

According to the source, foundation seeds produced by ASA for both the public and private sector are of poor quality, which does not bode well for the future food security and economic development of Tanzania.

Mr. Bob Shuma, Executive Director of Tanzanian Seed Trade Association (TASTA) estimates that only 15 percent of seed planted in Tanzania is certified.

This worsens an already fragile distribution chain for certified seed and pushes up retail prices to the point at which many farmers cannot afford to buy.

Some seed companies interviewed seemed highly aware of the need to establish and maintain a strong brand identity to distinguish themselves from competitors who, for the most part, are selling an identical product, the foundation seed provided by ASA.

Kilimo Markets Seed Growers (KMSG), Techical Director, Mr. Edward Charles, noted that the aim of his company is to ensure sustained availability and access to certified seed to small farmers of improved varieties of the most important crops in Tanzania as the demand is quite huge.

He said KMSG is able to produce, process, and export quality certified seed according to International Seed Trade Association (ISTA) standards and is linked to the best international seed breeders and agriculture research agencies in Tanzania.

But for Mr Mbise, he is determined to continue and expand the farm. He has partially paid money to buy at least five hectares of land to further agriculture.

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