French bean farmers eye high returns
The Taha chief development manager, Anthony Chamanga (right), accompanied by the Taha chief internal auditor, David Mlaki (second right), exchange experiences with a farmer of french beans, Mr Ladbody Mwakyabala (second left), in the presence of an agronomist, Mr Magembe Sunga (left). PHOTO | THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT
What you need to know:
Smallholder farmers should go laughing all the way to the bank next year after embarking on french beans cultivation.
Arusha. The cultivation of french beans has the potential of becoming a game-changer that could propel a majority farmers out of poverty.
In northern Tanzania, smallholder farmers have grabbed the opportunity and grown french beans on their state-of-the-art farms for export. If all goes as planned, the farmers should go laughing all the way to the bank come February 2020!
For instance, a total of 80 selected farmers in Arumeru, Siha, Moshi-Rural and Same districts are currently whetting their appetite to harvest 216 tonnes of french beans for European and Middle East markets, with the possibility of earning Sh324 million per harvesting season.
This is courtesy of the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha)’ programme connecting Youth and Women to sustainable agricultural project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“We see better days ahead - thanks to Taha for its effective extension services, linking us with financing sources, agriculture technologies and markets,” says Mr Ladbody Mwakyabala, a french beans farmer at the Ngurudoto village in Arumeru District, Arusha Region.
Under the project, Taha has been helping with farmer’s sensitisation, groups formation and formalisation, capacity building in the application of innovative horticultural technologies and good agricultural practices - thus enabling farmers to access finance and markets for their high-quality produce.
“The project is designed to transform horticulture via a holistic approach. We conduct on-farm training to increase high-quality crops, link farmers to financing and marketings,” says Taha’s chief development manager, Mr Anthony Chamanga.
Mr Chamanga expressed gratitude to women and youth farmers for embracing technologies to increase crop yields, make their farming more efficient, more profitable, and adhere to quality production in order to meet international markets standards. “I’m so thankful to the UNDP for its financial support as Taha is now able to transform farmers into producing quality crops for export, feed the hungry and pull millions of rustics out of poverty,” he explains.
