Why future of sisal is promising

Muheza. Probably many people in Tanzania have not heard of Kikokwe, a sleepy village in Pangani District, Tanga Region, located near the mouth of a river, which bears the same name.

This is where the first sisal plantains were brought into the country by German colonialists in 1893 and planted, thereafter spreading to other parts of the country.

Richard Hindorf is an agronomist credited to have introduced the crop from its original place, Yucatan Province in Mexico through which ‘katani’, a Kiswahili name of sisal, is traced.

The story is long and quite interesting. It is said that 1,000 sisal plantains were shipped all the way from across the Atlantic.

But only 60 of them survived. Initially, they were planted at Kikokwe and later introduced at Amani, an elevated area in Muheza District, where many colonial settlers preferred to settle.

It was at agricultural estates in Amani, where serious efforts were made to produce sisal for commercial purposes as new hybrids were introduced.

Soon it was realised that the crop holds good prospects for the colonial economy, both for the Germans and later the British, and so new estates were opened up in the easily accessible lowlands.

Dr Zaid Mkangwa, the director of the Mlingano Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), a few kilometres from Muheza Town, has a lot to talk on sisal crop, which was once the leading export crop for Tanzania.

“Some people may not be aware, but ARI has a lot of bearing on sisal production in Tanzania. It was established (more than 80 years ago) specifically to conduct research on sisal,” he told The Citizen in an interview, adding that the research initially focused on soil analysis to find out suitable soils for the crop.

If the public private partnership (PPP) is seen as a new concept, then such an arrangement may have been in practice in the distant past during colonial times. The institute was established in the 1930s under some sort of partnership between the government the agricultural department and owners of sisal plantation and the aim was to boost production. “Many partners not only utilised our research findings, but also supported us in research,” the institute’s director explained, naming some of them as sisal growers, spinners and exporters. Many of these operated under the then state-owned Tanzania Sisal Authority (TSA) and Tanzania Sisal Corporation, both of which are now defunct.

The other bodies were the Tanzania Sisal Growers Association (TSGA) and other umbrella groups associated with sisal production in Tanga and other regions.

At the peak of production in the 1960s, sisal used to be the ‘green gold’ for Tanzania. Annual production was about 230,000 tonnes compared to 40,000 tonnes at present.

According to Dr Mkangwa, one of ARI’s achievements as far as sisal production is concerned is that it produced ‘sisal H11648’, which is grown in many countries, among them, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique.

His remarks were echoed by Lady Swai, the head of sisal research at ARI, who said the first soil analysis laboratory set up there was a boon for sisal production.

“Through the lab experts identified proper fertilisers. These increased production among the big commercial farmers in early years. “From the 1980s, the benefits were extended to the smallholder farmers,” she said, noting that for all the years agronomists had been able to come up with various high yield hybrids.

These include a variety she simply described as Agavia, which takes between five and six years to mature with about 250 leaves. It has a life cycle of 10-12 years and one can harvest 650 leaves. Outside her office, along the Tanga-Segera Road, she had a lot to show as experimental fields, which could be easily taken for granted. A small portion of land between the buildings of the research centre and the road is what has come out to be the world largest sisal gene bank and the institute is proud of that.

It is here, where all identified genetic materials of sisal, famous for the production of fibre and ropes, are found and preserved for research purposes.

A gene bank is a type of biorepository, which preserves genetic materials. For plants, this can be by freezing cuttings from the plant or stocking the seeds in a seed bank.

Gene banks are familiar in agriculture. In an effort to conserve agricultural biodiversity, gene banks are used to store and conserve plant genetic resources of major crop plants.

“This is where we keep our best planting materials,” Ms Swai explained during a brief site visit to the field outside her office, visibly happy that Mlingano was hosting such an important research centre in the world.

She told The Citizen there were four sisal varieties from different collections of species, among them being Agave sisalana, Agave amaniensis and Agave angustifolia. Mexico is the home of domesticated sisal and it was from there that it was brought to Tanzania more than 120 years ago. Are the Mexicans aware of the Mlingano gene centre?

“Sure. Some researchers from Mexico often visit here. They want the gene bank maintained,” she said, noting that the gene centre was not only a mileage for Mlingano Institute, but also for Tanzania and Africa in general.

It is at the site (gene bank), covering about one hectare, where on-farm trials are made, inter-cropping technologies carried out and collection of gene materials is done.

“The future of sisal is now promising,” she said, noting that besides its traditional growth areas such as Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Morogoro regions, the crop was also cultivated in drought-prone regions such as Manyara, Mara, Shinyanga and others.

Globally, it is now more acceptable because it provides natural fibres used for the production of bags, footwear, ropes, carpets and other times, which are friendly to the environment.