HIKED power tariffs and combine harvester user fees are among costs holding back Dakawa rice farmers from realizing maximum profits from their increased yields.
Speaking to 'Daily News 'over the past weekend, the farmers who are better off compared to their peers as they have an assured contract to sell their rice used as seeds to Tanseed International Limited, said they pay 150,000/- per hour to use a combined harvester.
Nasibu Katoto, one of the farmers said although his production has increased from between 5/6 bags per hectare to 10/15 bags thanks to use of hybrids seeds developed at Korea Tanzania Agriculture Company (Kotaco), profits have gone down the drain to production costs.
"Power supply is very expensive and we need it for irrigation and it normally charges up to 97,000/- per hectare for a whole season. Worst still we pay for capacity charges during the off season," said Mr Katoto. He further pointed out that other costs eating much of their profits include storage charges for their seed rice after harvesting whereby warehouse owners charge 3,000/- per bag per day.
"So you can see that even if we are getting better yields and much money, the problem is production costs," he pointed out. John Fungo urged the government to intervene and save them from hikes equipment, power and warehouse fees among many others burdening them. "Otherwise the whole idea of having Kilimo Kwanza is frustrated," Mr Fungo pointed out.
The Dakawa hybrid seed rice farmers association known by its local acronym of Uwawakuda, is currently facing an over 100m/- power debt backlog. The farmers who earn 100,000/- per 90kgs bag of their hybrid seeds said their efforts to tame poverty are frustrated by hiked production costs.
But Tanseed International Managing Director, Isaka Mashauri said they have 73 farmers in Morogoro producing rice seeds which are sold to normal rice cultivating farmers. "We have long term contracts with them which assures the farmers of the market for their commodity," said Mr Mashauri.
He noted that with support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Nafaka Project his company has been linked to smallholder seed rice farmers who also received training on best practices in the production of rice seeds.
The company buys 250 tons of rice from Dakawa and Ifakara farmers annually under the USAID backed Nafaka project which started in 2012. "This is a very good initiative which can ensure that our country is self sufficient in hybrid seeds production," Mashauri noted.
The country imports about 70 per cent of hybrid seeds because of incapacity to produce them locally hence the USAID initiative to empower smallholder farmers and small companies such as Tanseed to produce hybrids seeds locally.
source: tanzania daily news
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