Africa Guardian

By Bilal Abdul-Aziz: IT’S still long before dawn. Yet Tatu Tunduguru, a young mother of two, is already painstakingly trudging a bush track separating her grass-thatched mud-and-pole house and the other side of the village, where she owns a farm.For Tatu, just like other villagers in Mzenga, Kisarawe in Coast Region, this happens daily, if one has to keep pace with the rainy season, thanks to overdependence on hand hoe. She tills the land up to mid day. Sweat and all, she only manages a few metres. Dead tired she lifts her worn out traditional hand-hoe to find her way back home. Thank God, the story will not be the same, come next season for her and fellow villagers…Excited about mechanisation“Everybody is so enthusiastic over here…power tillers have brought a new life to farming and hopefully better life to us the poor smallholder farmers. Everyone wants to use a power tiller in his or her farm. We are hoping for the very best in the coming years,” says Tatu.The power tillers she is talking about are small tractors which can plough the land at a relatively shorter time than a hand-hoe. Mzenga and many other villages in Kisarawe are among those blessed to get these new machines procured massively by the government in a concerted bid to mechanise the agricultural sector.Tatu, represents smallholders farmers who comprise – over 80 per cent – of over 44 million populace. An ambitious programme for scaling down poverty known as National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) being implemented in two phases over a ten-year period (2005 – 2015) has come hardy to make farming more meaningful for her and soon a power tiller will clear her land.NSGRP focuses on outcome oriented on three clusters namely, growth and reduction of income poverty; improved quality of life and social wellbeing as well as following up governance and accountability.Kisarawe district agricultural and livestock officer (Daldo) Ayoub Isere is optimistic that 15 power tillers distributed early this year to each of the 15 wards forming the district council will revolutionarise smallholder farming. “In addition to the 15 power tillers, for Msimbu and Marui wards we have added two tractors for each after learning that the demand is relatively high there,” he informs.The number of small tractors supplied to farmers’ groups in Kisarawe, slightly over 200, is equivalent to 10 per cent of a total 2,154 distributed to different districts in the country by mid last year, according to the latest budget speech of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.The Daldo further says that in order to ensure sustainability of the initiative whose implementation is in line with the government’s Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) and the ‘Agriculture First’ initiative, commonly known as ‘Kilimo Kwanza’, the local authority has formed special groups to manage the equipment from which the farmers will lease them.According to Isere, farmers like Tatu will get the services of the power tillers through special groups of at least 25 smallholder farmers formed especially for managing the equipment as well as funds obtained from the leasing project. A condition has been set for group members that they must have at least two acres of land each to quality for membership, notes Daldo.Cost, production time downWhat make many smallholder farmers even more excited is the fact that the new tools would help a great deal in cutting down farming costs as well as time spent on preparing and tilling the land.Another Kisarawe farmer, Athuman Mdugi, who resides in village known as Kidugalo says, “I hope that I will spend less next season. We have been told that between 25,000/- and 30,000/- will be charged per acre. I used to spend around 90,000/- on paying labourers per acre. This is a big relief and should therefore be warmly welcome.”Mdugi further explains that he has also been informed by a local extension officer that the power tillers were capable of tilling one acre in a single day. This is incredible, as labours would spend up to two weeks for a similar assignment, he says.A district official charged with the management of the power tillers, Dr Kisamo Minja is optimistic that productivity will go up. The area of land under cultivation is estimated to more than double in the next season.“I can’t give you the exact figures of what we expect in the coming seasons. However, things will definitely improve because people will spend less time and money in farming and still get bumper harvest if nothing goes wrong,” he says.Not ‘a blessing’ to all!However, for a few, mainly labourers, the power tillers have been a curse rather than a blessing. Minja says application of the equipment has rendered over 200 people jobless. The victims of mechanisation, around 15 in each of the 15 wards, are labours who traditionally are not Coast region natives. Mostly they come from Dodoma, Shinyanga, Tabora and Mwanza region.The only ward without a hope of setting aside the hand hoe is Kiluvya. The area councillor, Anzameen Masawe reports that trials on using power tillers have failed. “We won’t use them unfortunately,” he informed. The land there is comprised of clay soil, which is too compacted to be tilled by power tillers efficiently, he said. Quality: No cause for alarmOne of the key challenges facing the mechanisation initiative is making the equipment sustainable in terms of routine service, availability of spare parts and ensuring that supply meets the growing demand. Mafizi ward councillor Kebo Sangi says, “Farmers have been sensitised and I think they will definitely need more in the near future.”His concern regarding the supply is echoed by Vikumbulu councillor Mohamed Dihomba and Mzenga extension officer Ally Enzimbali who says a six-acre demonstration form developed in his area has attracted many people. “We should brace for increasing demand of the equipment in the very near future. I’m not so sure if we are prepared enough to tackle the challenge,” he says.District executive director (DED) Isaya Moses alley fears that shortage of power tillers will be an issue in future. “Plans are underway to bring more power tillers whenever demand goes up. So, this is not a matter of concern,” he says, declining to give more details of the plan he is talking about.Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives deputy minister Christopher Chiza says farmers and other players need not to worry about sustainability, quality and spare parts for power tillers. “The ministry has prepared and distributed to all district councils technical specifications for the procurement of appropriate power tillers,” he says.According to him, fake machines won’t get in because the Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation and Rural Technology (Carmatec) and Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) certify the quality of all power tillers before procurement.Revolution on despite oddsGenerally, Kisarawe district commissioner Khanifa Karamagi says pockets of villages where trials to use power tillers have failed cannot frustrate plans to revolutionise farming in one of the country’s poorest districts. “We are on the right track…we should only work hard and ensure that we take good care of the machines,” she stressed.However, the success of this ambitious programme to mechanise agriculture right from the grassroots will have meaning if it helps in boosting up productivity, increase incomes and improve the wellbeing of the poor majority as targeted under the NSGRP blueprint.*Panos Eastern Africa supported the writer to travel to several villages in Kisarawe District to do this story. Ends