MORE than 250 pepper farmers have been trained in organic farming to boost their productivity and increase income.
This was said at the just ended 46th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) yesterday by the Director of Katoro Fresh Business, Mr Tendi Lushinge who facilitated the training under the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) support.
"The young people we trained have been able to cultivate and now own large pepper fields about 370 acres and we continue to monitor them so that they can continue to do well in the pepper market," he said.
Katoro Fresh Business is specialized in pepper farming, said they continue to train other young people.
"We give them education but we continue to monitor the quality of the fertilizer used since we used to buy their products," he said.
He said they are currently selling their products to Zambia, Kenya and local companies.
In addition he said apart from teaching them agro ecology they also taught them the best production of organic fertilizers by using rice husks and legume residues.
He said the main group he is working with are young men and women who are excited about opportunities.
"We are very grateful to TARI through AGRI-CONNECT for providing us with skills that have been very successful in enabling young people to own 370 acres and to be able to employ 10 permanent staff of which six agricultural professionals and four non-experts.
Mr Lushinge said based on the knowledge gained by TARI, they have established class farms in Katavi Region 2 hectares, Dodoma 2.5 hectares, and Kahama 4 hectares
TARI through AGRO_CONNECT provides capacity building training to citizens to add value chain
He called on young people to change as studying is gaining broader understanding and not employment.
"In agriculture there is a lot of wealth. If you enter the value chain you can sell technology, and make a lot of money not necessarily to farm because many young people are afraid to farm," said Lushinge.
Lushinge said one kilogramme of dried peppers sells for between 5,200/- to 6,000/- and one tonne of sells up to 9m/-.
