DODOMA: SEVERAL primary schools in Chamwino District, Dodoma Region, have received over 500 kilogrammes of sorghum seeds, being part of the plan to boost production of the crop in the area.
The seeds donated by the Dodoma Agriculture Seed Production Association (DASPA) are also part of efforts to improve nutrition services in schools.
DASPA Executive Director, Aithan Chaula said the organisation has been providing sorghum seeds to schools in Chamwino District in efforts to complement the government’s initiative to ensure that children have adequate nutrition services while in school to increase their performance and reduce truancy.
According to him, sorghum seeds are being provided in Chamwino District every year as part of intensifying campaigns to engage in sorghum farming as drought-resistant crops.
He added that the association was producing quality seeds to ensure that there was sufficient production of crops as well as ensuring productivity in agricultural activities. He said farmers should use improved seeds to improve productivity.
Chaula noted that the government was making efforts to ensure that agriculture becomes more productive by enabling seed producers to produce quality and sufficient seeds to be distributed to farmers in their respective areas.
He said the private sector is also making efforts to ensure that farmers join various groups and are given training aimed at helping them improve their agricultural activities and providing them with quality seeds so that they can increase productivity.
Chaula further noted that Masia sorghum seeds are distributed to about 100 primary schools whereas each school is supposed to cultivate an average of between one and four acres of the crop.
In October last year, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) challenged Tanzania to heighten the production of sorghum to meet a growing demand of the grain in the world market.
William Lasway, Monitoring Officer at the UN body, said that demand in the world’s largest humanitarian organisation was at least 200,000 tonnes of sorghum from Tanzania per season.
He stated that WFP had been purchasing a huge quantity of sorghum to roll out humanitarian support to populations in need in different countries across the continent, especially in Sudan, Somalia and Burundi.
