KCU stresses financial education to farmers
KAGERA: KAGERA Cooperative Union (KCU 1990 Ltd) has appealed to financial institutions to educate more farmers so that they can have proper understanding on their services and use various opportunities offered by the banks.
KCU Vice-Chairman, Mr Respicius John explained that the move will also help farmers to increase their understanding of financial issues so that they can make informed decision in taking up loans.
“Some of the essential services needed include agriculture insurance service, loan interest rates and investment by farmers. Most of the farmers lack the much-needed knowledge resulting in poor productivity,” he said.
Equally, Mr John has urged young people in Kagera and others countrywide, to invest in agri-business assuring them the agricultural sector is lucrative.
He advised them to utilise the government grant and soft-loan applications for youth and women in farming activities as part of the Building a Better Tomorrow Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) programme.
He explained that a recent baseline survey indicated that only 5 per cent of youths in Kagera Region engage in coffee production while the region had abundant fertile soil suitable for production of food and cash crops.
According to the 2022 National Population and Housing Census results Kagera Region has a population of 2.9m/- while youths comprise at least 60 per cent -about 1.7m/-.
“Young people should stop blaming the government as a scapegoat for lack of employment. Instead, they should grab the opportunity by engaging in coffee production. The BBT programme has come at a right time as it aims to address challenges faced by young people and women in the agriculture sector, including access to land, capital, technology and markets, “he said.
Elaborating, Mr John said the government in collaboration with other stakeholders including Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Cooperative Unions, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TACRI), Café Africa Tanzania and the private sector is implementing a five-year strategic plan aimed to increase coffee production from 78,000 metric tonnes to 300,000 metric tonnes by 2025.
The plan goes in hand with producing 20 million improved coffee seedlings each year.
During the past three years coffee production in the region increased from 52,000 tonnes during 2018/2019 to 78,300 metric tonnes during 2020/2021 enabling the farmers to pocket about 96.4bn/-., he said.
Farmers are encouraged to adhere to best crop husbandry practices by uprooting and destroy through burning the affected coffee trees, farm cleanliness, mulching and timely use of inputs and fertilisers.
The Ministry of Agriculture recently announced a call for grant and soft-loan applications for youth and women in farming activities as part of the Building a Better Tomorrow Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) programme.
The announcement states that the initiative will provide grants and soft loans to youths and women involved in commercial crop value chains to support the growth of a sustainable and successful agribusiness sector.
To be eligible for the programme, applicants must be a Tanzanian youth aged 18-40 years and have experience in agricultural activities.
According to BBT-YIA booklet, over the course of eight years, the programme aims to achieve 12,000 profitable enterprises across 12,000 villages in Tanzania, by training 200,000 youths and engaging 20,000 young people in internship programmes as well as mentoring and coaching 15,000 youth-led agribusiness through incubation programmes.
