MORE than 74,000 small scale farmers from the Rukwa, Katavi and Morogoro regions have been trained on how to prevent post-harvest losses through the Save Safe Food Project run by the Helvetas Organisation.
The Assistant Project Manager, Marcel Mtei, said on Sunday in Morogoro that the project started in August 2019 and is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
Mr Mtei said the project is funded by Denmark’s Development Cooperation (DANIDA) Market Development Partnerships which has allocated more than 800m/- and managed by Helvetas Tanzania.
He said that among the maize crop farmers who were reached directly among them, more than 50,000 are from Rukwa and Katavi regions, and more than 24,000 farmers from Morogoro region.
He said that the project targeted the regions selected to benefit in this project for they are considerable main corn producers alias the country’s food basket.
Some of the training to the farmers includes methods of preventing the post-harvest losses, according to Mr Mtei, adding that prospects were to expand to other areas and reach out farmers who produce corn in Mvomero District, Morogoro District council and Ulanga.
“This project basically insisted on equipping farmers with methods of preventing loss of crops after harvest, especially the corn crop which is considered to be the main crop used as part of food security at the household level,”
Mr Mtei said according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) that the loss of crops is between 15 to 40 per cent where Helvetas Organization saw the importance of starting to provide education and training to farmers so that they can avoid poor methods of storing crops.
For his part, Morogoro Region Manager of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), John Banga said that the Safe Grain Storage project use of layered bags without using chemicals has helped eliminate the loss of crops during harvest and improve the safe storage of grain crops and hence, strengthen food security.