When Hussein Mohamed, a resident of Handeni district in Tanga region heard about the much marketed government subsidised farm inputs three years ago, he rejoiced and quickly extended his two hectares to three because he thought the inputs would be given free of charge. Mohamed who resides in Konje village, represents many villagers who had little or no education at all on what the government’s subsidised farm inputs were all about.
He immediately ignored the offer and went back home to continue using traditional means of cultivation. He has since never dared to ask about the government’s subsidized farm inputs again.
Farmers and their village leaders were supposed to be sensitized on the issue from the word go but it seems this was not the case. Surprisingly, even the secretary of government’s subsidized farm inputs in the village, Aziza Ng’ondi has never received education on the proper use of the inputs.
Aziza who is coordinating the programme at the village, admits she is ignorant too of proper application of the inputs in the farm because during the inception of the programme the village had no farm extension officer.
As a result, she says the villagers and leaders were only sensitized on the availability of the inputs through posters and a few campaigns but not on the application of the inputs on the farms.
Furthermore, she says during the sensitization campaigns, some farmers did not attend and others were simply migrants in the village from other regions in search of farming land. These came to the village late when beneficiaries had already been identified.
She said in recent years,woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. there has been a massive influx of people from other regions of Singida and Arusha into the village, and when they arrive they also want to benefit from the programme.
She says the government subsidized farm inputs is a three-year programme aimed at benefiting all the villagers but in phases. When the first group is covered, the programme shifts to cover another group until all farmers are done with.
Apart from lack of education, Aziza cites another problem facing smooth implementation of the programme, as lack of monitoring and evaluation of the exercise.
She says sometimes the books containing vouchers would get finished and the farmers would go without inputs because there was nobody from the district level to make follow up. “In the past, all coordinators of the programme at village level were promised to be paid 2,500/- for every book that got finished, this money would be used as transport fare for us to rush to other stations and collect the books, but now we are not given the money,” she said.
However, she said despite all the shortfalls, a big percent of farmers who received the farm inputs have improved their productivity from 2 to 3 sacks of maize before the programme to more than 10 sacks after the programme which means, if they had education, yields would have gone up than it is now.Find purses from our handbags and purses Collection in a variety of styles for every occasion.
Reached for comments, the district’s agriculture, Irrigation and cooperatives officer, Omar Kiruwale refuted the allegations saying since the programme started in 2010; the district council has been working very closely with extension officers to identify farmers in different villages so that many could benefit from the government subsidized farm inputs on time.
“When we started this programme, all precautions were taken including convening several public rallies to educate the people on the government’s subsidized farm inputs but also to identify poor farmers who could not afford buying the inputs at market price,” he said. He said despite minor hitches such as the effects of climate change, and invasion of rats (Panya) into farms, the past three years of the programme has been successful.
“The district has made significant achievements such as increased productivity, increased income among farmers and improved livelihood among farmers on the programme” He said.
“Many farmers here say the fertility of their land is good enough to support agriculture and therefore there is no need for more fertilizer. We at district level say this is a very wrong perception and that’s why we have launched education campaigns to make sure that all farmers are reached,” he said.
“We have started with seven tractors from SUMA JKT, which have been distributed in seven divisions, however, our long term plan is to make sure that every ward gets tractors and this will go all the way to the village level,” he said.
The Handeni District Commissioner, Muhingo Rweyemamu said despite being his first time to manage and supervise the programme as the District Commissioner, so far the programme was going on well and many farmers have benefited from the programme.
However, he faces some challenges, for example, some farmers want to get only improved seeds and not fertilizer on grounds that the fertilizer kills soil fertility.
“We have selected ten primary schools to conduct demonstration farms on this programme so as to alley fears on the negative perception of farmers who think that using fertilizers kills soil fertility so as to attract more farmers” he said.
He called on the Handeni residents to make sure they uproot tree trunks from their farms so that the tractors can operate without obstacles and effectively and efficiently use government subsidized farm inputs to improve their livelihood.
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