Posted on :Monday , 15th August 2016

Njombe — Financial institutions have been urged to give loans to farmers to enable them increase their agricultural productivity.

Speaking at the closing of the five-day business training workshop to the local famers here over the weekend, Acting Njombe District Commissioner Anna Wiketye said lack of capital and unavailability of loans to famers remain among the great challenges in the region.

The Tanzania Dairy Farming as a Business (FAAB) training workshop was conducted by Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania - Catalytic Trust Fund (SAGCOT-CTF) in collaboration with UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Njombe Milk Factory.

Ms Wiketye added that the high price of modern milk cattle, medication and food impede farmers' strides against poverty, imploring banks and other financial institutions to intervene in availing farmers with funding.

She however requested the financial institutions to use such occasions to provide their services and training as well to help famers, saying such trainings offered great opportunity for them to get famers in groups rather than serving individuals.

"I would like to thank SAGCOT-CTF, UNCTAD, the association of famers in Njombe (NJOLIFA) and Njombe Milk Factory for organising this business training to famers to improve their skills, I am sure this will also improve productivity," she said.

SAGCOT-CTF Executive Secretary John Kyaruzi said the fund believes that the given skills to famers will change and improve productivity of the trained famers, who will be evaluated in every six months. He added that the famers have shown good understanding, encouraging the organisation to plan more trainings in the region to reach as many famers as possible.

The tutor from UNCTAD, Charles Tumaini, said the famers have got not only the skills to modernise their faming but also the agricultural record keeping skills which are critical in modern business farming.

This is the fourth SAGCOT- CTF organised workshop in the country.

The first workshop was conducted in Tanga last year and the workshops are characterized in three terms that aim at transforming farmers from outdated to modern farming practices.