Tanzania: Cheap Loans Help Rice Growers Triple Output

Posted on :Tuesday , 23rd August 2016

Morogoro — Paddy productivity has almost tripled among Dakawa-based growers in the last one year after the farmers accessed the financial support that helped to adhere to recommended agricultural practices.

Some of the group members at the Dakawa Irrigation Scheme in the region say the bank loan has enabled them plant on time and apply fertilizers and pesticides for the bumper harvests.

The loans are extended to groups of producers under the Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) guarantee with the aim of commercialising the sector.

Agriculture is Tanzania's economic mainstay accounting for at least 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). PASS Trust has guaranteed loans amounting to Sh314 billion between 2007 and 2015 to farmers who sought credits from commercial banks.

"We have boosted our productivity from 15 bags per acre to between 35 and 45 bags," said Mr Evodis Mlokozi, a rice grower at the Dakawa Irrigation Scheme.

The peasant said he was currently targeting to raise production from 45 bags of rice per acre to 60 bags.

"I started growing rice many years ago but with low productivity," said another grower Mr Robert Materu, recalling the year he harvested 8 bags from 12 acres. During the 2015/16 farming season, 30 members of Jikwamue Dakawa Farmers Group applied for and secured a Sh583 million loan from CRDB Bank through the PASS guarantee to intensify paddy production in the scheme.

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