Sisal board introduces mobile decorticators to revolutionise farming
Introduction of mobile decorticators is primarily aimed at liberating smallholder farmers in sisal fibre processing
In 1964, for example, Tanzania produced 240,000 tons of sisal fibre from an area of 487,000 hectares of sisal.
In effect, the industry was the largest single employer and the crop, the major foreign exchange earner for the economy.
Up to 1967, the industry was in private
hands. But with the proclamation of the then famous Arusha Declaration,
all major economic activities became under state control where over 50
percent of the industry was nationalized.
Most owners of such entities went in
confused circles, not knowing what to do next. Along with the move,
were houses, high-rise buildings whose value was estimated to cost
100,000/- and above.
The nationalized sisal estates were
bestowed in government hands with a public parastatal –Tanzania Sisal
Corporation (TSC) formed. Later in 1973, the entity became Tanzania
Sisal Authority (TSA).
Only three companies – Amboni Limited,
Ralli Estate and Karimjee Agriculture Limited were spared, contributing
to the rest 50 percent of the country’s sisal production.
Suddenly, the industry experienced a worst
ever decline in the 1970s and 1980s – with production levels pushed
down from 230,000 tons in 1964 to 20,485 in 2000.
Among the reasons for the severe slump was neglect of agriculture as an integral part towards national development.
The other, according to agronomists, was
the setting in of the synthetic fibre use by developed countries, ending
market share of sisal in the world.
Faced with the competition, the product
fetched very low prices, while costs of production remained the
same-resulting in low profit margin.
With too much on its shoulders, the
government decided to privatise the firm. After a bidding exercise,
Katani Limited, a processing, marketing and provider of technical and
extension services in sisal industry, came out the winner.
Katani Limited, a privately owned company,
operates five factories. These are Magoma, Mwelya, Hale, Ngombezi and
Magunga, all of them in Korogwe district.
The company has three subsidiary firms –
Tanzania Cordage (TANCORD) at Ngomeni, Muheza district, Central workshop
at Ngombezi and Hale-based Mkonge Energy Systems (MES) in Korogwe
district.
All the five estates are rented to small-scale farmers under SISO System.
Under this arrangement, small-scale
farmers, according to a contractual arrangement, are allocated farming
plots ranging from 6 to 20 hectares where they grow sisal and sell sisal
leaves to Katani Limited who are buyers of their products.
Considering the importance of sisal in the
country’s development, the Tanzania Sisal Board (TSB) recently came up
with a sisal crop development plan – a road map of the sisal industry –
in order to revamp the crop.
Aimed at promoting small holder farming –
a type of activity now cherished world wide to alleviate rural poverty
and raise sustainability of sisal production, TSB has, in a bid to
revolutionize sisal farming by smallholder farmers, introduced mobile
decorticating.
The use of mobile decorticators is common
in Brazil, the world’s largest sisal producer. In effect, Brazil
depends on small-scale farming to maintain the global title in the sisal
industry.
In this regard, the government, through
TSB had approached the Tanzania Automotive Technology Centre (TATC) – a
mechanization unit under the Ministry of Defence and National Service to
provide decorticators for Tanzanian farmers.
Accordingly, the first unit – a machine
weighing over 600 kgs, is presently on a ten-day trial operation at the
Mlingano Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) , an autonomous
institution owned by Tanzania Sisal Board, the only one in the world.
“This machine is one of many we intend to
order from Nyumbu (TATC) in a bid to revolutionise sisal farming in the
country,” said Hassan Kibarua, TSB Senior Planning and Research Officer
at the trial operations site at ARI last week.
Kibarua said introduction of the mobile
decorticators was primarily aimed at liberating small holder farmers
from hardship they had been facing in having their products processed in
factories owned by large scale farmers.
For example, he said, private
decorticators buy sisal leaves from small scale farmers for a price
ranging between 5,000/= and 10,000/-.
“The famers accept whatever price on
offer from owners of private decorticators be cause they are in
desperate need of money, not because the price is favourable to them”,
asserted Kibarua.
He said, ideally, the price should be
higher considering the local market price of sisal fibre, which
presently stands at 1.8 m/- for under grade (ug) fibre - a quality of
produce which accounts for 70 percent in the country.
Sisal farming is rapidly on the rise in
the country – a situation brought about by the awareness of farmers who
have lately been shifting from traditional crops like maize and others
which have, all along, been drying up shortly after planting.
Due to the rapid expansion of sisal
farming, farmers have, at times, found themselves having no place to
send their crops for processing, due to the fact that decorating
facilities in the country are few .
Faced by such situation, farmers crops dry
up, especially for those who can not afford to pay for transport costs
to processing factories which may be kilometers away from their farming
plots.
For those who can afford transport, they
ultimately find that the profit margin is meagre ,given the prevailing
prices on offer by large scale farmers.
Already, the National Microfinance Bank
(NMB) has accepted a request by TSB to provide loans to small-scale
farmers – either in groups or individually -to enable them purchase
decorticators.
Under a tripartite agreement involving the
bank, farmer and buyer of the product, a farmer is required to go to a
district council where he belongs, to have his farm registered. After
the initial process, TSB informs the bank, requesting the banking
facility to consider the farmer’s application for a loan.
Accordingly, the contract is entered into
with the farmer confirming that he would sell his product to the buyer
of his choice. The buyer, on his part, should then agree to buy the
product from the farmer, remitting installments of the loan given to the
farmer to the bank.
After the contract agreement is signed,
the bank releases the fund to the decorticator manufacturer (Nyumbu) who
ultimately delivers the machine to the farmer
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