Tanseed International Limited Managing Director, Isaka Mashauri said the farmers are in Ifakara and Dakawa areas of Morogoro region cultivating over 2,500 hectares of land.
“The farmers are getting better and better in their production of quality seeds which we buy,” said Mr Mashauri whose company has entered into agreement with the farmers to buy their commodity once produced.
Mashauri said in all 73 farmers are engaged in the SARO 5 and 6 rice seeds production pilot project which is backed by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
He said the farmers were taken to Moshi based Kilimanjaro Agriculture Training Centre for several weeks of training in modern seed production.
Tanseed is one of the 21 African companies which signed a letter of intent to invest in the agricultural sector in Africa over five years ago.
Other local companies which signed the agreement include Agrica/Kilombero Plantations Ltd, Agro EcoEnergy, Shambani Graduates Enterprises Ltd, Tanzania Tea Packers Group, Selous Farming Limited, Agriculture Council of Tanzania, Tanzania Horticulture Association and the Tanzania Seed Trade Association.
Under the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, 27 multinational companies also signed up the letter of intent including PepsiCo, Monsanto, SABMiller, Jain Irrigation, Unilever, Vodafone and Yara International.
Farmers who work in partnership with Tanseed said the arrangement has assisted them to learn new skills and improved their productivity.
“Our income has increased alongside production per hectares,” said Nasibu Katoto from Wami Dakawa scheme.
Mr Nasibu said through United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Nafaka project, the farmers have increased production from 5-6 bags per hectare to 10 to 15 bags currently after implementing the project. Nuru Saidi said her four hectares seed farm produced 80 bags last season which she sold for 8m/-.
Tanseed pays on average 100,000/- per 90kgs bag of rice seeds compared to between 40 and 60,000/- for ordinary rice. Farmers produce 30 bags of seeds from a hectare compared to above 35 bags for normal rice used for food.
The NAFAKA Staples Value Chain Activity is a $30 million project funded by USAID under the Tanzania Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative.
It integrates agricultural, gender, environment and nutritional development efforts to improve smallholder farmer productivity and profitability within the maize and rice value chains in Morogoro (Kilombero and Mvomero Districts), Dodoma (Kongwa District) and Manyara (Kiteto District).
NAFAKA’s goal is to sustainably reduce poverty and food insecurity by increasing incomes for smallholder farmers, including men, women and youth.
