By Friday Simbaya, Iringa
Despite Iringa region leading in food production of about 900,000 tons per year in the country but still the region leads in malnutrition problem in children under the age of five.
Iringa Regional Commissioner (RC), Amina Masenza said the region produces food in abundance that is used to feed other regions but 2010 figures showed that about 42% of children aged less than five years in the country are stunting.
RC made the statement yesterday when she was opening the meeting of the leaders of groups small-scale farmers and agricultural stakeholders organized by Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB).
She said malnutrition is attributed to a woman who is the main producer but being involved in another role of production and thus less time to raising a child.
She said the purpose of the establishment of TADB is to increase production and productivity by ensuring smallholder farmers are given loans, inputs, better irrigation machines, value adding crops and construction of warehouses in order to expand this important sector in the country.
“The crop losses reached between 35% and 40% stemmed from unfavorable storage so there is a need to empower farmers gets harvesting machines and storage facilities for their produce,” said Masenza.
On his part, Director of Credit and Business Management, Robert Pascal said the aim of TADB is to enable Tanzanians to be secured with food security through helping to affordable credit, technical expertise, marketing and conservation in order to increase productivity.
Pascal said bank will enable farmers by providing lower interest rates and affordable loans between 8% and 12% and long-term between two and 15 years compared to loans offered by commercial banks.
He said he opted to start with the Iringa region as a pilot region because there are groups of farmers that are working with many stakeholders who have provided expertise where they began with 89 groups containing 21,526 farmers.
Salimu Kipama a small scale farmers from Kilolo district said one of the challenges facing farmers is the lack of a guaranteed market for their crops so the government should also look at ways to expand market because many crop products go to worst due to lack of reliable markets.
And also Salimu Saidi a rice farmer from Pawaga in Iringa district said many commercial banks have condition which is complex and an interest rate of more than 16% which is a burden on farmers.
He said that coming of TADB in the region will be savior to small scale farmers who have been crying higher interest rates charge by commercial banks.
President Jakaya Kikwete recently launched the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) with a pledge that the government will raise Sh800 billion capital requirement in eight years.
The President challenged farmers to improve their productivity through loans from TADB.
He said development bank will work with financial institutions, including commercial and community banks, savings and credit co-operative societies and a variety of other groups to extend loans to farmers.
“I am glad to hear that the bank will use other institutions to extend their services to potential clients,” President Kikwete added.
“I advise the management to come up with friendly criteria so that your loans are affordable to farmers, unlike loans from some commercial banks.”
According to the president, TADB should concentrate on supporting farmers financially as TIB Development Bank focuses on loans for investors in the ago-processing industry.
The bank will focus on produce best suited to small and medium outfits. These include maize, rice, fruit, sesame, sugarcane indigenous chicken, horticulture, livestock, fish farming and bee keeping.
Despite Iringa region leading in food production of about 900,000 tons per year in the country but still the region leads in malnutrition problem in children under the age of five.
Iringa Regional Commissioner (RC), Amina Masenza said the region produces food in abundance that is used to feed other regions but 2010 figures showed that about 42% of children aged less than five years in the country are stunting.
RC made the statement yesterday when she was opening the meeting of the leaders of groups small-scale farmers and agricultural stakeholders organized by Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB).
She said malnutrition is attributed to a woman who is the main producer but being involved in another role of production and thus less time to raising a child.
She said the purpose of the establishment of TADB is to increase production and productivity by ensuring smallholder farmers are given loans, inputs, better irrigation machines, value adding crops and construction of warehouses in order to expand this important sector in the country.
“The crop losses reached between 35% and 40% stemmed from unfavorable storage so there is a need to empower farmers gets harvesting machines and storage facilities for their produce,” said Masenza.
On his part, Director of Credit and Business Management, Robert Pascal said the aim of TADB is to enable Tanzanians to be secured with food security through helping to affordable credit, technical expertise, marketing and conservation in order to increase productivity.
Pascal said bank will enable farmers by providing lower interest rates and affordable loans between 8% and 12% and long-term between two and 15 years compared to loans offered by commercial banks.
He said he opted to start with the Iringa region as a pilot region because there are groups of farmers that are working with many stakeholders who have provided expertise where they began with 89 groups containing 21,526 farmers.
Salimu Kipama a small scale farmers from Kilolo district said one of the challenges facing farmers is the lack of a guaranteed market for their crops so the government should also look at ways to expand market because many crop products go to worst due to lack of reliable markets.
And also Salimu Saidi a rice farmer from Pawaga in Iringa district said many commercial banks have condition which is complex and an interest rate of more than 16% which is a burden on farmers.
He said that coming of TADB in the region will be savior to small scale farmers who have been crying higher interest rates charge by commercial banks.
President Jakaya Kikwete recently launched the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) with a pledge that the government will raise Sh800 billion capital requirement in eight years.
The President challenged farmers to improve their productivity through loans from TADB.
He said development bank will work with financial institutions, including commercial and community banks, savings and credit co-operative societies and a variety of other groups to extend loans to farmers.
“I am glad to hear that the bank will use other institutions to extend their services to potential clients,” President Kikwete added.
“I advise the management to come up with friendly criteria so that your loans are affordable to farmers, unlike loans from some commercial banks.”
According to the president, TADB should concentrate on supporting farmers financially as TIB Development Bank focuses on loans for investors in the ago-processing industry.
The bank will focus on produce best suited to small and medium outfits. These include maize, rice, fruit, sesame, sugarcane indigenous chicken, horticulture, livestock, fish farming and bee keeping.
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