The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives is holding ten-day training on supervision of rice farming and storage, starting.
According to the Deputy Director of Agricultural Mechanisation, Engineer Mark Lyimo, the training involves 14 extension officers, 84 farmers from 14 different irrigation schemes from regional committees of Mbeya, Morogoro, Tanga, Arusha, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Manyara and Ruvuma.
“Rural Urban Development Initiative (RUDI) will also participate in the training as private sectors are also encouraged to get involved in improving agriculture in the country.
“Some of the issues to be discussed during the training involve proper production, pressing out rice grains and its methods, proper preservation, packaging and labelling the product focusing on the market,” he added.
He also said that the main aim of the training is providing education to technical and extension officers and farmers in irrigation schemes so that they can be able to use modern technology in production, harvesting and storage; this will increase the value of rice products and add productivity to small farmers in irrigation areas in the nation.
Moreover, he said, another topic will cover better production methods of rice and proper usage of modern machines in rice farming that will be provided by the government in 14 schemes under the Tanzania Agricultural Sector Development Project (PHRD) project.
He further added that the execution of the training is part of the implementation of the Big Results Now (BRN) government plan in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives; where rice is one of the crops given priority in increasing productivity and profit.
By MARY RAMADHANI, Tanzania Daily News
