Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute

The farmers at Longido District, Tingatinga ward are excited with various technologies that have been developed by the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Selian Center in collaboration with the Arusha Regional Commissioner’s office in their ward to deal with drought and help them increase production.

The farmers have admitted this erlier this week during the assessment meeting held at the demonstration plots established to research various technologies that can help the farmers deal with drought and also they have participated in reviewing the technologies and giving their opinions.

"The farming technics we knew were not good but in this demonstration plots we have seen good agricultural practices, we have been shown how to plant in space, ridges and chololo pit farming, we have also learned to use fertilizers and also the new bean seed that has more weight, good color and has high yields unlike the traditional seed we were using", said Miriam Ramadhan, a farmer from Tingatinga.

Amos Zakaria Ujoromba from Tingatinga village added that the ridges and chololo pit farming has shown effectiveness in maintaining moisture which helps when there is little rainfall crops continue to grow well.

"In fact, we have seen good success in the fields, the crops have grown well, we have learned various technologies that will help us who get little rainfall, such as the use of good seeds, fertilizers and especially this ridges and chololo pit farming will be very useful ", explained Ujoromba

The Agriculture Officer from Arusha Regional Commissioner’s Office Rose Massawe has said that the office in collaboration with TARI Selian and the Nelson Mandela University Arusha have tested several technologies such as the mixed agriculture, ridges and chololo pit farming, the use of fertilizers and good seeds which all aimed to help the farmers in areas with little rainfall.

Massawe has said that the experiments have been successful for more than 80 percent and if the Tingatinga farmers can adopt these technologies and work on them they will be able to have good yields as in the Longido district which receives little rain the ward is one among the few that produces food.

The Researcher from TARI Selian Deodatus Kiriba added that they have researched the mixed farming technology by using maize, beans and labalab where the farmer can cultivate different types of crops in a small land; they have also conducted a research on the use fertilizers and on Chololo pits and ridges that help retain moisture.

Kiriba has said that another technology demonstrated were the good agricultural practices on maize, beans and lablab especially spacing so that farmers can get good harvest and also the use of good seeds that mature early and have high yields.