RC Sets Target to Boost Coffee Production in Mara

Coffee

MARA Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Adam Malima has set plans seeking to boost production of Arabica coffee from 2,000 to 10,000 tonnes per year.

Mr Malima says he wants to see Mara becoming the role model coffee producing region in the country. He said this when he was speaking during the General Meeting of the Wakulima wa Mara Cooperative Union (WAMACU) in Tarime recently.

The region, he said would invest heavily on production of clonal seed coffee seedlings to replace besides producing high yield, the new coffee varieties are resistance to diseasesFor several years now,

the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) has been supporting introduction of the new coffee varieties in the region with Tarime district being the key targeted area.TaCRI has further introduced inter-cropping of the new coffee and banana technology consequently enabling farmers to generate income throughout the year.

The initiative supported by European Union(EU) and the government of Tanzania has seen some farmers who in the past abandoned their coffee farms citing pour income turning back to intercropping of the improved new coffee varieties and banana farming.

The RC urged WAMACU to focus on how to transform lives of famers in the region. The Minister for Agriculture Dr Charles Tizeba was in Tarime early this month where he attended a crucial stakeholder meeting called by the RC to put in place strategies of boosting coffee production in the region.

Tanzania is the fourth largest coffee-producing country in Africa after Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Uganda