COFFEE farmers in Kilimanjaro Region are now turning to organic farming thanks to the high price offered to organic coffee which is twice than the non-organic ones.
The latest farmers to enter into the club of organic coffee farming were through Hai District based Lyamungo Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (Lyamungo Amcos).
The Lyamungo Amcos managed to collect 15.48 tonnes of organic coffee and farmers were paid 4,500/- per kilogramme as initial payment and are expecting to earn between 5,000/- and 6,000/- a kilogramme at the end of 2021/22 season. In the previous season others Amcos got 2,800/- and 3,000/- per kilogramme.
The amount is by far better compared to the previous of between 2500/- and 3,000/- through non-organic coffee.
Lyamungo Amcos Chairman Mr Gabriel Ollomi said they officially embarked on organic coffee farming in this season with the intention of perceiving potential to contribute to sustainable development and smallholders’ livelihood.
"Organic specialty coffees are rated according to a very specific scoring protocol decided by the specialty coffee associations worldwide and they give opportunities for smallholder farmers to enter the international market and perceive enhanced quality of life," Mr Ollomi said during the Amcos AGM in Kilimanjaro recently.
He said they were now focused on providing more training to coffee farmers who are members of the Amcos so that they could engage more in farming, address its quality and provide means to access better markets.
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He also said the Amcos leadership was in talks with potential investors from Europe to partner in investing in agricultural activities such as farming passion and grapes fruits that have ready markets in Europe.
"If these talks are successful, apart from the partnership between them and us, they (investors) will also create an environment that will enable individual farmers to access direct export markets," he said.
The Amcos contributed to the electrification of Lyasikika Secondary School, he said.
The Amcos also allocated 6.21m/- to cover school fee costs for primary, secondary and higher learning institutions for those who failed to afford for various reasons.
"After the government provided the opportunity for free education up to the secondary level of education, the Amcos leadership decided to focus its efforts on funding the education of those pursuing studies in higher learning institutions," he said.
On top of that the Amcos rewarded four teachers 1.4m/- from primary and secondary schools in Lyamungo area, after the good performance of students in national examinations.
Mr Ollomi said the Amcos had also set aside a total of 15m/- for road maintenance in Lyamungo Ward and that it had also allocated 15.1m/- for health insurance for its members and their family members.
Read the original article on Daily News.
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