Tanzanian farmers enabled to access agriculture information easily

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives in a joint venture with Zantel Tanzania and Sibesonke Limited has launched mobile phone services to reach the 33 million Tanzanian farmers with relevant advanced farming information.

The services dubbed ZKilimo is an SMS-based application that utilises mobile phone capability and ubiquity to provide farmers in the country access to comprehensive farming methods. Launching the service on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, the Ministry’s Crop Development Director, Dr Mshindo Msola said the move will open up new horizons for Tanzanian farmers.

“Through this modern communication technology, farmers will now have continuous means of communication as well as wide-scale agricultural guidance on all phases of farming, starting from cultivation all the way through harvesting,” Dr Msola said.

He said that the service has come in place at a time where the country was in acute shortage of extension officers, thus it would help bridge out the gap by timely disseminating agricultural information to rural farmers.

According to Dr Msola, the number of extension officers countrywide is only 35 per cent, thus making it hard to achieve government’s initiatives to improve agriculture which is the main economic activity for over 80 per cent of Tanzanian population.

Zantel Chief Human Resources Officer, Mr Francis Kiaga said through the service, farmers will now have access to first hand information pertaining to agricultural crops thus helping them run their operation more productively.

“The service will offer farmers information on soil preparation, fertiliser, whether forecast, crop varieties and cultivation as well as give them a platform to discuss with other framers on agricultural issues,” Mr Kiaga noted. On his side, Sibesonke Ltd Chief Excutive Officer, Dr Uwe Schwarz said that the service overall target is to substantially increase farming productivity and food security in the region in a financially sustainable manner.

Sibesonke Ltd is Zantel vendor for Z-Kilimo. “Farmers can access the service by dialing *149*50#, the menu screen will display a list of general information on the daily weather forecast, details on soil management, pest control methods and information on livestock knowledge and bird flue,” Mr Schwarz concluded.