There is a high demand for coffee seedlings of the improved hybrid varieties in several villages in rural Moshi as the old coffee trees are no longer productive.

A random survey by the ‘Daily News’ here revealed that parchment coffee procured by Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union from Siha, Hai, Moshi and Rombo districts in recent years have sharply declined from 85,000 to 2,000 tonnes a year.

A cross-section of village leaders have expressed misgivings over declining income of coffee farmers unless their coffee farms were rejuvenated through introduction of the new coffee varieties which have been developed by Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) which can produce 18 million seedlings of the improved hybrid varieties a year.

“My five-acre coffee farm is, since last year, completely unproductive as the old coffee trees have all dried up,” a farmer from Mwasi North village, Mr Severine Fidelis told this newspaper. He added that coffee farming was his only occupation that has been supporting his life and that of his children and dependants for many years.

A seasoned accountant and coffee farmer, Mr Honest Peter has made an impassioned plea to TaCRI to act swiftly to make the new coffee varieties available to farmers before abject poverty hit coffee-growing communities in the rural areas of Kilimanjaro region where the majority of people live.

During his maiden tour of Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions last weekend to inspect projects funded by the European Union (EU), The Head of EU delegation in Tanzania, Ambassador Filberto Cerian Sebregondi urged coffee stakeholders to complement TaCRI efforts in coffee seedlings production and distribution.

The envoy was at TaCRI where he once again pledged EU continued support to research and development activities going at the Institute as part of his familiarization tour of EU-funded projects in Kilimanjaro region. TaCRI’s Acting Chief Executive Director, Jeremiah Magesa informed Ambassador Sebregondi that the Institute envisages to produce 200 coffee seedlings of the new varieties in the next 10 years for free distribution to farmers to make the Tanzania coffee industry more profitable to coffee growers.

By PETER TEMBA, Tanzania Daily News

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