Smallholder farmers trained on greenhouse techniques

Yetu Microfinance Bank Plc managing director Altemius Millinga told ‘Smart Money’ that the three-day training was offered to farmers from Ruvuma, Singida, Tanga, Coast, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa by Green Tech firm in collaboration with Youth Self Employment Foundation (YOSEFO) from July 25, this year at JT Rumo.

The main goal was to help people especially smallholder farmers shift from the traditional farming system to modern farming system that will raise productivity to boost their social and economic fortunes, he said.

“Yetu Microfinance Bank Plc embarked on this programme after observing that farmers in many areas of the country still use traditional agricultural farming methods which cannot improve the quality of their lives, raise productivity and eventually alleviate poverty,” he said.

“We decided to embark on this initiative because we want to get more professionalised smallholder farmers, bring sustainable development and make rural areas good place to live. In so doing this would reduce rural-urban migration or on the other hand lessen the number of youths shifting from rural to urban areas as they look for job s,” he noted. Before they begin to provide training to these people, they place the training in the internet to help people who are interested to engage in greenhouse farming to learn from them.

Explaining on greenhouse farming benefits, he said, the bank encourages smallholders farmers and other people to engage in this kind of farming because it is very easy to manage, profitable for crops such as tomato, lettuce and cucumbers.

Also it increases the yield depending on the type of greenhouse one has, type of crops one has planned to grow, it regulates temperature for crops, uses a small area but one gets high yields. While drip irrigation reduces water usage and costs, it helps water to go directly to the targeted plant and improve seed germination, he said.

Every month Yetu Microfinance Bank will continue to provide training on greenhouse techniques and drip irrigation system to ensure they create a new generation if farmers who will participate fully in crop production as well as in professionalizing the smallholder farmers.

The bank will organise training on August 29, 30 and 31 this year at JT Rumo. Yetu Microfinance was born out of the transformation of youth self Employment Foundation (YOSEFO), an NGO that was established in 1997 and successfully managed microfinance business on a sustainable basis.

YOSEFO is a major shareholder of Yetu Microfinance Bank Plc and the bank has taken over from YOSEFO all the branches, agencies and financial service delivery centres and the 49,000 loyal clients. The branches include Mbagala and Mzizima in Dar es Salaam and Mgeta in Morogoro Region.