A curriculum for organic farming training courses at certificate and diploma levels is currently being preapared by stakeholders led by Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania and Minisyry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
Founder and CEO of SAT, Janet Muro said recently that the new curriculum may become operation by June this year and will cover all 29 state owned agriculture training collages in the country.
“The curriculum for both certificate and diploma levels are meant to train experts in ecological organic agriculture because Tanzania like many African nations is realizing threats of conventional agriculture to people’s health,” Muro said.
She added that the curriculum targets at bridging the knowledge gap of organic farming by most of state’s extension officers especially those serving at wards and district levels because the existing curriculums omitted the subject.
According to her, effective next June, all students undergoing agriculture courses at certificate and diploma levels shall study both organic and in-organic agriculture techniques. She named some of the 29 state owned agriculture training colleges that will implement the curriculum as Mati-Ilonga, National Sugar Institute (NSI), Mati-Horticulture Tengeru, KATC Moshi, TRACDI and St, John’s University.
“We started by building tutorial staffs’ capacity so that they understand the new curriculum. The initiative also targeted at strengthening capacity of respective colleges in terms of infrastructure to facilitate implementation of the curriculum,” she added.
On the other hand Maro called upon organic farmers to explore the global market share of spices which are in high demand both in European Union and the United Kingdom. “I call upon farmers especially those who have opted to go for organic farming to invest in spice cultivation because global demand is growing,” said the SAT CEO.
SAT Program Manager, Frank Maro backed his boss’ observation saying spices which can be grown even semi-arid areas, are the hottest commodity at the world market. Maro asserted that SAT owns an organic farm that covers an area of 600 acres and has employed 25 workers alongside 50 temporary workers to cultivate organic products.
“The farm is also being used by students of Sokoine University of Agriculture for further research purposes and they include those undertaking doctorate studies,” he noted. SAT was established in 2016 with its headquarters at Vianzi village in Mvomero district of Morogoro region as an organic farming dedicated center.
