The Government has unveiled an online system for provision of marketing and extension services dubbed "M-Kilimo" to link farmers and buyers of agricultural crops, livestock and fisheries.
Launching the system here yesterday, Minister for Agriculture Japhet Hasunga said the first part will cover extension services that will help farmers to get expert advice via mobile phones without having to meet with extension officers.
He said the service aims to solve challenges arising from inadequacy of extension officers that has reduced the chance for many farmers to get extension services.
The second part covers marketing services that will enable farmers to get market information including prices and where there are ready markets at the material time, he said.
It will also enable sellers to seek buyers of his crops in the market as well as enabling farmers and experts to communicate by messages via mobile phones.
Hasunga said M-Kilimo has been created by the ministry in collaboration with the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), district councils as well as the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).
Trials will be conducted on the system starting Tuesday May 19 in Bahi, Kongwa and Chamwino districts in Dodoma region for a week.
In the trial about 35 extension officers and 45 farmers selected from two wards of each district be trained on how to use the system, so that they may enable other farmers in their various wards to use the system as well.
When the trials are successful, M-Kilimo will be referred to farmers countrywide to enable them make use of extension services, he stated.
In order to get services via M-Kilimo a farmer will have to incur the cost for the sms for every service he will need but during the piloting period the cost will be borne by the ministry, he elaborated.
M-Kilimo has many benefits, chiefly to take extension and marketing services close to farmers even during periods of difficult communication such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, due to the pandemic, the ministry is mobilizing officials to implement the service, underling observance of essential precautions given by health experts, he said.
In order to ensure the warehouse receipt and product markets bring benefits to the people, the government has decided to start two types of markets – primary and secondary markets, the minister intoned.
In order to enable the implementation of the parallel sytems there must be fully registered Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS), registered warehouses, identifying types of crops to be stored and education on the systems to the people, he said.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe said M-Kilimo shall propel implementation of President John Magufuli’s directives requiring people to transport crops as much as they can without paying levies for loads not exceeding one ton.
Omary Mgumba, also Deputy Minister for Agriculture, stressed the importance of the primary markets while cautioning farmers against mixing their crops with impurities to add load size.
