"Nane Nane" - Farmers' Day/Agricultural Trade Show in Tanzania

August 3, 2013 - Nane Nane

Every year, Tanzania celebrates Nane Nane, which translates literally to “eight eight” because it takes place on the 8th day of the 8th month (August 8th).  It is a public holiday known as farmers’ day, involving an agricultural trade show and a bit of a cultural festival.  It was also, in my humble opinion, an agricultural researcher’s dream, as so many different organizations, companies, and districts were all in one place, displaying their best products and ready to field questions.  I was able to spend two days at Nane Nane, which still didn’t feel like enough time to take in all of the surroundings, visit all the agricultural booths, and ask the burning questions.  During my visit, I was able to visit the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, the Technology Development Center in Arusha, East African Seed Company, the Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation and Rural Technology (CARMATEC), Twiga Chemicals, Highland Seed Growers, Krishna Seed Co. Ltd., East-West Seed International, Monsanto, and the Tanzanian Agriculture Productivity Program (TAPP, which collaborates with USAID and Obama’s Feed the Future initiative).  Some of the technologies I was able to see include: maize huller, spice milling machine, centrifugal honey extractor, bee hive, honey press, honey sieving machine, charcoal and firewood bread ovens, community and improved stoves, forage chopper, hand operated baler for compressing hay, maize sheller, tractors, incubators, sorghum thrashing machine, solar dryer, chisel plow for primary tillage, cassava chopper, cement storage tank for grains/maize, and gravity drip irrigation.  As I saw these technologies, I tried to inquire about prices as well as customer base to understand who is actually purchasing them and their relative affordability, since during my research, it seems that farmers lack the capital necessary to purchase most of these “modern” amenities.  Naturally, they varied in price but I tended to get the same answer, “we sell to everyone. Small and large farmers.”  Who knows if it’s correct, but I guess that’s why I’ve been trying to take everything with a grain of salt.  I also have been asking questions about seeds, an issue that is still muddled in my mind.  For instance: heirloom/open pollinated variety, hybrid, GMO...what is best?  I still don’t know and I think I’m going to be figuring it out as the year progresses and may not even be able to decide definitively in the end.  I will try to sum up some of the info I received from the various seed companies:

-Hybrids are much more expensive but justifiably so because they are bred for drought-tolerance, high yield, disease and pest resistance, increased nutrition, longer shelf-life; one can also cultivate them in more areas because they are tolerant and they have the potential to help with climate change since some are bred for a shorter growing season

-OPVs are more limited in the possible cultivation areas and are more susceptible to disease, thus requiring more pesticides and chemicals; they are cheaper and have a lower yield than hybrids (in fact, one company told me that OPVs are not well known in Tanzania and most farmers are using hybrids, which is interesting seeing as hybrids only exist after the 1950s); OPVs may also have higher nutritional content and also many not require as many inputs in some cases because they grow naturally in local environments

-GMOs are still being tested in Tanzania, which may explain why the government hasn’t yet taken a stance and therefore does not allow them into the country (though I’ve heard GMOs are here...)

Aside from the seed issue, I also continued to ask about artificial fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and synthetic inputs such as herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.  Some of the info I gathered is that many of the inputs are imported (e.g. from China or Egypt) and relatively expensive, especially for small farmers.  Many companies advise protective gear such as gumboots, gloves, and face masks, but often times they don’t actually sell the safety equipment.  Pamphlets and company representatives also suggest safe application methods, correct dosages etc., but it seems like farmers don’t always follow these guidelines.  Famous for their broad spectrum glyphosate herbicide Roundup and Roundup Ready GMO seeds, Monsanto also had a booth at Nane Nane.  In the U.S., I feel like it would be pretty difficult to have a one-on-one conversation with a representative from Monsanto, so I was excited to ask some questions.  Here’s what I learned from him (note: his words are in quotations):

-Monsanto has different branches including chemistry, row crops, and horticulture

-Every country “specializes” in something an in Tanzania, it’s maize and cotton

-The representative I spoke with thinks that GMOs “aren’t bad.”  He said, “I go to South Africa, eat GMOs, come back and am the same.”  LOL.  For an educated individual, this seemed to be a pretty ridiculous statement.  One of the issues with GMO is that they are fairly recent technologies so the necessary long term studies haven’t been carried out to test for the environmental and human health impacts.  So of course he’s not going to feel any different after 24 hours...

-In areas with no rain, “we need genetically modified crops” he said.  He also went on to say, “I cannot talk about GMOs as a Monsanto employee.”  Again, laugh out loud because he already did.

-”Round up (both dry and mixed solution) is very safe because it is not taken up by the plant, so the chances of consuming it are low; leakage is not dangerous”

-As a broad spectrum herbicide, roundup is not selective so theoretically farmers just have to spray once at the beginning of the season

--”Glyphosate isn’t cheap but it’s effective” - in Tanzania, it costs about 50,000 TSH (~$30 USD) for 1 liter of roundup, which can cover about 1 acre.  It is also sold in larger quantities: 5 L, 200 L, and 500 L for plantation-style and large-scale farming operations

-The representative isn’t even from Tanzania but came down from Kenya, which I found interesting

In addition to my little visit with Monsanto, I also learned a lot about Biogas at the CARMATEC booth.  Although I’ve seen biogas schemes at several farms, homes, and schools in Tanzania so far, it was nice to be able to ask questions about a display model.  I learned that biogas converts animal manure into combustible gas for cooking and lighting.  It is a relatively low cost energy and advantageous when compared to firewood and charcoal for many reasons.  For instance, biogas is less laborious (farmers, usually women, don’t have to go out and collect firewood), it doesn’t give off smoke or odor, can lead to job creation, improves sanitation (manure isn’t sitting out in the open in the farmyard), promotes environmental protection by reducing deforestation, can utilize local masons and building materials, requires less overall time and maintenance, and can also promote improved agriculture, as the bioslurry byproduct can be used as fertilizer (which is viewed as superior to both cow manure and expensive industrial fertilizers).  A biogas unit typically has a lifespan of 20 years and CARMATEC displays multiple models ranging from 4 cubic meters (starting at 750,000 tsh or ~$500) to 13 cubic meters (at the highest: 1,900,000 tsh or ~$1,200).  The Tanzanian Domestic Biogas Program (TDBP) also subsidizes the schemes at 320,000 TSH (~$200) regardless of the size, which goes to the mason to cover construction and annual maintenance fees and to free appliances on smaller plants (e.g. lamps and stoves).  TDBP has a set of guidelines for an individual or organization to be eligible including: farming household (with 2-10 zero grazed cows), demand for alternative domestic energy sources, opportunity for application or marketing of bioslurry, and organized in a dairy collective, microcredit, women, or rural development group.  Before coming to Tanzania, I hadn’t heard of biogas but it seems like it has potential to be a very promising form of alternative energy and could use human waste as well as livestock.  Fortunately, my boyfriend knows all about anaerobic digestion etc. from his studies in Environmental Engineering and we’ll be able to have many conversations in the future about this technology :)

Also at Nane Nane, I observed several demonstrations including media preparation for vegetable seeds, making biopesticides, and constructing a hot compost pile.  For the first, I learned that 5:3:1:1 is a good ratio where it's 5 parts forestry soil, 3 parts manure (for nutrients), 1 part sand (for drainage and porosity), and 1 part rice husk (for water retention).  One can fill the mix into seed trays and then place one seed per hole, and finally mist irrigate.  For making biopesticides, I learned about three types:

-In the blue bucket: combine 1 kg of ash (or charcoal) and mix with 50 ml of kerosene.  Sprinkle on the soil at the base of each plant (one handful per plant), which can treat against red mites and cutworms

-In the yellow bucket: mix three teaspoonfuls of powder soap with 1 kg of ground neem leaves and 1 liter of water.  Let sit for 24 hours then add one more L of water to dilute and 3 more spoonfuls of soap.  Apply with a sprayer to treat against aphids and white flies (neem also boosts nutrients).

-In the red bucket: combine 10 spoonfuls of seeds from the soursop fruit, crush the seeds and then add 5 L of warm water.  Store for 24 hours, separate out the seed residue, then add 10 more L of water to dilute the mixture (now you have a 1:10 ratio of prepared chemical to water).  Spray the plant leaves to treat against bull worms and other pests that reside in the plant stems.

And although I've learned how to make hot compost piles in the past, it was a good refresher on laying dry grass/hay (brown material) with fresh grass/weeds/lawn clippings (green material) and manure with top soil, ash, and vegetable scraps.  After appropriate layering, one can cover the pile with mulch/hay, water it, and then monitor the temperature regularly.  After 8 weeks, it should be ready, after which it can be applied directly to the garden/farm plot or be dried and stored for up to a year.  

And lastly, when I visited the Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Program (TAPP), I learned about how they mainly help small farmers in the North, Coast, and South Highland regions of Tanzania with growing vegetables, fruits, and spices.  They offer training in nutrition, marketing, and production and their best practices and various technologies include:

-Raised beds to enable oxygen uptake, root penetration, easier crop management and proper spacing

-Fencing such as "life barriers" (e.g. wall of sorghum), which won't break and reduce pests by diverting/attracting them

-Kitchen and sack gardens as a form of urban gardening (less space required)

-Monocropping instead of intercropping because they typically advice on commercial-level production and it's easier to rotate fields when it's only one crop

-Drip irrigation for water conservation and crop uniformity ("an investment that will pay off")

-Proper crop spacing

-Trellising using zig zag twines instead of individually hanging

-Hybrids instead of open pollinated variety seeds

-Starter solution*

-High density banana cultivation in beds

-For pest control: #1 cleanliness (weeding all the time), #2 ample irrigation, #3 maintain plant nutrition (provide nutrients with chemical fertilizers because "you can't get all the nutrients from manure, only micro not macro nutrients and also manure poses health risks," according to the TAPP representative), #4 chemicals (first biopesticides then synthetic as a last resort).

*The starter solution is interesting as a form of fertilizer.  According to the pamphlet, "It is very simple.  Phosphorus is an indispensable element in the root formation, and in the total plant growth, but it has the peculiarity that it is completely immobile in the soil.  Because it is an element with '0' movement in the soil, the roots of the plants need to grow to reach where the phosphorus is located, but because the plant needs it to grow, it becomes a vicious cycle:  There is not root production (Growth) because of the lack of phosphorus and the phosphorus can't be taken in because of the lack of roots."  So the start solution helps solve this issue by putting the phosphorus closer to the roots through direct application.  It can be used with all vegetable crops and is most successful with those that are transplanted with bare roots and have woody stems (e.g. sweet pepper).  

LOL. I had to take a photo of this...