The agriculture season of 2015-16 is expected to witness a relative fall in cotton production, feels Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) acting director, Gabriel Mwalo. Reason: lack of quality seeds for farmers. Mwalo points out that over the years, with a deficiency of formal system of seed production, cultivation of cotton has been dependant on circuit waged cotton seed. Every year’s, seed stocks are the major source of procuring seeds. However, in this process of securing seeds the ignorance of farmers and agents has been a prominent obstacle. The germination procedure is affected as water is sprinkled on the cotton sold and brought. As a consequence, seeds reach rotting stage.
In order to seek better operations, TCB has taken certain steps. This farming season, almost 27 agents who invested in seeds have been briefed about allocating and reserving 21,380 tonnes of seeds for further plantation. Also, sorting centres plans to distribute a gross of 16,654 tons out of 21,380 tons seeds from the month of September, retaining about 4,726 tons for a crisis.
As acknowledged by Mwalo, farmers in the region are expected to be conscious of storing seeds and planting them in equal numbers to sustain quality production of cotton in major cotton yielding regions which are presently dealing with a deliberate issue of quality deficient cotton seeds.
