Farmers require skills to process pesticides, fertilisers

TANZANIA: WE NEED not to be rocket scientists to be told that sustainable agriculture is an eco-friendly approach that reduces the reliance on limited natural resources.

Its careful farming methods, such as crop rotation, intercropping, and companion planting, help protect soil health and water quality while eliminating the need for damaging practices.

With this in mind, local farmers should be advised to use domestic agroecological agencies to learn how to produce pesticides and fertilisers in a natural way.

This was reinforced by organic farming experts from the Sustainable Agriculture Association Tanzania (SAT) and Kilimanjaro Permaculture Community (KPC) during the recent Nanenane Agricultural exhibitions in Dodoma.

David Gwabara, who is an Assistant Project Manager from SAT was of the opinion that if frequent trainings with the relevant skills are provided to farmers, chances of making pesticides and natural fertilisers will be improved and it will not be expensive, but also safe to them as well as the land and environment.

He said Tanzania is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources and if the land is well used for agriculture, 100 per cent of the crops will be produced in an organic farming system that is recognised and fetch great market worldwide.

Gwabara said the SAT organisation that based in Morogoro has enabled more than 3,000 farmers in the country to use organic farming techniques and the results have been significant in crop quality and market certainty.

He said that organic farming resources are available in the field, so it is easy for any farmer to use them will little or no more costs incurred.

For example, in explaining the process of making organic potatoes’ pesticides, he said it only requires, a litre of molasses, one kilogram of ginger, two kilograms of garlic, two kilograms of hot pepper, a large bottle of Konyagi alcohol or one litre of a strong liquor and another litre of vinegar.

He added: “When we say pesticide is in the field it is in this context, that a farmer can buy one litre of molasses, one kilogram of ginger, two kilograms of garlic, two kilograms of bitter pepper, one litre of big Konyagi liquor and vinegar, which any farmer can buy and that does not cost more than 50,000/-”.

The expert further said that after the mixture getting 16 to 20 litres, what the farmer needs is to take three to five litres and mix it with 100 litres of water and spray on a 20-hectare plot and so on.

Gwabara said the mixture when completed is identified as a pesticide called “Apichi”, urging farmers to use this simple technology.

“It is very sad that a farmer spends a lot of money to buy industrial pesticides, while the cost of spraying a 20 hectare farm he/she can use Apichi that cost roughly 50,000/-, we must change to love natural things for this technology protects the health of the farmer, consumer, soil and environment,” he pointed out.

He noted that the use of natural technology in agriculture contributes to food having good taste, nutrition and ensuring health safety for consumers.

Gwabara said the whole process of making Apichi pesticide takes five days, so that the farmer can use it and the crops will be naturally safe with no side-effects experienced.

Referring to the process of making organic fertiliser, Gwabara said farmers can make it using products that are easily available in his/her farm.

“We make nitrogen fertiliser, using products available to the farmer such as pineapple, ripe papaya, molasses and fresh milk as they are rich in vitamins, as the bacteria that goes to do fermentation, here also naturally gets it food to complete the process,” headed.

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He said that molasses serves as a stimulant for bacteria to grow and multiply. The expert further said that the fertiliser kept will take 30 days to decompose, which the farmer can use to plant seedlings and grow the crops.

Gwabara said three to five litres of the fertiliser should be mixed in 100 litres of water, because roughly each plant needs a quarter of a litre of fertiliser to grow.

“If a farmer is cultivating crops through a nursery…that is first raising seedlings, he/she can integrate it into a drip irrigation system and be able to distribute to the whole field, where the crops will get clean and safe fertiliser,” he stated.

He mentioned rice as one of the crops that can be grown using the method that can easily spread to all plants of the species.

The expert said they are also developing a plant growth fertiliser called Super Magro that is made from manure, molasses, milk and ash that helps lower Ph.

Soil pH or soil reaction is an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of soil and is measured in pH units. Soil pH is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14 with pH 7 as the neutral point.

He said the fertiliser after being made lasts for 30 days and then it starts to be used by placing a quarter of a litre per stalk to enable the crops to grow quickly without any problems.

Gwabara said the technology has been adopted by farmers in Kongwa District, Morogoro, Chamwino, Mpwapwa, Dodoma, Simanjiro, Masasi, Karatu, Kigamboni, Mbaralim, Kilosa and some districts of Njombe Region and elsewhere and yields are encouraging.

He said that there is no point of spraying insects with industrial chemicals, because they are living organisms that are also useful in agriculture, so they should be dealt with in a natural way to ensure that they do not become extinct.

“It is in this context that we people of organic agriculture say pesticides or crop failure exist in the field and not in the industry as is currently being promoted,” he said.

Elaborating, he explained that the research they have done on farms indicate that natural fertilisers and those from industries have different impacts to farmers and majority of the peasants showed that organic fertilisers guaranteed them high yields, kept the fertility of the soil and safe in use.

For his part, KPC Director, Frank Marwa said in organic farming they recognise three types of fertilisers which are the ones for planting, growing and the last type for healthy growth he called ‘fattening crops such as fruits.

“For planting fertiliser, we use green and grey algae, wild soil rich in bacteria, livestock fertiliser where if the mixture is done properly it is used in agriculture.

There are fertilisers for 14, 30, three months, six to a year, depending on the desire of a farmer, he added.
Marwa said they are also refining natural fertiliser from the residual gas of cow dung.

He said this fertiliser after the gas is produced, the waste gas that remains, thus being processed in an orderly manner and reducing the current heat so that it does not encircle the crops.

“There is fertiliser derived from food fragments such as carrots, tomatoes, onions and others, which is prepared by putting it in a garbage container as a tray that you pierce and put dry grass and red worms that wash the fertiliser after putting the garbage.

The worms will be digesting the food residue, so the water that comes out is suitable for fertilising, he said.
Marwa said the fertiliser is especially useful for growing and enriching fruits as it contains high levels of potassium manganese, nitrogen and calcium.

He said that farmers are advised to use these fertilisers as they have great potential to grow crops, take care of the land as this land is owed to us, the environment and the health of the consumer.

Marwa also said that they have developed a new technology to filter wastewater and use it for irrigation, so they want farmers to use them to get this education.

“ In our homes we generate wastewater, so we have come up with a technology that uses buckets and pits and jars that filter the water and can irrigate the home at no cost. And this system can be used in environments where there is not enough water”, he said.

On his part, a farmer Abdi Kiduka from Chemba District said the technology which uses the resources available in the field should be supported to ensure farmers produce quality and safe crops for the consumer.

Kiduka said the government needs to partner with organic farming stakeholders to ensure that a large group of farmers is reached quickly, in order to create a better generation.

The farmer of Organic Ecological Agriculture from MWAWAMORO, Tatu Magongo said that the method of preparing toxic pesticides in a natural way should reach more farmers.

Magongo said he has been farming for ecological farming purposes for a long time so it is time to promote the profession to his fellow farmers