New coffee variety offers ray of hope

“In a bid to address this challenge, we had developed new coffee species that are drought resistant. It is under research at a farm at Bora Village and it has survived for two years now,”PHOTO|AFP 

By Brandy Nelson The Citizen 

Mbozi. The Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) in Mbimba, Mbozi District, has embarked on a research programme which would enable farmers to mitigate against the impacts of climate change.

The TaCRI Southern Highlands Zone manager, Mr Isaac Mushi, said climate change has highly affected coffee production in Mbozi due to unpredictable weather patterns and insufficient rains.

“In a bid to address this challenge, we had developed new coffee species that are drought resistant. It is under research at a farm at Bora Village and it has survived for two years now,” Mr Mushi told The Citizen.

He said that the research will take between five to seven years. “We are trying to employ all our expertise in ensuring that the research becomes successful and most of the farmers in the village depend on coffee farming,” he added.

Small-scale farmers are highly affected by the effects of climate change as they lack capacity to engage in irrigation farming. “Smallholder farmers cannot afford irrigation schemes which are mostly used by large scale farmers,” he said.

According to Mr Mushi, coffee farmers in the Southern Highlands Zone normally rely on rains which start from September. However, he said, productivity was still poor due to unpredictable weather patterns and insufficient rains.

Ms Rose Mwakatwila, a small-scale farmer from Msiha Village, said coffee production was in the verge of dying, urging the government to put in place measures that will enable farmers to mitigate against the effects of climate change.

She also appealed to the government to establish irrigation schemes to enable small-scale farmers practise agriculture without being totally rain dependent.