Residents of Kisarawe District in Coast Region have been urged to engage in Oil Palm farming as one way to boost their economy, other than depending on charcoal production which leads to deforestation.
The urge has been made by Safi Africa Organization Founder and Project Manager Mr Emmanuel Kobere during a press briefing in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday as his organisation works abreast with government to uplift economic status of Kisarawe people through Oil Palm production.
"Kisarawe is among the Districts in Tanzania with high rate of unemployment as such, most people dive into charcoal business as a substitute to make quick money.
"This behavior in turn leads to deforestation since it involves excessive cutting down of trees for charcoal making thereby leaving the area exposed to massive deforestation," he said.
He added: "Nowadays, there is a surge of confrontations in Kisarawe between charcoal makers and those who safeguard forests which has prompted us (Safi Africa Organization) to jump in, informing people to divert to Oil Palm farming.
"It is a lucrative business bearing in mind that the Oil Palm Tree itself is sometimes referred to as 'gold' since every part of the tree is economically useful and marketable.
"We did a successful pilot study which indicated that Oil Palm farming is profitable that is why we are confidently advocating people to stop relying on charcoal production and venture into Oil Palm production," he said.
In a related development, Mr Kobere revealed that preparations for the official launching of the Kilimo Ajira Exhibition slated from December 8th to 10th in Kisarawe are progressing well.
"The big picture about Kilimo Ajira is absorbed in commercial Oil Palm production whose harvesting life span is between 15 to 20 years we have modern seeds supplied by government which guarantees farmers maximum production of this crop.
"Also, upon learning that Cassava is another crop being cultivated heavily in Kisarawe, through the Kilimo Ajira Exhibition, we will bring experts who will train Cassava farmers on the value chain of Cassava.
"Similarly, during the exhibitions, we will also distribute Oil Palm seeds to several groups of women and youths which we empower plus helping them to cultivate, harvest and find market for their produce.we are doing these to discourage charcoal production," he said.
According to him, the exhibitions will feature many things including farmers' training sessions on value addition and agribusiness.
Other activities will be exhibitions of various farmers’ products, presence of agricultural stakeholders’ booths (seeds, inputs, technologies) as well as exposing empowerment programs for women and youths.
In addition, Mr Kobere revealed that they will use the exhibitions to launch Oil Palm Tree Project - a strategic commercial crop initiative sponsored by Safi Africa Organization.
"Remember, Oil Palm Tree can be used in several ways like processing cooking oil, making soap, cosmetics, artificial charcoal, biogas and many other products meant for different uses.
"As a country, we still import over 50 percent of edible oil from outside the country as such, the launching of Oil Palm Tree Project will highly help to reduce this importation syndrome," he said.
Again, he revealed that they (Safi Africa Organization) have established a small factory of which farming groups they work with use it for processing various products that are extracted from the Oil Palm Tree.
He further elaborated that government already allocated a 20,000 hectares of land for Oil Palm farming in Kisarawe District as one way to solve importation of the edible oil.
In terms of value chain of Oil Palm Tree, it is known that 70 percent of products at the supermarket have either palm oil or palm kernel oil as an important ingredient such products include Soap, Cosmetics, Colgate, Chocolates and others.
On the other hand, leafs of the Oil Palm Tree can be used in making chicken feeds, manure, charcoal and can be used as a material for thatching a house as well as making sweeping brooms.
