A group of 20 farmers from Kagera Region who recently visited Kabale District, in neighbouring Uganda, were highly impressed in the use of human manure, which is known by a scientific name as "eco-san toilet".
The method is said to be environmentally friendly as opposed to the use of industrial fertilisers.
Farmers from Muleba and Bukoba districts travelled to Uganda to learn agricultural methods being adopted by Ugandan farming communities who engage in sustainable farming. Juliet Byombalirwa(36) from Nshamba village, in Muleba District owns a tenhectare banana plantain she inherited from her late father.
However, most of the crop has been devastated by the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). Ms Byombalirwa told the 'Daily News' at her farm that she had already uprooted and burnt over 70,000 banana stems affected by BXW. " I have rejuvenated the farm and I now expect a bumper harvest," she said.
Eight districts in Kagera Region have confirmed to have been hit by the destructive Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), also known as Banana Bacterial Wilt (BBW) disease.
Almost 90 per cent of the entire crop is at risk of destruction. The situation has caused panic among farmers and residents in the region who depend on banana as their main staple and cash crop. BXW is a bacterial disease that causes yellowing and wilting of the leaves, uneven and premature ripening of the fruits and eventually the plants rot and die.
BXW is caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris and affects all types of banana. Available data indicate that Kagera Region has annual yield of about 650,000 tonnes of banana.
One of the farmers in Kabale District, identified as Ms Beatrice Twayangga, informed the visitors that by using human manure and other sustainable agricultural farming methods, she was able to double production of crops on her one-acre farm.
"By using human manure, I have been able to double maize production from three bags to 60 bags per hectare," she said. Kabale's Africa 2000 Network Co-ordinator, Mr Polly Mubangizi told the visiting Tanzanian farmers that the human manure has to be mixed with ashes, urine and leaves from certain tree species to provide an ingredient that would not attract harmful insects to attack crops with which such manure had been applied.
Agriculture, which is taken to include farming, fishing and livestock keeping, is widely viewed as the backbone of Tanzania's economy. It is unfortunate, however, that most of these activities are still carried out in traditional ways of their ancestors.
Small -holder farmers in Kagera Region want government to establish an agriculture financing council to play an oversight role in agriculture and to enable farmers across the country access credit from banks.
Hassan Juma (48) a farmer from Kishanje village, in Bukoba Rural said the council would help solve the bottlenecks encountered in accessing credit for agriculture. "Farmers should be in the council and we don't want to find ourselves left out," he said. This is good news not only for farmers in Kagera Region but the whole country.
For a long time, production of both cash and food crops in the area has been declining mainly due to poor soil fertility. It is also on record that the farmers in the region use very little amount of fertilizers on their farms. Data indicate that during 1988/89 season a total of 478.1 tonnes of fertilisers were distributed to villages in the region out of which only 159 tonnes were used by the farmers.
In 1991/92 season a total of 258.05 tonnes of fertilizers were distributed to villages out of which 85.2tonnes were utilised. Banana is an economic backbone of Kagera residents, comprising over 2,458,023 people, according to the 2012 Population and Housing Census.
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