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TCB plans to increase cotton production to 1.5 million bales
2008-07-03 10:21:24
By Correspondent Felister Peter
The Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) has said it plans to improve production to 1.5m/- bales by 2015 and improve the proportion of lint consumed in the domestic textile industry by 90 per cent.
TCB director general Joe Kabisa said this in Dar es Salaam yesterday during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the board, Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT) and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Veta) for the implementation of a three-year textile development programme.
He said currently, the country is producing only 700,000 bales of cotton annually while the proportion of lint used by domestic textile industries is 30 per cent only.
Kabisa said the proagramme that is funded by Tanzania Gatsby Trust will also help to increase yields at farm level whereby small farmers would be given loans to facilitate them apply efficient technology.
The support is also intended to help the farmers with timely planting, thinning and pest control, he said, adding that under the programme, a total of 60 textile fashion designers would be trained at Veta to a Diploma level and later be referred to the University of Dar es Salaam for further studies.
``Getting Tanzanian textile fashion designers would help to improve the quality of clothes we produce, so that they can compete with imported ones,`` said Kabisa.
He said the board has also negotiated with the UK\'s Manchester University to train teachers who would be training students at Veta and for training of technicians for ginneries.
TGT chief executive officer Olive Luena expressed determination to help Tanzanian entrepreneurs out of poverty through loans and searching of markets for their products.
She said within three years TGT will provide loans amounting to 1.5bn/- to cotton farmers.
This year TGT has already given loans amounting to 57m/- to cotton farmers in Mwanza Region alone.
Luena said they have so far provided loans to 34,000 entrepreneurs in the country.
They have also set demonstration plots for the cotton development programme in seven districts.
Veta managing director Zebadia Moshi said the support would help his college develop new curriculum for fashion designing subjects, get more teachers and equipment that would be used in teaching.
He said Tanzania lacks a fashion designing college that meets internationally accepted standards.
The three-year cotton development programmme will spend a total of 300m/-, to be provided by TGT.
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