With increased commercial farming practices, there has been growing demand for seedlings for pine timber trees, coffee and avocados. There is a potential of selling avocado seedlings to the neighbouring Eastern and Central African countries. We will work hard to utilise that opportunity.
Arabica coffee seedlings nursery – February 2016
Current practice and status at Jagrin:
We have had a successful pilot nursery for coffee and pine tree seedlings with effect from 2015. We produced:
- 10,000 of Arabica coffee seedlings for the 2016/17 planting rain season (November’16 – March’17). We produced two varieties, ‘’Compact’’improved Arabica coffee variety, distributed by Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TACRI), and the ‘’Nylon’’ local variety. The demand was so high such that the number of orders from farmers outweighed our ability to supply them with the seedlings;
- 20,000 pine trees planted ready for the 2016/17 planting rain season (November’16 – March’17). There is equally high demand for these pine tree seedlings, mainly from individuals and institutions who are opening big pine tree estates.
New opportunity:
With the growth of improved avocado varieties’ farming in Tanzania, there is also tremendous growth of demand for the avocado seedlings, especially the Hass variety. There is a potential of selling avocado seedlings to the neighbouring Eastern and Central African countries.
Our company has taken a note on the new development, and we are planning to introduce intensive ‘’Hass avocados’’ seedling production to fill the market niche.
Expansion plan
Establish a bigger and better nursery with modern shed nets. From 2017/2018 onwards we will be producing:
- At least 100,000 coffee seedlings per annum
- At least 100,000 timber trees’ seedlings per annum
- At least 100,000 grafted Hass avocado seedlings per annum
Key project cost drivers will be: Shed nets, Manure, Polythene tubes, Seeds, and Labour power