Regional Markets

3 Cases
The last type is the larger irrigation farmers who grow more than 5 hectares of rice in
an irrigation scheme. They outsource all ploughing and mechanised services, and hire
most of the labour needed for weeding, harvesting and threshing. All these production
steps are cash intensive and form a major financial concern for larger farmers but, due
to economies of scale, their productivity per acre is higher.
In RUDI’s working area four main rice production systems are applied: unbunded rainfed
lowland rice (used in Morogoro); bunded rainfed lowland rice (used in Mbeya’s
Usangu plateau); rainfed upland rice (Morogoro); irrigated rice cultivation (Morogoro,
Mbeya), and small scale irrigated rice (Morogoro). In Tanzania there are two main
maize production systems: rainfed maize production, found all over the country, and
the more productive wetland/lowland maize farming, on small plots of land near
sources of water.
As the smallholder farmers in these cereal producing areas mainly engage in subsistence
farming, and only market their produce if excess grain remains, they find themselves at
the lower end of the cereal value chain. They cannot bargain for better prices, and lack
marketing skills and post harvest technologies. RUDI assisted in farming groups establishing
associations in their respective areas for collective marketing. They also started
to practice a warehouse receipt systems (WRS), through which they could keep their
commodities to await better prices. Groups under RUDI organise and conduct technical
training on post harvest technologies, marketing skills, branding, farm gross margin
calculations to eventually help farmers realise good prices for their commodities.
Processors
All rice and maize must be milled before consumption. Thanks to superior storage
capacity, this usually happens as close as possible to time of consumption. Traditionally,
the women of the household would do the milling by mortar and pestle, but today,
nearly all rice is milled in electric or diesel rice mills that hull and polish the rice, unless
the farm is too far away from a rice mill. While the owner of the mill usually employs
only 2-3 people who manage and maintain the mill, there are usually another 6-7
workers who help with the other aspects of milling (transporting rice within the mill,
loading trucks etc.). During peak milling season, the number of seasonal workers can
increase up to 20.
The cost of milling varies by region and by process. The bigger rice mills in Mbarali
have invested in add-ons to the mills for careful sorting of rice between broken and
different grades. There are a number of waste products that can be sold, like rice husks.
In urban areas, the miller must pay to have the piles removed. In the rural areas, the
rice husks are often used by local farmers in their fields as mulch or as source of fuel
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