Philemon travels to NW Tanzania

SHINYANGA REPORT

I went to Shinyanga [on 17 May 2010] and talked to the people of [a community called] Bariadi, one of them was an Agrodealer [called] Sadiki, and he bought 10 shellers.

I found many people are [having] a hard time shelling their maize, [some people] are using hands, and I saw a wonderful thing [when I] met people shelling maize using stones.

This is a short story of these people:

Most people who are doing this job in this area are women.

I asked them some questions. Why are they shelling maize using stones? And they told me that, they have no other way of doing that job, they have no money to rent a tractor to shell their maize

I talked to these people about our product [and they really] love [it] and say “this now is our salvation for us farmers. We have much love for it we will become more able to work [without injuring our] hands and finish the [work much earlier]”

They also enjoy [the machine] a lot and they say [it] will be very good because almost all people have a bike, have now brought the machine easy to recover [the cost]

KAHAMA REPORT

I spoke to the agrodealers of Kahama [about buying] the [bicycle phone] charger, they say, [this] is beautiful and is easy to use, and most of them are using bicycles. They wrote their name and phone number [and] told me the majority of them are farmers of rice.

MAKUYUNI REPORT

Went to Makuyuni by invitation of World Vision. They [develop] and [offer] seminars in the Monduli district. [My] purpose of going there [was] to teach and inform people about the machine and everyone asked me questions about the machine [and] everyone wanted to have it [but] said the problem became [they did not have] money [ready] and they wrote their names. They were very happy to see the charger as [almost] all homes have no electricity for them and they go great distances [for] phone charging 20 or more kilometres and pay 300 or 500 shillings [equivalent to $0.21 or $0.35] for phone charging.

KARATU REPORT

I was fortunate to talk to agrodealers here in Karatu, and almost all have given me an order of machines for many farmers in this area consists of maize, and many people have no electricity [and] were very happy to see the charger
The main problem of farmers in Tanzania are capital and labor resources.

I talked with the agricultural officer, Mr Mollel Lucas Martin and he said he will help us to advertise our products, also he has a shop and [he ordered] 10 machine and 10 charger

Philemon | Tanzania