The bank as one of the leading lending facilities in the country said it was supportive of the National Vision whereby in the next four years the target was to produce 120,000 tonnes of sisal per year and reclaim its 1960s lost glory as one of the leading global producer.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the government wanted to make sisal one of the leading foreign earning crops by 2025 while at the same time improve farmers' livelihoods.
"The cultivation of sisal and oil palm is relieving us of significant foreign exchange burden, for example, by encouraging the cultivation of oil palm we are saving more than
The PM was the chief guest at a sisal cultivation stakeholders' meeting which was held in Tanga.
"The bank has continued providing inputs and development loans to sisal farmers - small, medium to large-scales ones - to increase production and improve their livelihoods. We have already issued more than 6.0bn/- so far,"
Since the government started reviving the crop, the bank had issued more than 1.0bn/- for the purchase of various sisal farming implements, including 11 tractors and 22 trailers.
The lender also opened accounts for more than 1,500 farmers for both individual and grassroots associations.
"The existence of these accounts creates a culture of farmers using banking services to bank their money and benefit more from financial services, including credit,"
Deputy Minister for Agriculture
At independence in 1961, the country was the world leader in sisal production and over 200,000 tonnes of sisal were produced annual, employing over one million workers. The crop was the country's highest foreign exchange earner and was referred to as
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