Developing Entrepreneurship, the Tanzania Experience: SUA-INTSORMIL Project

Project Title: Building a Sustainable Infrastructure for Product Development and Food Entrepreneur/Industry Technical Support: A Strategy to Promote Increased Use of Sorghum and Millet in East Africa. Long Term Program Objectives: Development of successful entrepreneurial businesses that add-value to sorghum and millet such that: ~Farmers have an established outlet for cash sales of high-quality sorghum and millet ~Small businesses or cooperatives develop processing capabilities enabling the incorporation of sorghum and millet into a wide variety of food products ~Markets and market channels for sorghum and millet-based products develop. Further develop research, extension and marketing expertise of National Agricultural Research Institutes program scientists and professionals so that they can: ~Offer business and technical assistance to processors and small businesses in order to speed development of sorghum and millet food products ~Advise producers on which grain type(s) are ideally suited for particular end uses, including both very small entrepreneurs, regional and village level millers, and larger multinational brewers (among others). Importance of sorghum in Tanzania: ~Ranked as third important cereal after maize and rice ~Production stands at about 700,000 tonnes per year ~The most drought-resistant cereal (hence suitable for semi-arid areas: Dodoma, Singida, Shinyanga etc.). Sorghum utilization in Tanzania: ~Primarily used for porridge and thick porridge (ugali) ~Only a small portion is commercially processed into flour (about 300 tonnes per year) ~About 1,000 tonnes is processed into opaque beer (Kibuku) ~TBL (Arusha branch) has introduced a sorghum based clear beer known as “Eagle” ~Sorghum consumption in urban areas is increasing rapidly due to increased awareness of the benefits of sorghum for diabetic people. Limitations to sorghum utilization in Tanzania ~Negative attitude: many people consider sorghum as inferior to maize and rice (hence a poor man’s food) ~Improved varieties are high yielding but a number of consumers prefer local varieties because of palatability ~Shortage/lack of appropriate machines to process sorghum into High Quality Sorghum Flour (HQSF), particularly de-hullers ~Big entrepreneurs still reluctant to invest in sorghum business ~Lack of HQSF in the market place