19/05/2011 (ippmedia.com) - Africa Green Oils Limited is now studying the performance of four varieties of hybrid palm seedling in order to come up with the best strain for production of oil palm locally.

The varieties being studied at a clinic in Rufiji District are from Costa Rica, Ghana, Malaysia and Kigoma.

This was revealed yesterday by the firm’s managing director, Severin Kalonga, at the hand over of a newly built Maternal and Child Health clinic (MHC) to villagers at Nyamatanga, Rufiji District, Coast Region.

The research is being carried at the village where there are big piles of hybrid palm oil seedlings.

The beneficiaries of the varieties are villagers from Nyamatanga, Ruaruke A and B and Rungungu, all located in Ruaruke Ward.

So far a total of 66,000 different varieties of hybrid palm tree from Costa Rica, Ghana, Malaysia and Kigoma have been planted at the villages to start with, to see if they can cope with the new climate, he said.

The pilot project will operate for three years to see if the company in collaboration with the villagers can get the best varieties before the seedlings are disseminated to the latter for palm oil cultivation in their areas.

He said in 2013, AGO plans to have at least 5,000 ha planted and additional 2,000 ha by small holder farmers as part of the outgrowers’ scheme in order to support the district’s economic and social development.

Besides, in the long-term, AGO aims to have 20,000 ha plantations for oil crops but doubts if the project would be feasible with the current system of land bank.

For his part Henry Oranya Clemens, Rufiji’s District Commissioner called on Ruaruke villagers to work together with the firm, saying palm oil cultivation would have a great impact in smallholders in the near future.

“Pay attention to what they teach you, use properly the knowledge offered to you and make more efforts to put into practice what you have learned from them so that you can benefit from this farming,” he said.

He said the hybrid palm trees that were first taken from Simbo and Ilagala villages in Kigoma Region to Malaysia have helped the South East Asian country to become a renowned producer of palm oil in the world.

He said following the benefit accruing from this farming in Malaysia, majority of its people has left handiwork and now involve in palm oil cultivation.