It began, as many revolutions do, with something ordinary.
Praxeda Melkior, co-founder of Migeto Farm in Kilosa district, had planted lemongrass — mchai chai — between her banana plants for the most practical of reasons: to keep pests away, to discourage snakes from settling near the homestead, and to sell a little on the side at the local market. Two hectares of it, growing quietly in the spaces that banana farming leaves behind.
She had not thought of it as a business. Not really.
Then, on 24 April 2024, Geoffrey Kirenga, Chief Executive Officer of AGCOT Centre Limited, arrived at Migeto Farm alongside Dr. Mussa Ali Mussa, Katibu Tawala wa Mkoa wa Morogoro. What followed was one of those rare field visits that changes not just a farmer’s plans but the entire frame through which a region sees itself.
A Price That Stops You in Your Tracks
The question that reordered everything was simple: do you know what a litre of lemongrass essential oil sells for?
The answer — TSh 325,000 per litre — landed on Migeto Farm like a stone dropped into still water.
For context, cinnamon leaf oil commands the same price. A small-scale distiller capable of processing lemongrass and other aromatic plants costs no more than TSh 20 million to procure — and can be fabricated locally, through Tanzania’s own Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO), or by a skilled local fabricator. The technology is not exotic. The inputs grow freely in Morogoro’s soil. The global market for essential oils is not a niche — it is a multi-billion dollar industry with consistent, growing demand.
Praxeda’s response, when the picture became clear, was direct: “I used to treat it as ordinary. Today I see something much larger.”
The Broader Vision: Morogoro as Tanzania’s Aroma Spices Hub
The lemongrass conversation was the entry point. The destination was considerably more ambitious.
Dr. Mussa Ali Mussa laid out a vision that had been taking shape through sustained collaboration between the Morogoro regional government and AGCOT — a vision that positions Morogoro not merely as a productive agricultural region but as Tanzania’s definitive Aroma Spices Hub.
The crop portfolio is already in the ground. Cloves have grown in Morogoro for decades — in Kinole and across the Uluguru foothills — but have not, until now, been treated with the strategic seriousness their economics demand. Lemongrass is proving easier to commercialise than anticipated. Cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, and vanilla round out a portfolio that, grown together on a single hectare under good agronomic management, can generate between TSh 15 million and TSh 20 million per year for a smallholder farmer.
The regional government’s own calculations on cloves alone are striking. With conservative estimates of 40 clove trees per hectare, each yielding an average that puts per-hectare annual income from cloves between TSh 9 million and TSh 13 million, and with Morogoro’s production potential estimated at up to 2,000 metric tonnes per year, the aggregate farmgate value runs into the tens of billions of shillings. Local government revenues from levies alone — estimated at TSh 350 per kilogramme — could exceed TSh 1.8 billion annually for the Morogoro council from cloves alone, before accounting for any other spice.
“Spices are to Morogoro what gold is to Geita,” Dr. Mussa said. “But unlike Geita, we will not be left with holes in the ground. We will be left with better soil, cleaner rivers, and wealthier communities.”
The River Strategy: Where Environment and Economy Converge
One of the most striking elements of the Kilosa field discussion was a proposal that links the spice value chain directly to Tanzania’s most pressing environmental challenge in the region: the degradation of river catchments feeding major national infrastructure.
The Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam — Tanzania’s largest power generation project — depends significantly on water volumes flowing through river systems that originate in or pass through Morogoro. Those rivers are under pressure. Farmers plant annual crops on steep riverbanks. Soil erodes. Silt loads increase. Water volumes decline.
The proposed solution is elegant in its simplicity: plant lemongrass along the Ruvu River and other waterways.
Lemongrass is harvested by cutting, not uprooting. Its root system holds soil. It does not require burning. It does not require clearing. It protects the riverbank at the same time as it generates income for the farmer tending it. The residue from oil extraction becomes raw material for organic fertiliser — closing the loop entirely.
“If we enable this,” Dr. Mussa observed, “we protect the water, and we protect our people at the same time.”
Communities along the Ruvu basin — many of whom have been in conflict with conservation messaging for years, asked to stop farming near rivers without being offered a viable economic alternative — would, under this model, become active stewards of the watershed because the watershed is also their income.
The Financing Is Already There
One of the barriers most frequently cited when smallholder transformation is discussed is access to capital. In Morogoro, that barrier has already been partially dismantled.
Dr. Mussa confirmed during the Kilosa visit that the Morogoro Regional Government holds over TSh 4 billion in loan funds — deposited, unallocated, sitting in a bank account — available to youth, women, and persons with disabilities at an interest rate of ten percent. The money is not hypothetical. The applications are not being processed. The funds are waiting.
A young farmer who wants to establish a lemongrass oil operation — buying or fabricating a small distiller, establishing a production plot, and entering the essential oil supply chain — can do so for an initial investment well within the reach of those loan facilities.
“The land is there. The knowledge is there. The money is there,” Dr. Mussa said. “What is needed is the decision.”
Kilimo Mseto: The Banana Farm That Became a Blueprint
What Migeto Farm demonstrated on 24 April 2024 was not just the commercial potential of lemongrass. It demonstrated the power of intercropping — kilimo mseto — as a practical, low-cost pathway to diversified income.
Banana plants are spaced approximately three metres apart at Migeto Farm. That spacing, which is standard practice, leaves substantial ground between plants — ground that, under conventional thinking, is managed as understory or left bare. Praxeda used it for lemongrass. The lemongrass asked nothing of the bananas and gave the soil additional ground cover. Pests and snakes were discouraged. And now, with a distiller and a buyer, the same ground that was producing nothing is producing TSh 325,000 per litre of extracted oil.
The intercropping model is replicable anywhere banana farming is practised in Morogoro — and by extension, anywhere the combination of shade tolerance and moisture that lemongrass requires can be provided by a companion crop.
Kirenga noted that the Morogoro variety of lemongrass carries a particular advantage: it retains higher oil content than varieties adapted to drier climates — including those introduced to Pemba from South Africa, which were bred for drought tolerance at the expense of yield. Morogoro’s lemongrass does not dry out. It produces more. This is not a minor footnote — it is a competitive advantage in a global essential oil market where oil content is the primary determinant of price and buyer preference.
From Afterthought to Anchor Crop
The lesson of the Kilosa visit, distilled to its simplest form, is this: value chains do not always announce themselves. Sometimes they grow quietly between banana plants, waiting for someone to ask the right question.
AGCOT and the Morogoro regional government asked that question on 24 April 2024. The answer — TSh 325,000 a litre — was always there. What was missing was the connection: between the farmer and the market, between the regional authority and the technical knowledge, between the crop already growing and the industry already paying.
That connection is now being made. The spice hub strategy is moving from concept to implementation. Youth loan funds are available. Distillery technology is accessible. The intercropping model has a proof of concept in Kilosa. The river corridor planting strategy has political backing.
Praxeda Melkior planted lemongrass to keep snakes away.
She may end up building one of Morogoro’s first essential oil enterprises.
And if the vision articulated on that farm visit is realised at scale, the story of poverty on Tanzania’s spice frontier will need to be rewritten — not gradually, but decisively.
Field visit: 24 April 2024, Migeto Farm, Kilosa District, Morogoro Region. Participants: Geoffrey Kirenga, CEO, AGCOT Centre; Dr. Mussa Ali Mussa, Katibu Tawala wa Mkoa wa Morogoro; Praxeda Melkior, Co-Founder, Migeto Farm, among others. Video documentation available at: https://youtu.be/fh1feq5vU7w?si=sbrEOpXiFI0naGyz