“As well as farming, I do a lot of contract planting for small African farmers, using zero till machines.”

Mr Dennis, formerly of Birregurra, in Victoria’s Western District, said he was using Australian technology in the form of equipment from Primary, in WA.

“I like using Australian technology and tines and things as they are better suited to the hard African dirt than those from other conditions.”

Mr Dennis said cropping systems in equatorial Tanzania were split into two distinct operations, highland and lowland.

In the temperate high altitude areas around the town of Arusha, there is malting barley, chickpeas and safflower grown, while at the hotter low altitudes, farmers concentrate on rice, maize and sorghum.

“Above 1400 metres it gets more temperate, but there is only so much land available there, so I am looking more at the low altitude areas for expansion.”

He said there was an amazingly diverse spread of farming operations in Tanzania.

“There’s guys with big properties of 30,000 acres right through to traditional farmers who farm 20 acres.”

Right throughout the whole agriculture sector, however, he said there was interest in advances such as no-till cropping.

“You can work to no-till principles just as easily on small equipment as you can on big gear.”

Mr Dennis said Tanzania was full of promise in terms of developing production, however he said marketing would be limited.

“The infrastructure isn’t that fantastic, and you’d say most of your product would remain local, due to difficulties in getting it out, which limits your marketing options a bit.”