Our programmes

This project aims to sustainably increase the incomes of 60,000 smallholder farmers in the Dodoma and Singida regions of Tanzania by 2025, of whom half are women and over 28,000 are young people. Farm Africa will implement measures to increase food productivity, reduce post-harvest losses and build a well-functioning market system, focusing on the sunflower, sorghum and horticulture value chains.

Farmers, particularly women and young people, will access improved agricultural production techniques, seed varieties, and climate technologies for their crops. Improved post-harvest techniques and value-addition will be promoted, which will also help create job opportunities.

Young people will be offered training in financial literacy and entrepreneurial, leadership and management skills. Farm Africa will also help women and young people apply for grants and loans to grow their businesses.

Farmer service centres (FSCs) are critical central hubs in agribusiness. They address last mile/first mile inefficiencies and logistical issues and provide farmers with access to necessary services that increase productivity. These include farm inputs like seeds, fertilisers, mechanisation, agricultural extension services and finance. They provide an aggregation point for farmers’ produce; connecting farmers to buyers and providing market partners with quality and quantity assurance.

This project aimed to increase income and job opportunities in the Longido district in Tanzania’s Arusha region. Through sustainable horticulture production and other relevant livelihood activities, women and young people, who live in severe poverty and face the worst effects of drought, benefitted from meaningful employment.

Farm Africa supported communities at a local level and jump-started economic activity to ensure farmers could generate income to sustain themselves. With a holistic approach, we built farmers’ capacities in addressing climate change challenges and improved their food security. We made use of the existing farming community and irrigation schemes and promoted climate-smart agriculture practices and value addition activities to provide affordable food for domestic and export markets. Apart from introducing farmers to relevant market information on horticulture crops, smallholder farmers were also trained on climate-smart agricultural technologies and products.

This project also focused on increasing knowledge on gender equality, improving local institutional capacity on gender inclusivity and promoting the participation of women and young people in sustainable economic activities. When implementing these activities, Farm Africa involved village, ward and district extension agents who continued the advisory role after the project ended. This participatory method of involving all relevant actors ensures the project’s activities are sustainable long-term.

Farm Africa and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) are addressing the challenges faced by small businesses in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee camps in northern Kenya, where the arid environment makes agricultural production difficult, the local population has effectively prohibited refugees from keeping livestock and there is poor access to markets and minimal employment opportunities. The project’s main focus is to stimulate innovation and strengthen economic opportunities for refugee and host community entrepreneurs.​

The project is providing financing and business development services to micro and small enterprises (MSEs), including tailored mentorship, ensuring they gain the expertise and financial support they need to generate both revenue and local jobs.

The five-year NOURISH project aims to achieve resilient food security for smallholder farmer households in key regions of Tanzania. These are the central-northern zone (Singida, Dodoma, Manyara) which suffers from acute food insecurity, and Southern Highlands (Songwe, Rukwa) which faces chronic malnutrition.

NOURISH targets smallholder farmer food producers at greatest risk of food security, with emphasis on those with less than two hectares as well as other vulnerable groups. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and farm organisations will also benefit from the project.

Our Participatory Forest Management project (PFM) aimed to improve forest conservation in two communities, Harena Buluk and Dello Mena woredas, in Ethiopia that have experienced high population growth.

We supported forest community-based organisations (CBOs) to produce and sell more high-quality coffee, improve livestock productivity in a sustainable way and generate knowledge that could guide further livelihood and conservation activity.

Building on past interventions in Ethiopia, the project provided training in forest-friendly farming techniques, fodder production, business skills, biodiversity monitoring and biogas technology to over 1,900 people, who went on to train and assist at least 5,300 more people.

Farm Africa, along with nine partners, is implementing the four-year Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable and Inclusive Development (NSSID) programme in Ethiopia to reduce poverty, build communities’ resilience to climate change and protect the environment.

Rural women often have a deep understanding of local resource challenges, so there’s a lot to be gained from involving them more fully in natural resource decision-making. The Climate Resilience through Gender Equality project aims to help rural communities in the Afar and Oromia Regional States of Ethiopia adapt to climate change by strengthening the role women can play in the management of natural resources for their communities.

The project aims to unlock that leadership potential by reshaping gender-biased social norms. On the ground, that means championing the inclusion of women within predominantly male organisations, such as farming or forest cooperatives, involving women in promoting climate-smart agriculture and sustainable enterprises, and creating opportunities for women and men to work side-by-side in addressing the development needs of their communities.

This work is being undertaken in partnership with the Union of Ethiopia Women and Children Association (UEWCA) and Population Health and the Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHE-EC).

This programme aims to help 130,450 smallholder wheat farmers in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, overcome challenges that are undermining their livelihoods. We’re working together to improve access to advisory services and supplies, improve crop productivity and grain storage methods and increase opportunities to share knowledge. Along the way, we’re aiming to improve opportunities for women and young people, from providing technical training to improving access to finance to creating job and entrepreneurial business opportunities.

Key activities include rolling out training on climate-smart methods for wheat production, modernising post-harvest and storage technologies, supporting local women to start their own agricultural supply and advisory businesses, and supporting women to establish and effectively run their own village savings and loan associations.

The 20-month programme, which launched in October 2024, is funded by AGRA. It draws experience from Farm Africa’s successful regenerative agriculture work in Embu, Kenya, also funded by AGRA.

The Youth empowerment project (YEP) aims to improve employment opportunities and income for 500 young people in southwestern Uganda by increasing productivity along the coffee, honey, poultry and horticulture value chains.

We’re fuelling productivity by setting up value addition and business incubation centres through Youth Innovation Hubs Africa to help young people launch business ventures along these value chains.

To ensure these young entrepreneurs receive the support they need to become self-sustaining, we’re also training 50 women and young people to become self-employed local business agents who can offer technical advice on selected enterprises, run training workshops and help facilitate access to supplies, land and technology.

Farm Africa is implementing Forests for Sustainable Development, a four-year programme in the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia to build on the success of previous programmes in reducing deforestation, cutting carbon emissions, increasing the incomes of forest-dependent communities and addressing sustainability limitations.

The project will work to benefit both people and planet by developing sustainable livelihoods, reducing biodiversity loss, while also improving the resilience of the local community, and improving governance for integrated landscape management.

The surging demand for fish in Kenya presents a promising opportunity for economic growth through the aquaculture and mariculture sectors. However, despite their potential, these sectors remain largely untapped by young men and women seeking employment and work opportunities.

Recognising this untapped potential, the Mastercard Foundation is joining forces with Farm Africa and partners to build thriving, dynamic aquaculture and mariculture sectors.

Farm Africa is helping to increase the production, incomes and climate resilience of 60,000 farmers in Embu and Tharaka Nithi in Kenya by training 50 farmer groups, each with 200 members, in regenerative agriculture.

A key feature of the project is training 250 village-based advisors (VBAs) in regenerative agriculture techniques, who then share the knowledge with more farmers across the counties to support them to grow more fruit and vegetables at home for their families. The training covers post-harvest handling, storage, kitchen garden establishment and agribusiness acumen.

The project also builds the capacity of local and national governments in developing policies on the promotion of regenerative agriculture. We will influence research institutions to adopt regenerative agriculture best practices, as well as input distributors at a commercial level.

The Waitrose Foundation wants to create better livelihoods for employees and their families, creating stronger communities and sustainable supply chains around the world. Since 2017, Farm Africa has worked with the Foundation to make their vision a reality, supporting those that grow, pick and pack Waitrose & Partners’ fresh produce in Kenya.

Farm Africa is helping to improve the livelihoods of 12,000 employees across seven vegetable and flower farms in the Waitrose & Partners supply chain by managing a series of projects that are funded by sales of Foundation produce and supplier farms in the UK.

The project focuses on five key areas including: health and wellbeing, supporting learning, environment and green energy; improved water and sanitation and access to finance.

To help farmers who rely on poultry day-to-day, Farm Africa took part in a randomised control trial (RCT) that investigated the effects of a vaccine for Newcastle disease on the production, productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Tanzania.

Based on a proposal set out by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), Farm Africa implemented the RCT and recruited and trained local vaccinators on how to administer the vaccine and monitor the results.

Despite being seen as the preserve of the poor, forest products, such as honey, gum and incense, are a potentially profitable source of income for farmers. Women, young people, refugees and displaced people are the main groups that harvest wild forest products.

Along with the Assosa Environmental Protection Association, Farm Africa worked with forest management committees, which empower farmers to set up sustainable enterprises producing and selling products like honey and incense.

The committees helped farmers build better markets, access finance for their businesses and incentivise them to conserve forests. This project helped broker agreements between forest users and the government on using the area’s natural resources sustainably.

The project aimed to contribute to sustainable food security and livelihood improvement for rural families by making sure smallholder farmers had access to the buyers and suppliers they needed to build thriving farming businesses.

Access to agricultural supplies was improved by facilitating the start-up of independent agro-dealer businesses, with these new local suppliers reporting a total of 70,000 customers by the end of the project. Crop productivity and profit was improved through improvements in post harvest technology, the introduction of cluster farming systems, and the creation of a digital market prices App, which enabled 1,300 farmers to track local market prices digitally. Access to finance was improved through the development of inclusive, low-capital intensive financing solutions which enabled 7,943 smallholder farmers to access finance for the first time.

Farm Africa worked with pastoralist women living in South Omo and Karamoja in Ethiopia and Uganda, supporting them to set up sustainable, small-scale goat-rearing enterprises to help them generate an income and provide their families with a more nutritious diet.

We established Women’s Livestock Groups, through which we provided training in goat rearing and fodder and rangeland management.

We improved women’s access to livestock by setting up a revolving goat scheme, which required each woman who received two goats from Farm Africa to give two does (female goats) to another vulnerable woman once her herd had grown, creating a cycle of improved prosperity.