Tanzania

In Tanzania, 63% of the population lives in rural areas, with the vast majority of those people working in farming.  An estimated 85% of the country’s farmers are subsistence or small-scale producers, working less than 2.5 hectares of land and relying on rainfall to water their crops.

Tanzania has 44 million hectares of arable land, with an estimated 29 million hectares suitable for irrigation.

Up to 81% of the female population in rural areas works in agriculture.

Challenges

The intensity and frequency of climate-induced shocks, particularly droughts and floods, are rising in Tanzania.

Climate change is having a significant negative impact on the agricultural sector, bringing falls in soil quality, heightened prevalence of pests and diseases, erratic rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts and water scarcity.

The majority of smallholder farmers lack access to the agricultural inputs, training, technology, finance and information needed to adapt to climate change.

Farm Africa in Tanzania

Farm Africa equips farmers and growers in Tanzania with the skills and resources they need to boost their productivity, incomes and resilience to climate change, while conserving biodiversity.

With better access to drought-tolerant seeds, training on climate-smart agricultural practices, financial services and guaranteed sale contracts with traders and processors, farmers are able to build thriving businesses that make a profit not just this harvest, but every harvest.

Food produced by farmers and businesses supported by Farm Africa in Tanzania includes poultry, vegetables, oilseeds (such as sunflower and sesame), sorghum, maize, beans, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, rice, forest products (including honey and mushrooms) and moringa.

Empowering women

Despite women providing the majority of labour in farming in Tanzania, men tend to ultimately own the crops that women produce – and the fields women work in.

Generally, women can take ownership of crops that are grown to feed their families, including beans and vegetables, but not crops that are grown to sell, such as sunflower, coffee and sorghum.

Farm Africa provides tools and support to empower female farmers so they can gain a say and a fair stake in their farming businesses, as well as in their lives overall.

We help women save in groups and issue loans to each other to invest in each other’s small businesses. Having other sources of income apart from farming means women are more resilient to climate change, as they can earn money in other ways if harvests fail.

A market-led approach

We place farmers’ access to markets at the centre of our work, helping farmers engage with the suppliers, buyers and financial service providers they need to build sustainable farm businesses.

We support farmers to interact with markets through a range of intermediaries including farmer groups, cooperatives; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and contract farming with larger off-takers/buyers.

We also support the small businesses who buy smallholder farmers’ crops. We offer business mentoring and technical assistance using Farm Africa’s business development services curriculum, which is tailored to support the needs of rural agri-enterprises.