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.

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.

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.

In Tanzania, growing demand for cooking oil has been met largely by palm oil imports rather than increased sunflower oil production. Low working capital means that oil producers can only buy and process a fraction of farmers’ sunflowers, capping sunflower oil production at a quarter of its potential.

Farm Africa provided technical assistance to actors working across the Tanzanian sunflower sector to meet growing domestic demand for cooking oil. This project worked with agricultural cooperatives and 10,000 of their members to support farmers to establish or develop sunflower businesses.

This project in the Nou Forest in the Manyara region of northern Tanzania linked forest communities and district governments to form partnerships for more sustainable forest management. Thousands of people living in Tanzania’s Nou Forest are reliant on the forests around them to survive. But deforestation has become increasingly common as people chop down trees for timber, to sell as firewood, and to clear grazing land for their animals.

Farm Africa worked with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to provide the support they needed to evolve into profitable, growing agribusinesses. From a ketchup manufacturer to a green bean exporter, the project worked with a huge diversity of businesses engaged across the horticultural value chain.

Project activities catered to the specific needs of each business including bespoke management, financial and technical training, stakeholder mapping and facilitating mutually beneficial contracts between farmers, buyers, suppliers and traders.

We prioritised investment needs and critical areas that could spur business growth. We also worked with 15 MSMEs from the Tanzanian horticulture sector following the increasing demand for spices, fruits and vegetables in local and export markets.

With financial support from the Vitol Foundation, Cultivate provided businesses in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia with tailored business development support and training using scalable online delivery mechanisms. Drawing on Farm Africa’s experience of analysing value chains and supporting first-mile agribusinesses, Cultivate worked with start-up and early-stage businesses with a $20,000 – $1million turnover.

Based in Kenya, Cultivate aimed to increase demand and facilitate the supply of business development services to rural small and growing agribusinesses (SGBs) across eastern Africa. We helped businesses develop and implement effective business strategies, boost their productivity and production, meet commodity standards and improve marketing operations and market access.

Through Cultivate’s online business skills training sessions and technical advisory support, SGBs identified risks and opportunities, conducted market and opportunities analysis, fostered business resilience and improved their pricing, costing and profitability for sustainable growth.

Market demand for sorghum is rising but smallholder farmers lack the yields, equipment and systems to tap into demand. Farm Africa supported smallholder farmers to adopt new techniques that boost yields, build resilience to extreme weather and protect the environment.

Together, Farm Africa and UN Women worked to close the gender gap in the sunflower sector. UN Women teamed up with local government to ensure Agricultural Marketing Cooperatives (AMCOs) in Tanzania’s Ikungi district increased their female membership. In particular, Farm Africa helped female members in three of the AMCOs to boost their productivity and meet the growing demand for sunflower oil.

Many women are currently excluded from participating in and benefitting from the sector, being held back by poor production practices, and lack of access to markets and cooperatives.