Farmers in Iringa build a better future

A vast majority of Tanzanians depend on small-scale agriculture for their livelihood – such as 27- year-old Regan Mgaya. Agriculture is the primary source of income in Magulilwa village in Southern Iringa, where Regan resides and maize is the dominant crop of choice. However, many of the farmers like Regan fail to yield enough to last their families through the year. Regan is a father of two and is very familiar with this struggle.

Each planting season, Regan worked in the scorching sun tirelessly on his half acre farm hoping to produce enough bags of maize to feed his family. Despite long hours, he used to harvest only three to four bags of maize (one bag weighs 120-130kgs).

“Life was hard, imagine working throughout the year and the harvest tells you that you will not be able to provide food on the table for your family on certain days. We used to sleep hungry. I could not afford to buy agricultural inputs such as seedlings or fertiliser to improve this situation and it was difficult to get these,” says Regan.

Distressed about his situation and the food insecurity despite hard work, Regan decided to join One Acre Fund (OAF) programme in 2013.

“This was the first organisation to come to our village to introduce their activities. We received training to better our farming methods and techniques and received agricultural inputs as a loan – which we paid in instalments. It was unlike the situation where you go to a shop and need to pay all the money at once,” Regan explains why he joined OAF.

Financial inclusion or aid was a big problem for small-scale farmers in Iringa, in fact they were the neglected ones. Just like Regan, many farmers work hard all season, but the cost of buying the inputs doesn’t equal the money you make out of the harvest. Poor yielding caused poor family life. Regan explains that this organisation helped him to attain profit and investment return a hundred per cent.

During Regan’s first season with OAF, he enrolled half an acre of land. He planted maize using the improved farming methods, hybrid seeds and fertilizer he had received. That year, he harvested 5 bags of green maize (for roasting and boiling) and 9 bags of dry maize (matured maize), which summed up to a total of 14 bags.

Regan kept on progressing and hopes to build a better future for his children. He has upgraded himself from half acre to one acre of farming land and has managed to renovate his house. Regan now has other forms of income apart from livestock rearing and has begun using solar lamps to reduce kerosene consumption.

The East African region has one of the world’s highest concentrations of poverty. Three out of four people in the region live in rural areas, and more than half of them live in extreme poverty. About 85% of these extremely poor people depend on agriculture, according to a report by International Funds for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

OAF came to Tanzania in 2013 to combat the very same challenges the poorest community goes through. Its main aim is to improve farmers’ harvests so that they can pull themselves out of poverty. The organisation helps in financing farm inputs by providing loans, distribution of seed and fertilisers, training the farmers on improved farming methods and creating a market.

“If we help the farmers, we are helping the world’s poor.  If you can get these smallholder farmers to farm better and produce more then Tanzania can feed itself easily and export food to the region and other countries. OAF is just helping farmers in what they are already doing so they can do it better,” explains David Hylden, Tanzania Country Director for OAF.

OAF’s pilot project in Iringa started off with 1,000 farmers. Now, more than 17,000 farmers from Iringa and Mbeya have enrolled in the OAF programme. 

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that approximately 98% of women living in rural areas in Tanzania engage in agricultural activities. They not only carry the major responsibility for subsistence agriculture but also domestic work.

Sakina Mgaya, a 30-year- old single mother who joined OAF when they first came in Magulilwa village, is one of the few women who can now support themselves and their children.

The mother of three depended on farming but witnessed no yield. She neither could send her children to school nor buy fertiliser to improve her yield. From her one acre farm, Sakina would harvest three bags of maize or less. As a single mother, she led a life of little or no hope.

“When OAF came in, my group and I saw changes when we implemented the practices we learnt during the training. I corrected all my mistakes. Like I stopped planting peas in between the maize seedlings,” Sakina explains.

The first year round, she farmed half an acre and got eight bags of maize. She progressed and took one acre during her third year of which she harvested 16 bags of maize.

“I put all my three children in school and built a house. Initially it was difficult to put food on the table, but now I am out of that vicious cycle and I live comfortably. I can even employ a person to help me during the harvest season,” Sakina added by giving kudos to the OAF team.

OAF is supporting a total of 328 farming families just in Magulilwa village.

Lewis Mhagama, the Field Director explained that OAF began penetrating in villages by putting a demo plot of one acre. The farmers took a notice of it and got inquisitive because the yield was so good and maize was growing perfectly.

“Every farmer who joined the programme after taking notice of the demo plot has an inspiring success story. Their outcome is really great,” Lewis says.

According to Lewis, some of the challenges during the initiation phase were that few farmers,  were hard to convince to break through from their traditional methods and to adopt a completely new method of farming. But they gave it time as they understood their situation and the OAF team let the neighbouring farms teach them why it was important to employ better farming practices.

The second challenge was the market for their yield. The harvest grew yearly, but failed to sell. So OAF created a market for these farmers, where they created a storage space for farmers to come and sell their yield back to the organisation.

OAF  targets to serve many families throughout Tanzania, encompassing over 29, 000 children. Importantly, more than 30% of the farmers are now solar light users and have drastically reduced consumption of kerosene, translating into an incredible impact for both families and the environment.

The Regional Agriculture Officer of Iringa, Grace Macha told Sound Living that Iringa has been increasing the land for agriculture every year. This is especially for maize production, paddy and small amounts of beans.

“If we are uplifting the farmers, obviously we are uplifting the Iringa community as more than 75% of Iringa dwellers are farmers. Yet, only 30% of our farmers are doing good because still most of them lack funds to buy inputs on time and most of the times these inputs are delayed at the shops causing farmers loss of the whole season,” she says adding that organisations like OAF have helped farmers to a great extent by giving them loans and delivering inputs to their villages. This she says has uplifted a certain percentage of the farming community.

The other good thing according to Grace is the fact that together with training  the farmers of good agriculture practices, OAF helps them identify markets, and this is a great incentive and motivation.

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