Climate-smart green tech boon for Tanzanian farmers

Arusha. Productivity and net returns for small-scale farmers in a multi-million dollar horticultural industry have grown by leaps and bounds, courtesy of extensive adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies, best farming practices, finance and market access.

Thanks to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) backed pilot project executed by Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha), the key driver of the $800 million industry, for fostering modern climate-smart technology drive in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mara and Simiyu regions that has spurred a massive impact in terms of output and income for growers.

Basically, the Taha -UNDP scheme has provided high quality extension services, transforming over 3,900 subsistence farmers, mainly the youth and women, into modern competitive entrepreneurs by facilitating access to financing, technology, inputs, infrastructure and markets in the East African region, Europe and the Gulf.

Fresh data show that smallholder horticultural growers under the Taha and UNDP pilot project have witnessed harvests swelling by 77 percent on average in a year, the highest growth ratio in a stagnant agricultural sector in a recent history, thus offering a ray of hope for growers and the economy.

In real terms, for instance, tomato growers are now cheerfully harvesting 35 metric tons per acre, up from a mere nine tons prior to the Taha and UNDP intervention, official statistics indicate.

With a 100kg crate of tomato fetching Sh100,000 at the farm gate price, growers in the Lake Zone’s Bunda and Busega are smiling all the way to the bank for making millions of shillings in return.

Bulamba farmers group’s chairman, Mr Abiud Masige ,from Butimba ward in Bunda District, said that they exceptionally await to harvest around 500 crates per season, implying that the cluster with eight farmers will make a cool Sh50 million, if the prevailing price is anything to go by.

The group used to grow the same crop traditionally and harvest around 64 crates, earning the members Sh1.3 million per season, owing to the low productivity compounded by poor technology, lack of knowledge, low tomato quality and prices as well as non-existence of the reliable markets.

“The attained yields and profits are ground-breaking, far beyond the farmers imaginations and it poises to be an economic game changer for a critical mass of smallholder growers as nearby cultivators have also been replicating the best practices from their colleagues under the project,” said Taha Group CEO, Ms Jacqueline Mkindi.

Through the UNDP financial support, Taha has been offering the smallholder growers with the climate smart technologies like greenhouses, drip irrigation, solar energy, water harvesting systems, inputs, such as hybrid seeds, fertilizers and training on best agricultural practices to improve crops production to meet both local and export demands.

As a result the pilot project intensified the technology adoption, with 70 percent of trained farmers having been embracing modern practices resulting in an increase of productivity, cut post-harvest losses from 65 to 32 percent and meet quality standards of high-end markets.

Taha and UNDP have also linked up over 300 farmers to financial institutions to access reasonable loans, as they had successfully unlocked one billion shillings credit package from NMB and TADB.

The project also saw establishment of the new market infrastructures, two among them, being the state-of-the art collection centers in Tengeru-Arusha and Himo in Moshi and one open market in Same District. The project also spearheaded the rehabilitation of two key on-farm collection centers in Midawe in Arumeru District and Lyamungo division in Moshi Rural with a combined annual handling capacity of nearly 9,000 metric tons of produce.

In return, the centres benefitted over 3,300 people comprising a total of 800 farmers, 2,400 farm employees, and created 100 jobs.

The project also saw an increased access to inputs. For instance, Taha has facilitated a blanket registration of 213 pesticides and biological control agents in Tanzania, making them more readily available as per market demands. Ms Mkindi was overwhelmed with joy, saying their painstaking efforts to see Tanzania produce and get a share in the global organic food value chain worth $369 billion annually, have paid off.

UNDP Resident Representative, Ms Christine Musisi, said: “We have learned many lessons and they are now developing a new programme, we call for horticulture transformation for inclusive growth (HOTIGRO) with Taha and a wider partnership base, including our sister agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO).