Tomato Farmers Reach New Markets in Tanzania
Martha Mtenda once struggled to make a living through her half-acre farm in the village of Mbigili in Iringa, a region in Tanzania's Southern Highlands.
READ MOREImpact
To date, TechnoServe has supported 700,000 farmers and small business owners in Tanzania. TechnoServe is also providing leadership on the creation of the first ever national strategy for cocoa development.
Stories
Brewing Good
Our Coffee Initiative is helping East African farmers to build better lives, one coffee bean at a time.
READ MOREFeeding Economic Growth in Tanzania
Navyn Salem is running Industrial Revelation, a company based in her family's homeland of Tanzania that is dedicated to selling economically and socially viable treatments for malnutrition. TechnoServe is providing key support in several areas.
READ MOREHigher Coffee Incomes Transform Lives in Tanzania
TechnoServe works with coffee farmers to produce higher-quality beans for the premium coffee market.
READ MOREOn The Ground
Projects
Reviving Cocoa in Tanzania
Cocoa production began in Tanzania in the late 1960s, yet has not been significantly promoted or developed as a cash... crop in the past 40 years. With global demand for cocoa rising and West Africa encountering challenges in its cocoa production, buyers have begun to reconnect with Tanzania’s cocoa producers. TechnoServe, supported by a grant from Irish Aid, is working with farmers to improve post-harvest handling and better position farmer groups as credible sellers. The governments in cocoa-growing districts are serving as key partners for TechnoServe, helping to develop a stakeholder platform for the various actors in the sector. TechnoServe is also leading a working group to draft the National Strategy for Cocoa Development in Tanzania.
Partners
Irish Aid
Boosting Fortified Foods
TechnoServe is working with small- and medium-sized maize, rice and sunflower oil processors to increase the supply of,... and demand for, nutritious and fortified foods. The project will work with more than 1,000 business owners in Morogoro, Dodoma and Manyara Region to build capacity for fortification by assisting the processors with operations, access to finance, formulation, packaging and marketing. This market-based solutions project is known locally as “Tuboreshe Chakula” (Improved Food), and is funded under the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future initiative.
Expanding Specialty Coffee
As part of its regional Coffee Initiative, TechnoServe is helping small-scale farmers increase their incomes by... producing higher-quality coffee for the lucrative specialty coffee market. TechnoServe helps farmers to organize into business groups, obtain credit and install processing equipment. We also train farmers to use the equipment and improve their farming practices. Our Tanzanian coffee work to date has helped increase farmers’ incomes by $1 million a year, partly by enabling them to sell directly to overseas buyers such as Starbucks and Peet's Coffee & Tea.
Facilitating Cotton Extension Services
Extension services are an important feature in improving cotton production for farmers in the Lake Victoria region of... northwest Tanzania. TechnoServe has worked closely with district governments to support the growth of the cotton sector in Tanzania focused on building local understanding of a contract farming model. The geography includes nearly 400,000 cotton farmers and more than 20 cotton ginners.
Connecting Farmers with Mobile Services
TechnoServe and Tigo, one of the largest mobile network operators in Tanzania, have joined forces on the mFarmer... program to improve farmers’ livelihoods through improved access to actionable information on mobile phones. With initial funding from the GSM Association, TechnoServe and Tigo have developed Tigo Kilimo, a sustainable product to disseminate high-quality, reliable information through the mobile phone. Farmers using Tigo Kilimo can access market price, weather and agronomy information through text and voice channels. Tigo Kilimo will reach 500,000 Tanzania farmers by December 2013.
Promoting Sustainable Mobile Solutions
TechnoServe, Vodafone and the U.S. Agency for International Development have formed the Connected Farmer Alliance to... develop and launch sustainable mobile agriculture solutions that benefit smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. This innovative public-private partnership will reach 500,000 farmers across Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. The three-year program, which started in September 2012, will work to (1) develop business-to-business services to allow agribusiness to increase transparency and lower their cost of doing business with smallholder farmers; (2) design, test, and launch new mobile money services allow rural customers to reduce financial risks and to save and invest; and (3) incubate a new generation of mobile value-added services targeting the agriculture sector in a sustainable way.
Improving Cashew Production and Processing
TechnoServe worked with a range of partners – including global cashew industry leader Olam International Limited –... to develop a competitive cashew industry in Tanzania. The program, completed in 2010, organized farmers into business groups, helping them to produce higher-quality nuts and linking them to premium markets. Fiscal reforms allowed one cashew processing plant to reopen, preserving more than 1,000 jobs and a market for 14,000 farmers. TechnoServe also championed policies that create opportunities for small-scale farmers and promote domestic processing of raw cashew nuts.
Linking Grain Farmers to Markets
The Storage and Proper Post-Harvest Improvements for Resource Efficiency (SAPPHIRE) program is working to increase... incomes for 20,000 smallholder maize and rice farmers in the Mbeya Region. Better post-harvest handling will increase the value of grain crops, and improved access to storage will reduce losses. In addition, the SAPPHIRE program is improving warehouse receipt systems, enabling more efficient marketing, increasing access to credit for inputs and developing linkages between farmers and the national food market.
Blog Posts
November 7, 2012
A Growing Lifeline: Mobile Technologies in Agricultural Development
Smallholder farmers in the developing world face considerable challenges that keep many of them locked in poverty. Mobile technologies have the potential to transform the rural economy facing impoverished small farmers.
August 31, 2012
Photo of the Week: All in a Day’s Work
In the United States, millions of Americans are gearing up to celebrate Labor Day in honor of the achievements of workers here. But let’s also remember the contributions of workers around the world, like these tea pickers in Tanzania. When people in developing countries have the opportunity to earn a living, everyone benefits.
July 12, 2012
Improving Livelihoods Through Dairy: Women’s Empowerment in Tanzania
In the winter of 2012, I joined TechnoServe directly from a management consulting position in San Francisco. Four months and more than 100 stakeholder interviews later, what was once a side note on a scope of work now has great impact on how TechnoServe looks at dairy interventions.
Contact
TechnoServe Tanzania
TechnoServe Tanzania
Tel: +255 222 600455 |
Rebecca Savoie
Country Director |
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