Catalyzing agricultural innovation in Tanzania

Before you read this report, be inspired by this three-minute story of what you helped achieve for one rural Tanzanian.

Prisca was a housewife, a farm worker, and a laborer for eight years, struggling to support her family solely on the meager income she earned. As the breadwinner, every responsibility fell on Prisca’s shoulders, including caring for her two beautiful daughters. To ensure their happiness, Prisca often had to work long distances away from home. “I had to leave my children with my mother for days. Sometimes, they got sick and I couldn’t come back,” she says.

It was different for Josia. At the age of 40, he decided to leave behind a ten-year career in carpentry and become a poultry owner. It was an entrepreneurial move: if successful, he could earn more money; but it was also full of risks. Josia had limited cash to start the business, no previous training in chicken rearing, and virtually no connection with customers. To Josia’s disappointment, only half of his chickens survived the first year. He ended up with just 20 percent of his monthly goal.

This was how BRAC first met Prisca and Josia, in 2015, as the Livelihood Enhancement through Agricultural Development (LEAD) project started in Tanzania. While agriculture is the main driver of the country’s economy (it contributes to 33 percent of the GDP), the sector remains inefficient, as farmers lack high-quality supplies and training, and food insecurity and poverty beset the country. A nation with more than 53 million people, in 2011 almost half of the population lived below the extreme poverty line.

BRAC wanted to alleviate poverty and food insecurity in Tanzania by supporting Tanzanian farmers. We asked: How do you raise the income of 105,000 farmers?

With the project’s completion in March, our Tanzanian team may have found one answer to that question. Here are a few key results that you helped achieve:

• More than 100,000 corn and poultry farmers across 15 regions of Tanzania completed trainings in new farming technologies.
• The total amount of crops and income increased by 400 percent. Income from selling eggs increased by 961 percent.
• Across 12 regions, 50 farm entrepreneurs received funding to grow their businesses. In one year, their average monthly income doubled.

Importantly, women accounted for 65 percent of all the farmers that BRAC reached – and Prisca was one of them. With help from BRAC, she learned important agricultural techniques that improved her crop yields. She also received a loan of $150, which she used to invest in her farm operations and start a small grocery store. Today, Prisca enjoys more successful crops, and she expects more than 50 bags of corn this season. With her extra income, Prisca is helping friends open a small restaurant. BRAC is grateful to have been a part of her journey.

Josia also received a loan, and learned best practices in poultry farming. With these new skills, he turned his egg business around and then expanded it. Today, he produces 10 times what he did before. His income increased from $200 to over $9,000 per month. That’s an impressive accomplishment, but is only one of many among LEAD farmers.

In light of successes like Josia and Prisca, we are excited to share that BRAC will continue to operate the LEAD project in Tanzania. We are determined to reach more people and achieve change on a wider scale.

We appreciate your support over the last four years and are excited to share more reports in the future. Please hit the “Forward” button to share this meaningful project with friends who may want to help sustain the LEAD project long-term.

Until next time,

The BRAC Team   

In 2013, BRAC began a project to raise incomes for 105,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania. How do you break down barriers to the market for thousands of rural, subsistence farmers, most of them women, and improve the quality of the product the farmers offer? Those are the challenges the Livelihood Enhancement through Agricultural Development (LEAD) project, now in its fourth and final year, seeks to address. We are excited to share our progress with you.

To improve the quality of the product offered, BRAC used demonstration farmers and community poultry promoters (CPP) to spread knowledge about modern techniques for corn and chicken production. To accomplish this, more than 600 CPPs have been trained. Additionally, BRAC specifically trained almost 100 community members to become veterinary and agriculture technical experts who are also supporting farmers.

In our last report, we also discussed farmer field days, during which demonstration farmers showcase modern techniques and tools for community members to learn new farming innovations. Nearly 450 field days have been recorded, and the results are stunning:

Corn farmers reported that the following practices were adopted:

• Line sowing, which helps farmers grow more crops, saw an increase of 56 percent, with 94 percent of farmers participating in the practice after training;
• Modern weeding techniques swelled 17 percent, to 99 percent after training;
• Using a crop calendar, which can help farmers keep production costs low, increased 37 percent, with 96 percent using a calendar after training;
• and fertilizer use jumped 28 percent, to 92 percent after training.

With your support, the LEAD project also created farmer groups, helping them share resources, boost production and improve bargaining power to sell crops at market prices. In a country where few smallholder farmers are able to transition to commercial farming practices, farmer groups can help individual farmers access local, regional and national buyers. More than 8,000 groups have been formed.

Another key factor limiting access to markets for most smallholder farmers is capital. Without cash, farmers cannot gain access to modern seeds and chicks or pay for pesticides and immunizations. We are proud to share that more than 20,000 farmers have financed their businesses with small loans, totaling more than $8 million.

More specifically, 50 entrepreneurs from 12 regions received cumulative investments of $722,375 to support their ongoing businesses. Results show their income increased by 99 percent, their production by more than 50 percent, and that repayment rates are at 99 percent.

Access to cash and new techniques and technologies also paid off. While corn farmers, on average, cultivated slightly less land after receiving trainings, their average yield per acre actually increased 62 percent. The greater yield and better access to markets contributed to a growth of 131 percent in yield sold. Overall, corn farmers earned 78 percent more per farmer than prior to their trainings.

For poultry farmers, the results have been equally inspiring. On average:

• the number of eggs produced in a month rose 161 percent;
• the number of eggs sold skyrocketed 362 percent;
• and the average amount of capital from selling eggs jumped 274 percent.

For poultry farmers, overall, yield and income increased 400 percent and, for corn farmers, 194 percent after involvement in the LEAD project.

Nowhere is this more evident than with Josia, a 40-year-old resident of Kihesa who was previously a carpenter before trying his hand at poultry farming.

Prior to joining the LEAD project, Josia produced roughly 500 chicks each month, despite owning an incubator capable of hatching 1,000 chicks. Due to outdated techniques and disease, many chicks would die, and he would end up with only 200 to bring to market.

After joining the LEAD project in February 2015, Josia received training in modern techniques, access to veterinarians trained by BRAC and took out a loan to expand his business.

With new incubators, access to vaccines and a variety of eggs, Josia began producing nearly 3,000 chicks a month, and lowered the number of chickens that were dying. This increased his income from $183 a month to more than $2,250. After demand skyrocketed, he bought another incubator, and now sells an average of 10,000 chicks a month.

With the growth in business, he has hired three employees to help manage the hatcheries, and he has built a house for his family.

Thank you for supporting Josia and farmers like him in the LEAD project. Together, we are improving the lives of thousands of smallholder farmers in Tanzania, one crop at a time.