In Tanzania, between 2020 and 2022 we carried out a project called Supporting self-employment in agriculture through building practical skills. Its main goal was to raise the income of smallholder farmers from agricultural activity, which we sought to achieve by building farmers’ skills in growing apple trees. The project ran in the mountainous regions of Iringa and Njombe, which have a high share of low-income smallholder farmers and where climatic conditions are suitable for apple trees. The specific goal of the project was to secure and raise a sustainable income for farmers through apple growing while also strengthening their food security.
The first result achieved by the project is the training of farmers in apple growing. Over the two years of the project, 1,290 farmers were trained. The topics covered in each training were tree planting, correct training of the tree crown, fertilising, spraying and tree care using readily available organic agents such as garlic, chilli peppers and soap. The training takes place directly in the farmers’ villages. In addition to the farmers, the project also trained 82 agricultural agents — state employees whose role is to provide farmers with advice on growing crops so as to maximise yields. Thanks to their new knowledge and skills, they can now also advise farmers who grow apple trees.
The second result achieved is the establishment of farmers’ apple orchards. So that trained farmers had trees to plant, we expanded the fruit-tree nursery at Tamu Tamu Tanzania by thousands of trees, which meant that over the course of the project we were able to provide smallholder farmers with a total of 36,125 apple trees. Even after the project’s end, field officers ensure regular monitoring of the trained farmers and provide them with the advice they need on caring for the apple trees.
The third planned result of the project was the creation of a buyer chain for the apples purchased from the trained farmers — within the project we secured a market for 13,244 kg of apples.
We carried out the project in cooperation with the social enterprise Tamu Tamu Tanzania from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2022, and it was financially supported by a SlovakAid grant of EUR 137,465.
