By Correspondent Valentine Oforo, Dodoma
FARM Africa, an international organisation working to build a prosperous rural Africa, is executing a robust project to introduce at least 100,000 sorghum farmers in Dodoma region to Climate-Smart Agriculture techniques.
With the generous funding packages from Irish Aid, the Mastercard Foundation, and the World Food Programme, the ambitious project gives the farmers access to better seeds and improved post-harvest practices, among others.
“Despite facing dry conditions in 2023, through the project, the beneficiary farmers have achieved an incredible 300 percent increase in sorghum production. And they're now selling their sorghum for up to 780/-per kilo this year, compared to just 250/- per kilo three years ago,” Dan Collison, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Farm Africa expressed during his special tour of the farmers.
He expressed that, in the semi-arid region of Dodoma, most of the smallholder farmers rely on the sorghum they grow to feed their families, but low yields have regularly pushed people into hunger.
“An increasingly volatile climate endangers smallholders’ food security. Adopting improved sorghum varieties and production practices is vital in allowing the farmers to achieve a surplus, even in drought conditions,” he observed.
And the CEO informed that, during the first phase of the project which ran from 2019 to 2022 the sorghum growers in Dodoma were equipped with the skills , the development which assisted them to transform from subsistence to commercial agriculture and thus, saw them increasing productivity of sorghum farming by 30 percent.
“During the project’s first phase, we managed to support the involved farmers to adopt new techniques that boost yields, build resilience to extreme weather and protect the environment. Moreover, we train them in warehouses and cooperatives to process and store farmers’ produce,” he informed.
Moreover, he detailed that we support them to diversify crop production and develop long-term business plans to manage climate risks, as well as how best to use digital technology to provide farmers with market information so that they can decide when and how much to sell sorghum.
“There’s a potential market for sorghum, not only with Tanzania Breweries, but with buyers coming from all over the region, from Rwanda and South Sudan to source the high-quality grain, and thus, we have seen the need to empower the growers so that they can increased quality in order to fetch higher prices,” he insisted.
As part of the project’s key intervention, according to him, there’s a serious package to assist the farmers to attain value addition for their produce.
“For instance, during my visit I met a dynamic group of women in Ilinidi village, organised as the Mwagnaza Women’s Group, it has 28 members, it was established in 2019 and is now supported by Farm Africa. Through the project’s assistance, the group has figured out some new ways of adding value to their sorghum. Value addition means taking the original product and processing it to make something new, then selling it for more,” he detailed.
Dwelling over the project’s future plans, he communicated that the vision was to build on the successes and learning of the first phase.
“We will continue to support farmers in Dodoma to transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture as a way to boost economic growth and reduce poverty, but also, the project will further support the farmers to build their climate resilience and food security through better access to markets and value chains and sustainable management of natural resources,” Collison informed.
When the farmers are not growing sorghum, he added, they’re growing off-season vegetables, irrigating plots for tomatoes, onions and leafy greens that improve household incomes as well as dietary diversity.
“Word from the government agriculture extension agents, from the radio and the weather apps is that the El Niño charged November rains will be heavy and widespread, setting up a good 2024 harvest, we will work tirelessly to assist the farmers to yield bumper in this season,” he assured.
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