Tanzania Mbeya
$71,604 needed of $110,000
Implementing Organization
Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
Program Summary
This program uses a holistic household approach to improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers through:
- The formation and strengthening of business-oriented, member-driven and democratic farmer organizations as transparent and professional service providers to their members;
- Improvement of the overall marketing performance through value addition, efficient linkages to financial institutions, marketing agencies, exporters and international traders;
- Capacity development of farmer organizations to represent the interests of their members in front of local and national government bodies and be able to effectively lobby for a conducive and inclusive business environment for the coffee sector;
- Enabling farmers to significantly improve farm management practices, while enhancing crop quality through improved practices, management and control;
- Facilitating access for smallholders to adequate knowledge and instruments that enable them to apply and finance effective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies to ensure food security and support income diversification;
- Promoting participation of all members of a household to benefit equitably from cash and food crop production and marketing thereby achieving sustainable household development. This includes the support of young people to gain skills and find meaningful employment in a more modernized, dynamic, productive, and profitable agriculture sector.
Tanzania Mbeya Program Overview
Success Stories
Two Heads Are Better than One
Juhudi is chair of his farmers group, a member of a Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC), and has greatly improved his farm yields by participating in many training opportunities. Yet one of the things he values most highly from all the improvements in his life is what he now knows about gender equality and equity.
He says, “Before becoming involved in this program, I used to make all household decisions on my own, completely disregarding any input from my wife, Fatima. But after getting gender education, I have now come to understand that we are equal and my spouse should be involved in any issues concerning our household. She has great ideas, and things between us and for the whole family are better now that I can see the situation from her perspective.”
Through effective collaboration with Fatima, they managed to buy a quarter-acre plot in a nearby village by selling tomatoes grown there until they had paid off the loan. Through continued healthy discussions, they have decided to build a small house in that village for rental income.
As Juhudi puts it, “Our SILC group encourages us to save some of what we earn from our tomato sales. When we get our savings at the end of the cycle, we can take out loans for establishing and strengthening our businesses and to handle other household needs that arise. Saving was new to us, and so was being able to take out low-interest loans.”
“We are both so grateful to have been invited to take part in this transformative program. We look forward to more training on life skills like these, since we realize that education is never-ending, and definitely improves our lives.”
Tanzania Mbeya
Led by Catholic Relief Services