Mwenyekiti wa kijiji akimwelezea Afisa Mradi “kesi ilitusumbua sana lakini tunamshukuru Mungu tumeshinda kesi hivi sasa tunafanya juhudi za kuwatoa kwenye eneo hilo japo wanagoma kuwa wanataka kukata rufaa”

Village Chairperson said “Tumejitahidi kupambana na wavamizi wa maeneo ya malisho kwa kuendesha kesi mbalimbali na tumefanikiwa kushinda ila wavamizi wamekataa kuachia maeneo hayo ya malisho ila tunaendelea na hatua zingine”.

The village leaders were very thankful for the cooperation from  COSITA through CARE and other villagers members who contributed to the processes during the case and removal of invaders but still invaders hold the pieces of land and use for their own purposes mostly farming. Pastoralists need more support so that this could contribute to the efforts which are being made towards fighting and protecting their potential resources.

Project Title: Improving Smallholders’ Livelihood through Sesame Value Chain Project phase III  

Improving Smallholders’ livelihood through sesame value chain phase III is a project funded by Farm Africa through Comic Relief Fund and implemented by COSITA in close collaboration with Babati town district and town councils especially experts from Department of agriculture, irrigation and cooperatives. The project is implemented in 7 wards of Babati district namely; Mamire (Mamire, Endagile and Mwikantsi), Endakiso (Endakiso, Kwaraa and Gijedabung), Galapo (Ayamango, Gedamar and Halu), Qash (Orng’adida, Endadosh and Majengo), Maisaka (Malangi and Kiongozi), Sigino (Imbilili and Daghailoy) as well as Mutuka (Mutuka and Chemchem).

Project goal; To reduce poverty through increased household income of 2,000 Smallholder farmers and 20 entrepreneurs in Babati district by June 2018.

The project purpose;To sustainably improve production, quality management, and marketing practices and incorporate smallholders into the sesame value chain while at the same time contributing to the COSITA’s specific objective 2, i.e. to undertake community based livestock and agriculture development initiatives towards poverty alleviation.

Project implementation results under each specific objective;

Objective1:  Increased sesame production by 50% in Babati, through increased knowledge and application of effective practices.

Outcome 1: Increased production of sesame by 0.5 tons per acre, and increased production of high quality sesame by 50%

Mobilization of farmers into farmers business groups (FBGs) and trainings on best practices; to ensure increase in sesame production, COSITA has organized Smallholder farmers into eighty two (82) farmers’ business groups (FBGs) comprising of 2014 members to the time of this report, in which they have been provided with extension services especially trainings on good agronomic practices/ best practices in all stages of sesame production namely; proper farm/ land preparation, use of quality seeds especially Lindi 02 mostly competitive in the market, proper spacing and row planting, timely weeding and thinning, pest management and post-harvest handling techniques i.e. purity and moisture content.

 Apart from trainings there are also established demonstration plots (18 plots) in the project villages whereby farmers had a chance to learn GAPs in a practically way by attending demonstration days in their respective villages, during the demonstrations farmers were required to participate in all stage of sesame production namely; planting (learn ratios of mixing seeds with sand and row planting), weeding, thinning, pesticide and fertilizer   applications. 

Quality declared seed (QDS) multiplication; the project has also addressed lack of improved sesame seeds that were facing smallholder farmers in the area; COSITA in close collaboration with district seed inspectors and Tanzania official seed certification institute (TOSCI) facilitated twelve (12) seed multipliers (among the FBGs) to produce quality declared seeds during the 2015/2016 farming season to address lack of improved sesame seed among the smallholder farmers in Babati. Selection of competent farmers was done in collaboration with extension officers in the project villages and therefore trained on the basic principles of quality seed production, after training their farms were inspected by TOSCI to make sure they meet the standards. After farm inspection farmers (seed multipliers) were supported by the project by providing them with foundation seeds from Agriculture seed agency (ASA). On top of that TOSCI and district seed inspectors were in close supervision through regular visits and/ assessments. After harvest, COSITA submitted seed samples for each seed multiplier to TOSCI for laboratory test (germination and purity) and certification the step that was followed by seed packaging and labeling. To the time of this report, the total of 1486 kilograms of sesame quality seeds were produced and sold to sesame farmers in Babati.

Integration of ICT into sesame best practices; the project has facilitated ToT among the smallholder farmers whereby lead farmers were selected from among the FBGs and were trained on the use of smartphones and the Application which has already been installed in those smartphones namely Kplus, the lead farmers became trainers after being imparted with the skills and provided with smartphones’ loans whereby Farm donates part of the cost as an incentive and each trainer has to repay the loan in kind by training 75 farmers (must be non FBgs members). The technology (Kplus) will enable trainers to reach more than 1500 farmers in 17 project villages.

Objective2: Increased income from trading for 2,000 SH & 20 Community entrepreneurs (CEs) through Improved Market linkages in Babati.

Outcome 2; Increase in household incomes by 40% and increase in buyers sourcing quality sesame from farmers in Babati district.

The results achieved under outcome 2 for the period of January - December 2016 were the following;

1. Training of FBGs on business skills and financial management; total of 513 (208 men and 305 women)  FBGs members  from phase 3 project areas were capacitated on the business and financial management skills, farm  record keeping and training on cost benefits analysis as they carryout sesame farming and end price settings at individual and FBGs level.
2. Twenty one (21) Community entrepreneurs (CEs) were identified and capacitated; the process of identification was done in close collaboration with the Agricultural extension Officers from the villages within which project operates. The CEs were oriented on CE’s model and  capacitated through training on business/ finance, management, market research, sales and marketing practices, presentation skills and logistics management.
3. Linked sesame farmers with buyers; Sesame III team in Babati identified potential buyers and linked them with CEs, District Sesame Framers Platform leaders and Mbugwe AMCOS during the training to CEs on business/ finance, management, market research, sales and marketing practices, presentation skills and logistics management. The buyers had a chance to tell meeting members the initial price they can afford, the collection method to be used and their readiness to work with CEs as their agents and the qualities that a CE should have to meet the companies’ standards and the main quality the CEs should have to be able to access fund from a company is that the amount of the fund she /he request should be equal to the value of the asserts she / he owns, companies/ buyers engaged were; ELISTE, QPE, Export Traders, MCI Company, and Bajwa Farmers and traders company. After the meeting with QPE, the members requested to see the quality of the sesame produced at the farmers’ levels.

4.  Agricultural and trade show (Nanenane); Agriculture and trade shows (Nanenane) is a one week fair that takes place every year in august and it commences on 1^st of August and ends on 8^th of August which took place in Arusha for the northern zone (Arusha, Manyara and Kilimanjaro), the event was  organized by Tanzania Agricultural Society (TASO). In the Nanenane Agricultural Exhibition, farmers and other agricultural stakeholders (e.g. Universities and Research Institutes, inputs manufacturers and suppliers) showcase new technologies, ideas, discoveries and alternative solutions concerning the agricultural sector. Nanenane is a fair where government and private firms present their services and activities to the public. COSITA took part in the trade show in this season of 2016; the project facilitated a total of seventeen (17) farmers who will promote/ advertise sesame products to different people in the East Africa’s markets at the same time gaining new skills and technological advancement in sesame production, value addition and marketing.

5. Objective 4: Greater equality between men and women and inclusion of young people in sesame value chain activities.

   Outcomes 4;

   Increased young people and women active in sesame farming, and increase in number of women farmers solely/jointly responsible for managing their income as well as improved attitudes of farmers towards female participation in marketing activities.

   The results achieved under outcome 4 for the period of January - December 2016 are highlighted here under as follows;

The quarterly financial management workshop was conducted to female FBGs with their husbands including session on HIV awareness; the training was conducted in May, 2016 purposely to impart farmers with skills on marketing, and how they were supposed to spend the income they raised from sesame (to invest it/ prioritize capital goods instead of consumer goods), gender equality in relation to sesame farming to ensure women farmers solely/jointly responsible for managing their income; the training was conducted once during the year due to scarce budget available for the item. The number of people directly reached during the training was 513, disaggregated as (208 men and 305 women).

  Identification & capacity building training to gender role players in the project villages; COSITA has conducted one day training to the identified individuals with capacity to influence and sensitize communities on gender equality and inclusion of women and young people in sesame value chain. To make it effective, the team has decided to formulate the structure in the project villages i.e. gender role players  (male and female) and enhanced their capacity through one day training purposely to conduct sensitization to change community mind set on the value of women and youth with agriculture as well as their inclusion in sesame value chain, marketing as well as joint decision making on the households’ resources namely; land, livestock, finances and so forth that affects their livelihoods. The main theme of the training was to capacitate the identified individuals, who will be responsible to sensitize communities on gender equality in the project areas, prepare work plan for gender role players for each project village being implemented by role players and later on COSITA Staff lead by M&E Officer will make follow up on its implementation (see the matrix bellow for work plans). 

It is obviously a voluntary work, inspiration talks/ debates to the target community groups, local campaign like structure aiming at changing community behavior and mindset so that they can develop positive attitude on the value of gender with agriculture. 

Project testimonies

Tittle; CE’s Model Transforms Entrepreneurs’ Income, the Success Story of Ndemulikiwa Mbise

Ndemulikiwa Mbise, is a female CE aged 45 years old also a Secretary for one of the farmers business group (FBG) at Malangi namely Nivushe. She is a farmer and also an entrepreneur, before attending training on business and market engagement conducted by COSITA in close collaboration with Cooperatives Officers from Babati town council, she used to engage in petty trade in the village, she had her small shop at home and was also buying and selling clothes especially ‘vitenge’ while she spend a lot of time by vising the customers at their homes.

The kind of business she used to do was tough and consumes a lot of her time, she was sometimes getting loss as some customers were buying in advance and pay later while some of them were not trustworthy/ truthful. In June 2016 Ndemulikiwa started buying sesame whereby she succeed to buy only five bags from which she generated a profit of  Tsh. 20,000/= per bag, she didn’t get a national buyer to sign MoU with and she stop buying sesame.

In August, 2016 COSITA linked 7 CEs with national buyer to engage in pigeon peas business, she agreed with MCI Company from Mwanza to aggregate pigeon where she collected 47.114 tons of pigeon and was able to make a total net profit of Tsh. 1,083,622 i.e. Tsh. 23/kg of pigeon and all 7 CEs were able to collect a total of 414 tons for MCI Company. She confess that she is committed to continue with the business and was very thankful to COSITA team and Farm Africa by designing the model as it brings benefits not only to individuals but community as whole as it reduces a long chain between national buyers and farmers, the model has less setback to farmers as CEs uses the inspected weigh scale by weight and measures authority (WMA).