Kilimo na Masoko” – “Farming for the Market” – a Pilot Project in Morogoro, Tanzania

This is a pilot project aimed at verifying the complementarity and synergy of the Rural Initiatives for Participatory Agricultural Transformation (RIPAT) approach, which is already being successfully implemented in Tanzania, and the Farmer Market School (FMS) approach, which has shown positive results in other countries. An encouraging result is expected as RIPAT and FMS are built on the same methodology and this will be a holistic approach to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The proposed project will be undertaken in Morogoro where there is an on-going RIPAT project.

While the RIPAT approach has proven to work well in bridging the agricultural technology gap for increased productivity, there are limitations in aspects related to agricultural marketing. Situation analysis conducted in the project areas revealed challenges related to crop and livestock marketing as well as production. The idea entailed in the proposed project is thus, as mentioned, to combine the RIPAT approach and the FMS approach in building the farmers’ capacity to produce and market their crops. FMS focuses on enabling smallholder farmers to explore and analyse the market to better understand the dynamics that determine the market and the value chains.