Partners Advance Smallholder Farmers’ Success

2010-11-15T17:13:20Z

Dar es Salaam, November 8, 2010. An exciting new partnership is helping farmers earn more by increasing yields, reducing production costs, and linking farmers to markets and agro processors. The Sustainable Horticulture for Incomes and Food security in Tanzania, (SHIFT) program, supported by by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by TechnoServe, has partnered with KickStart International to promote small-scale irrigation for smallholder farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

Through the SHIFT program, TechnoServe is working with KickStart, which manufactures and sells small scale irrigation equipment under the MoneyMaker brand, to further improve farmers’ yields of tomatoes and avocadoes. .

The key focus is to advance farmer productivity through demonstrations and trainings on small-scale irrigation technology for more than 4,000 farmers belonging to over 100 community farmer groups. This partnership supports the Kilimo Kwanza vision of Private sector led growth in agriculture by empowering agro dealers to facilitate farmer access to irrigation equipment. . MoneyMaker manually-operated irrigation pumps have been used by small scale farmers across Africa for more than a decade and have become very popular as a means for rural families to boost their incomes in Tanzania.

According to Dr. Alexandra Mandelbaum of SHIFT, “We know that helping the thousands of farmers with whom we work to move from the practice of watering with a bucket and rope to irrigating with a MoneyMaker pump will increase the productivity of their land under cultivation, and ultimately improve food security and raise farmer incomes.”

At one of the initial demonstrations in Kilolo District, Iringa, Jackson Mhanga, a farmer from Iyeyi Village, who bought a MoneyMaker pump 3 years ago, told the farmers gathered, “I now have a good looking house, cattle, good yield and now I can manage to send my daughters and sons to nice secondary schools to get a better education”.

KickStart’s Key Account Manager, Vitalis Kisandu, commented, “Partnering with quality organizations that look at solutions across the value-chain, like USAID and TechnoServe, perfectly aligns with our mission to help millions of people escape poverty. We know that TechnoServe provides top quality training, and access to markets. Our ability to introduce our smallscale irrigation solution to these farmers will reap dramatic improvements in their livelihoods.”

During another demonstration in Iringa, Mr. John Mrula told the gathered farmers, ”Now our shamba size and yield have increased a lot due to irrigating with the MoneyMaker Pump.”

USAID, TechnoServe and KickStart will work together during this project to introduce the benefits of small scale irrigation to more farmers in Iringa and Mbeya, specifically in the Kilolo, Iringa, Mbozi, Mbeya, Ileje, Rungwe and Njombe districts.

About TechnoServe: TechnoServe's mission is to build businesses that create jobs, income, opportunity, and economic growth in developing countries. Since its founding in 1968, the U.S.-based nonprofit has helped to create or expand thousands of businesses, benefiting millions of people in more than 40 countries. The Financial Times has rated TechnoServe one of the top five NGOs for corporate partnerships. TechnoServe’s corporate partners include Cargill, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Nestle-Nespresso, Olam International, Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Unilever, among others. Charity Navigator has also awarded its highest Four Star ranking to TechnoServe. Technoserve receives support from USAID Tanzania for a range of activities benefitting smallholder farmers and improving nutrition. For more information, visit: www.tns.org.

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Partners Advance Smallholder Farmers’ Success