Carter Center Global Health Efforts - Tanzania

Activities By Country

Fighting Disease: Tanzania

Increasing Food Production

From 1988 to 2005, The Carter Center collaborated with the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture to increase food security. The Tanzanian program was part of a joint venture between the Carter Center's Global 2000 Program and the Sasakawa Africa Association, led by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug. The effort has helped more than 8 million sub-Saharan African small-scale farmers to improve agricultural production.

During the 2002-2003 farming season, the program worked with communities to demonstrate soil fertility restoration technologies. Workshops were held on quality protein maize cultivation, and the program hosted frequent field days – events where farmers learn about new farming techniques as a community.

To combat Tanzania's erratic rainfall, the program experimented with different cultivation methods and drought-resistant produce to see which were most successful in the often inhospitable conditions. Among the experimental crops were: pigeon peas, maize, mucuna, lablab, and sorghum.

In 2003-2004, most parts of the country, particularly the northeastern and central regions, received insufficient rainfall, which resulted in an overall food deficit of about 10 percent. Irrigation offers a means of reducing the dependency on rain, thereby stabilizing food crop production and reducing the risks of food shortages. It is also a sustainable option for increasing agricultural production and productivity. In response to these needs, in August 2004, SG 2000 organized and sponsored a training course on rainwater harvesting and construction of underground water storage tanks in the village of Makanya, in Same district. This demonstrated the options available to small-scale farmers to increase water availability at household level.

The course was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security through the Participatory Agricultural Development and Empowerment Project – a five-year project run by MAFS and financed by a credit fund from the World Bank. In total, 12 trainees from Babati, Hai, Hanang, Iramba, Karatu, Kiteto, Same, Singida, and Uyui district councils, as well as from MAFS, participated in the training course. These participants are now able to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills to demonstrate the water-harvesting technology in their respective districts.

Additionally, farmers have learned new animal maneuvers and techniques that help them better control their oxen during cultivation. Credit was provided for fertilizers and seeds so that farmers can grow production test plots. Following successful harvests, which usually exceed previous harvests by 200 to 400 percent, the farmers teach their neighbors about the new technologies, creating a ripple effect to stimulate food self-sufficiency in the nation.

Adopting new technologies to improve crop yields is only half the battle as farmers then must find ways to sell their surplus crops. The Tanzania program helped farmers identify local markets for these surpluses, because transporting them can be costly and inefficient. For example, local breweries are using homegrown maize or sorghum to decrease barley imports. The program also focused on post-harvest technologies, including methods for processing and storing grains. Tanzania's post-harvest program was so effective that it became a regional showpiece, with program workers from Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zambia traveling to visit storage sites in Tanzania. Developing these "exchange" programs was one way for other national program participants to benefit from the success and expertise of their neighbors.

However, the new cultivation methods are not sustainable unless Tanzanian farmers can continue to get credit independently for developing their farms now that the SG 2000 Program is completed. A solution for this problem was established in Benin in the mid-1990s: village-based savings and loan organizations. These rural banks are part of a new movement in Africa to provide farmers in remote areas with the credit they need to purchase new crops, tools, and fertilizers. Tanzania established its first of these organizations in 1997.

Overall, Tanzanian farmers were developing and sustaining their farms at a highly encouraging rate, so much so that the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center asked SG 2000 to assist with production of an educational video. The video project focused on one particularly successful crop, quality protein maize. Interviews with farmers, researchers, and government officials during field visits, field days, and workshops will inform farmers who may be interested in planting quality protein maize on their farms.

In one interview, Eshimedhi A Lema, a farmer who had experimented with feeding quality protein maize to her pigs, commented, "I am surprised at the big differences in pig growth between normal maize and quality protein maize. Quality protein maize can help us to increase our income through breeding livestock."

These successes and others in agricultural development programming led SG 2000 to end its in-country agricultural activities in Tanzania in September 2004.