Kili team visits sesame farmers group

06 September 2012

It’s day 2 for the Kilimanjaro Challenge climbers since they landed in Tanzania.

Before the trek starts the team has travelled to Babati in northern Tanzania to see Farm Africa’s Sesame Marketing Project. The project is training farmers in better farming practices and marketing skills so they can transform their sesame farming into thriving businesses. 

Driving from the airport to Babati, team member Sian Davies marvelled at ‘innovative’ local farmers who are growing maize, cotton, cow peas, sesame, coffee as well as tending to ‘millions’ of goats.

Yesterday the team heard from farmers at our Sesame Project who are benefitting from storage centres for their sesame. The storage facilities mean farmers can wait for good market prices before selling their crop in bulk. NFU Policy Director Martin Howarth described what he’d seen as ‘inspiring’.

And today the team visited the Nysanga Farmers Group which is beginning to benefit from its involvement in Farm Africa’s Sesame Project. They met Teresia Wilbrod who, thanks to training in better farming and marketing, has significantly increased her sesame harvests and income. The Kilimanjaro team saw for themselves the difference this has made to Teresia’s family when they visited the home she and her family used to live in, before seeing the new home she has built thanks to the extra income from her increasing sesame harvests.

The team will soon be swapping their flip flops and sandals for the climb itself which starts on Saturday. Team member Andy Jones admitted to being a bit ‘perturbed’ when he looked out of the plane en route to Tanzania and realised the peak was the same height as the aeroplane!

Find out more about the Kilimanjaro Challenge and how you can make a donation.

Learn more about Farm Africa's Sesame Marketing Project.