Postcard from… Tanzania: Mobile technology brings training to the homes of 500 sesame farmers

05 October 2015

Tanzania’s Babati region is well suited to sesame production, and since 2010 Farm Africa has been helping farmers living there to increase the size and quality of their harvest. Traditionally training has been delivered at demonstration plots – where farmers can learn new cultivation and harvesting techniques first-hand.

But this all changed in November 2013 when Farm Africa trialled an innovative new way of training farmers using tablet computers. Our ten champion farmers were able to take their new ‘portable demo plots’ to around 500 farmers, allowing them to view training modules relevant to key milestones in the sesame growing season.

“First, planting process: how it’s done and what time to do it,” explains Cecilia, one of our champion farmers. “As it gets towards harvest and the sesame turns yellow, we show the farmer how to cut the sesame then stack it to avoid pests. We then instruct in proper storage before going on to teach how to market it.”

The feedback from the majority of farmers was very positive. Many believed that being able to access the training in their own time, and having the opportunity to view sessions more than once, was extremely useful.

Our champion famers also reaped the benefits. “The good thing is the flexibility,” says Cecilia. “It means I can fit looking after my two children, a four-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl, around my work.”

By using mobile technology, Farm Africa can deliver the same learning outcomes to farmers at a third of the cost. Yet we still have a lot to learn about using this technology to reach smallholder farmers at scale. Recent funding from Comic Relief means that research into this new phase of our work in the sesame sector is now possible.

Find out more in Farm Africa’s report Mobile Technology and Improved Sesame Cultivation.