Sowing seeds for the future in Dodoma, Tanzania

29 November 2023

Like most parents, Alex and Grace embrace every opportunity to improve their family’s quality of life. Being small-scale farmers in Dodoma, Tanzania, those opportunities have at times been few and far between.

Increasingly unreliable rainfall makes farming a risky business in this area. ‘If you plant sorghum or sunflower, and then you fail to get the rains, the crops will fail, so there is a total loss because there has been an investment in seed,’ Alex explains.

They also face challenges getting their produce to market and, having overcome that hurdle, there is another: ‘the market is selective, so if the product is not of great quality, you can’t access it’, says Alex.

Alex and Grace aren’t people who give up easily though, so when the opportunity arose for Alex to take part in Farm Africa’s Climate-Smart Agriculture project, funded by the World Food Programme, two years ago, they seized it.

Alex received training on how to improve the soil, proper use of fertiliser and pesticide, marketing and how to farm crops that are drought resilient, including sorghum.

‘Before joining the project, I was using local seeds. They weren’t good quality’, he explains. ‘Farm Africa taught me how to farm sorghum and supplied me with improved seed’.

He also received training on the use of irrigation and materials to help him get started. ‘That’s the best way to adapt to the changing climate,’ he says. ‘I can now produce maize in the dry season because I can irrigate. And maize is a source of income and a source of food for my family.’

The opening of a new vegetable market in Dodoma and Grace’s membership in a village savings and loan association has improved cashflow also.

Alex says life would be very different if he hadn’t received that push forward from Farm Africa. ‘You know, when you get support it makes a difference. Farm Africa pushed me to improve my life. Before, my income didn’t reach one million [Tanzanian Shillings (approximately £315)], now I reach from one to two million (£315-£630).’

With the additional income the family has expanded its farming operations and purchased a plot to build a home in the village.

As for future aspirations, Alex says ‘I want to keep practising farming in the best way possible. I want to know more about new technologies and to learn the newest ways of producing and selling my goods. I would also like to have a good house for my family and I want my kids to get a good education. I hope they get exactly what they want from life.’

You can give more farmers and their families across eastern Africa the best chance of a healthy harvest, even in the driest conditions, by making a donation today.