Farm Africa’s Youth and women in agribusiness project, funded by Mastercard Foundation through the World Food Programme, aims to sustainably increase the incomes of over 60,000 young and female farmers in Tanzania’s Dodoma and Singida regions. Farmers like the Nyota 3 youth group (pictured above)!

Our project team has been working with these budding farmers to improve agricultural production techniques and seed varieties, as well as giving them better access to climate technologies that will affect their crops. The youth group has been developing their business managing a productive horticultural garden, using the financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills they’ve learnt as part of the project.

Together, they have cultivated an area of about a quarter of an acre and are growing tomatoes! As popular in Tanzania as they are in the UK, quality tomatoes can command a good price and are ideal for succession sowing, ensuring repeat harvests throughout the season. The first time they harvested 12 crates of tomatoes and sold them at 33,000 Tanzanian Shilling (TZS) a crate and the second time they got six crates and sold at 35,000 TZS per crate, giving them a gross profit of £190! Their harvests will continue until February and the group harvest at weekly intervals.

The tomatoes are picked whilst they are still green to ensure they ripen perfectly in time to be sold at the market. The group is particularly excited as the price of tomatoes looks set to rise steeply over the next few months, encouraging them as they go into the next season, and proving that a little grit and knowledge go a long way to tackling big problems.