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Sesame marketing

Drought tolerant sesame Drought tolerant sesame

Sesame is the perfect crop to help farmers in northern Tanzania change their lives. It is drought tolerant, unlike maize and many of the other traditional crops in the region. It also has many uses in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals - creating a high demand both locally and internationally. 

We are helping more than 10,000 farmers in Babati, Bahi and Manyoni districts, to increase their incomes by growing and selling high-quality sesame. 

Growing, Processing, Selling, Sharing

The Sesame Project helps farmers learn all the skills they need to become successful entrepreneurs by:

  • helping farmers access high-quality sesame seeds to plant
  • providing training in the best agricultural techniques to help sesame thrive
  • teaching farmers the best ways to harvest their sesame and how to sort, clean, dry and package it for sale
  • supporting individual farmers to store their harvests collectively, to be sold in bulk. Selling in bulk ensures higher prices
  • setting up links with large-scale buyers who will pay a fair price
  • providing training in how to add value to sesame by turning it into products that can be sold locally, such as snacks, flour and oil
  • helping successful farmers learn how to share their knowledge with others, using smartphone technology

Pioneering the use of mobile technology

We are pioneering the use of mobile technology to train farmers in agronomic and business skills - a method which we've found to be more cost effective and with a bigger reach than demo plots. Read more about mobile learning.