Smallholder Farmer Training - Update

Our Community Agriculture Support Officers (CASOs) provide invaluable services to their communities, supporting over 300 farmers with training, advice and basic veterinary care. One such farmer, Richard, has farmed maize for many years and had become increasingly disheartened by the fruits of his labour. Richard witnessed neighbouring farmers working with a CASO and prospering, so he decided to seek out their advice. They discussed the potential for different agricultural projects and alternative crops that might offer a more regular income and, after adopting the CASO's advice, Richard embarked upon tomato production. The CASO provided Richard with training and they established a tomato plot, building high planting ridges that would allow for easy drainage and created a frame made out of locally sourced bamboo and string to support the plants as they grew.

Richard set up a temporary home at the plot to watch over his crop, protecting them from the hippos from the local lake. With the support of the CASO Richard took immense care of his tomatoes, weeding the beds and tending to the plants daily and closely monitoring for disease.

In Babati farmers often struggle to cultivate tomatoes successfully in the wet season when heavy rain and flooding can cause large scale loss of crops. As a result those who can produce successfully during this challenging season are able to secure a good income. Richard has been hugely successful in this new project and has just begun harvesting his tomatoes, already making nearly 1,000,000 Tsh from just 12 crates of tomatoes and hopes to harvest a further 100 crates over the next month.

Richard said “We’ve had lots of rains over the last few weeks and I was very worried, I saw other farmers losing too much of their crop, but here we have made sure the beds are high to keep the tomatoes safe from the rain and are using lots of wire to support the fruits and keep them off the ground. Tomato production is good but it is a lot of work. Last week I was feeling very unsure as we hadn’t started harvesting so I didn’t know if it would be good financially but now that the first round of harvesting is done I’m feeling very fresh. Many people are now coming here to visit too, as they are hearing about what I am doing.” Richard is now sharing his knowledge with other community members who are seeing his success. To date Richard has shared his skills with 36 other farmers in the community.