Improve the Competitiveness and Increase Post-Harvest Value Chain of Smallholder Farmers - TCP/URT/3604

Improve the Competitiveness and Increase Post-Harvest Value Chain of Smallholder Farmers - TCP/URT/3604

Editor

FAO ;

Descripción

The United Republic of Tanzania is a low-income rural economy, with most citizens participating in agriculture for household income generation. Agriculture represents about 23 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 30 percent of export earnings, and employs 66.9 percent of the working population. In 2000/01 agriculture accounted for 31 percent of GDP but has since fallen to 23 percent despite an annual GDP growth rate of 5-6 percent. The poor performance of the sector is caused by several factors, including poor extension services, financial illiteracy and inadequate access to financial services by smallholder farmers. In collaboration with MoA, the project aimed to address these challenges by improving the competitiveness and enhancing the post-harvest management capacity of VC (smallholder farmers and processors), building the management capacity of producers’ organizations, creating sustainable linkages with other agricultural VC actors, and improving post-harvest practices to enhance farmers’ competitiveness. The project also built linkages between farmer organizations (FOs) and other service providers, encouraging the development of a long-term market strategy and contributing to the national objective to increase agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty. The project was further expected to increase and stabilize the incomes of smallholder farmers producing paddy in Iringa district, building capacity in post-harvest handling and strengthening the commercial relationships between FOs and other rice VC actors. Market linkages between producer and other value chain actors such as traders and processors were established by the project, with 15 new linkages being forged.