Smallholder farmers in Mbozi district, Mbeya region faces one of the highest post-harvest loses on maize crop due to poor storage facilities and inadequate markets. Maize is the important food and cash crop in the Southern Highlands including the Mbozi district. Given the significant role played by MVIWATA in formation, grassroots group and network organisation and mobilization, smallholder farmers including members of MVIWATA have witnessed fruitful results despite of the prevailing challenges. Iganya smallholder farmers’ grassroots association is among the exemplary case of farmers’ networks that managed to control post-harvest losses thanks to initiatives done by MVIWATA.

Iganya famers’ grassroots association is an umbrella of smallholder farmers at Iganya village formed on August 2015, the association is composed of four groups (Tulinje, Upendo, Tunaweza and Subira) with 140 (80 women and 60 male) members. Upon its establishment (thanks to MVIWATA efforts), the association did little on matters of collective actions. Through different intervention conducted by MVIWATA including formation and exchange visits, members’ activeness increased which led to increased mobilization and organisation of the association.

Through association’s collective actions in 2018, the association stored 400 bags of maize to Unyiha associates, which weighed 40 tonnes for the aim of selling at a better price. Later on, the maize were sold collectively at the price of 580 per kilogram, while other farmers (not in the association) at iganya village sold maize at Tsh 490 per kilogram with a difference of 90 Tsh. This was made possible thanks to interventions made by MVIWATA including business-to-business meetings with Unyiha associates and NFRA. The income generated because of collective efforts and coordination motivated farmers to cultivate more maize.  

Apart from the reliable market accessed, MVIWATA also organized formations that created awareness on the proper post-harvest handling of maize especially on the use of hermetic bags, as opposed to liquid icteric as a method used by smallholder farmers that had negative health impacts. Members went further explaining that MVIWATA interventions has reduced storage cost because due to absence of the warehouse in Iganya village farmers had to rent warehouses, buy agro-chemicals and pay the security guard but currently they have found a warehouse to store the crops without incurring the mentioned costs.

“Farming is my life, I have been farming since my childhood, recently, thanks to MVIWATA efforts and despite of the challenges in marketing I can see the profit of my work.  Through association’s collective efforts post-harvest handling on maize crops and in selling our maize we have been able witness increased income,  me specifically, I have been able to buy a motorcycle and added one more acre for cultivation in the next season.”

Rural roads are often treated as the last link of the transport network. Despite this, they often form the most important link in terms of providing access for the rural population. Their permanent or seasonal absence acts as a crucial factor in terms of the access of rural communities to basic services such as education, primary health care, water supply, local markets and economic opportunities.

By understanding this crucial role of public infrastructures including rural roads, MVIWATA in collaboration with government authorities is organizing trainings on social accountability monitoring (SAM) to smallholder farmers. The trainings are a means to facilitate farmers through their grassroots networks to act as change agents in advocating for proper implementation of public infrastructures like irrigation schemes, rural roads, health and market centres to mention few.

In Ludewa district, Njombe region in the southern highlands of Tanzania, road deterioration due to lack of regular maintenance has become a growing issue in a number of wards and villages. The problem has been discussed at length by farmers’ grassroots groups and networks and the results of a lack of regular maintenance have been well defined and quantified. Nevertheless, the extent of the problem is not fully appreciated and the solutions are still not commonly understood. Equally, the measures required to rectify the shortcomings are under-estimated.

As a result of trainings and follow-up meetings conducted by MVIWATA on social accountability monitoring (SAM) or O and OD for and by farmers’ groups and networks of MVIWATA in Milo, Mapogoro and Mavala villages, and in collaboration with governmemt authorities including a ward councilor Mr. Robert Njavike, and village officers and meetings held at village levels, a road connecting the three villages has been constructed and repaired in some of its parts.

This has been due to the follow – up made by farmers’ groups and networks on the rural roads projects in Ludewa districts. The accessibility of this road throughout the season has influenced positive changes in the three wards, notably better price for farmers’ crops, accessibility of social services (health and education) and other economic opportunities.

Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) is an advocacy strategy used by MVIWATA to influence activism among farmers’ grassroots networks in defense of their interests in all aspects of life. This strategy has proven to be useful and reliable given the impacts it has in areas where farmers’ groups and networks members of MVIWATA in collaboration with government authorities have applied and executed. The SAM strategy aligns with MVIWATA’s strategy; “the defender of a farmers is a farmer”.

“I know that I am privileged to listen and follow different programs aired through MVIWATA FM”, says Odilia Jiovin, a farmer from Kilosa District, known for production and marketing of sunflower, coconut, sugarcane, and sisal in the Morogoro region of Tanzania. “I always take the initiative to share the information with my fellow farmers in our community and apply the knowledge shared through the radio on my farm where other farmers come and learn too,” she says.

MVIWATA is the Swahili acronym for the National Network of Small-Scale Farmers Groups in Tanzania and the group began operating a radio service in August 2020. It is supported by the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) which is a partnership involving the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and other partners.

To improve her knowledge in farming, Odilia relies on listening to MVIWATA FM’s agricultural radio programs, and this has helped her as well as other farmers to learn better farming skills. The agricultural advisory services have been made easy for Odilia and other farmers through the radio service as they get to learn, ask questions, and gain knowledge that they later apply to their farms.

Radio as the voice of the voiceless

MVIWATA FM attracts smallholder farmers, youth and other marginalized groups, reaching approximately 250,000 people in the rural and urban areas of Tanzania. The radio station has designed its programs to focus on information, education, knowledge sharing, and entertainment related to agricultural practices, and fills the gap left by mainstream media outlets that provide only limited coverage of issues relevant to rural people.

Listeners can tune in to programs produced by a team of journalists who work closely with MVIWATA, and the airwaves also carry recordings of farming community group meetings.

Better production, better lives for family farmers

The various agricultural practices shared through MVIWATA FM have significantly helped farmers to improve farm preparation and pest management, which has helped ensure higher yields. Odilia says that MVIWATA FM programs, like Uzalishaji endelevu (Sustainable Production), taught her about integrated pest management, a low-cost and effective method which she applied in her horticultural farm and which saved her crops, and her money.

Educational programs and information sessions have also supported farmers at the community level. In Ilonga village in Kilosa distric, for example, information on the process of participatory planning helped the community to request a budget for the construction of a health centre. As a result, the central government has allocated some funds for the construction in the 2021/2022 budget.

Other program topics have included crop diversification, market access, social accountability, and handling land disputes.

The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) supports MVIWATA to share information with family farmers through the radio, sensitizing them on new processes and better farming techniques to improve their livelihoods. The FFF is a partnership between FAO, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and AgriCord, and was launched in 2012 to improve rural farming, forestry, and farmers’ organizations through collective action. Supporting rural radio, FFF has increased its positive impact and ensured the active engagement of a wide range of family farmers in rural Tanzania and in other African countries.

The delegation from MVIWATA Headquarters together with the delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FA0) – Tanzania, under Farm and Forest Facility (FFF) paid a visit to members of MVIWATA at Mapogoro and Mavala villages, Ludewa District, Njombe region in the Southern Highlands part of Tanzania.

The visit aimed to learn and familiarize on the interventions done by family farmers’ groups and network members of MVIWATA in the respective areas on aspects of forest farming, collective actions on marketing, fair trade and financial services managed by farmers (Village Community Banks). The delegations were able to learn in both villages, where more than 50 acres of trees have been planted on bare lands as part of the environmental conservation and forest farming initiatives.

Similarly, these family farmers’ groups and networks are practicing collective market efforts and value addition initiatives on forest products with the aim of catering for better prices and market for their produces.  The groups and networks also uses their financial services namely village community banks to finance their interventions.

Networking among farmers’ groups and network members of MVIWATA in aspects of collective actions, farmers’ managed financial services and environmental conservation are among the key goals of MVIWATA.

Travelers under rural tourism programme of MVIWATA have an opportunity to visit rural based smallholder farmers (host families) in their villages and share, exchange and experience rural day-to-day life. This is made possible through well developed tour itineraries that puts almost 75 percent of a traveler’s time in rural areas and the 25 percent is structured for national parks, museums and town tours. Travelers have an opportunity to experience local food, accommodation, cultural and traditional practices, view the local environment, landscape and visit rural family farming projects.

In this way, tourists offer an alternative source of income to farming for rural communities while exchanging progressive ideas and knowledge. The Rural Tourism Programme is run in partnership between Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA) and TAMADI, a non-profit organisation that organizes solidarity travel programmes. The programme began in 2014 and is currently inactive because of the global pandemic. It is soon expected to resume its operations.

The Rural Tourism Programme is a fairly an emerging new concept in the tourism industry in many parts of the world including Tanzania. The most known concept of tourism is classical tourism where tourists, mostly outbound tourists visits national parks and museums as their primary tourism products. In classical tourism, local communities are mostly viewed as tour products.

Most of the large investments in classical tourism be it accommodation facilities and tour companies and operators are owned and managed by foreign investors, mostly where tourists come from. This means foreign investors are the main recipient of the money generated through classical tourism.

The rural tourism programme at MVIWATA was adopted because of its progressiveness and its center of attention on the rural smallholder farmers as opposed to classical tourism. The programme also helps in improving family farmers’ livelihoods; strengthen farmer groups and networks through the exchange of cultural and traditional experiences between farmers and travelers from different backgrounds but share common values notably on collective actions, fair trade and agro-ecology.

MVIWATA is collaborating with TAMADI a French based solidarity tourism organization to strengthen the linkage between family farmers’ groups and solidarity travelers. The program is effected in 16 villages from 7 regions of Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Tanga, Morogoro, Dodoma and Zanzibar.  

The Rural Tourism Programme was established in these areas because of the availability of active family farmer groups and network members of MVIWATA, the richness of their cultural practices, and the well-conserved environment and landscape. MVIWATA being aware of the negative impacts of classical tourism realized that it is important for family farmers to have an alternative tourism activity that will also act as a source of income to family farmers while it conserves the environment and culture of the natives.

Therefore, the concept was initiated to enable the grassroots family farmers’ groups and network to conserve and appreciate their heritage.

A tourism activity that puts family farmers groups and networks at the center of its operations?

Prior to the establishment of the programme, smallholder family farmers and members of MVIWATA have for long developed knowledge sharing platforms among themselves through periodic groups and networks meeting, and exchange visits among farmers’ groups and networks. MVIWATA members’ through grassroots farmers’ groups and networks have practiced collective actions on marketing, knowledge sharing on agro-ecological farming systems and fair trade.

The establishment of rural tourism programme at MVIWATA came to strengthen these efforts by capitalizing on the already established farmers’ groups and networks. Travelers were thought to be part of this network, and network members could share their experience with travelers notably on matters of traditional farming practices, traditional food and beverages, handicrafts, environmental conservation, and traditional dances and practices.

Solidarity travelers also shares their experiences on strengthening rural unions, sustaining local inheritance, strengthening the management of farmers’ production and processing cooperatives by buying farmers products, and supporting the struggle for access to land and livelihood resources. The programme also draws inspiration from the idea that travelling can provide learning opportunities and insights into one’s own self.

The objective of this programme is the mutual enrichment of both the travelers, who are not only observers, and the hosts, who are not only service providers, but also both, are important players in creating and sharing their experiences.  The TAMADI-MVIWATA rural tourism programme is about getting to know the other through sharing daily life, meeting families, discovering villages and keeping in mind the necessity of respecting the environment, as well as the way of life and values held by others.

Accommodation and meals are shared modestly, with priority given to local food and produce consumption, and local transport (bus, train, taxi, and cart) provides a good opportunity for travelers to see the landscape and meet people at the grassroots. Through these visits, both travelers and hosts are confronted by their pre-conceptions.

Programme activities are managed transparently, and there is an agreement that precisely defines the responsibilities and revenues of each party. Financial transparency between hosts’ members of the grassroots network is a compulsory principle. Guides, interpreters, host families, local organizations and national coordinators are paid fairly for their services. At the same time, host families and local farmers’ organizations have to consider community-based tourism as a secondary revenue generating activity.

Profits obtained through rural tours are re-invested to strengthen the rural development programme activities of those involved.

The rural tourism programme, what are the grassroots farmers’ experiences?

Mlidhani Hatuwezi is a farmers’ group in Pongwe, Zanzibar, and is found in one of the 16 villages involved in the Rural Tourism Programme. The group has 35 members who are engaged in algae farming, goat and poultry keeping. Processing on soap production using materials from algae farms is also part of the group’s business

The Mlidhani Hatuwezi farmers group offers food, accommodation and agricultural, handicraft and cultural demonstrations to visitors. The tourists pay a considerably amount to the group members. The income obtained is divided among group members and some is kept to support their agricultural activities using the group’s bank account. Because of these income generation initiatives, group membership has increased from 20 to 35. Also many other farmers’ groups have been initiated at Pongwe village.

The group has been able to increase their number of goats from 5 to 33, and their chickens from 10 to 70; the number of algae farms has also increased from 2 to 17. The group is now in a project to construct a building that will be used as both a group’s office and an algae farm store. Indirect benefits have been to health and sanitation through the construction of toilets and hygiene trainings, as Bi Asha, the Mlidhani Hatuwezi chairperson from Pongwe, explains: “As a smallholder farmer I feel proud being visited by out-bound travelers in my village. We demonstrate our day-to-day activities on aspects of farming, traditional foods and beverages, handicrafts and culture.

As a farmer, I never dreamed of interacting with out-bound travelers, let alone sharing our local foods with them. It is a great privilege because we are used to see them staying in luxury hotels here in Zanzibar, but this project has enriched and made us proud of our culture and values. Our translators help us overcome language problems so we can communicate with tourists.”

The rural tourism initiative has proved to be a sustainable means of livelihood improvement in the villages involved in the programme.

What are some of the other notable impacts of the programme?

Since its establishment in 2014, host families have received an income of over 100 million TZS ($43,478) for serving food, providing accommodation and demonstrating local activities and traditions to travelers. At the same time, farmer network groups received over 30 million TZS ($13,000).

These funds have helped improve the livelihoods of the host families involved as maintenance and replacements of latrines, beds, mattresses, and mosquito nets have been bought and constructed in their houses. Cultural traditions and heritages have been enhanced and celebrated more frequently, and trees have been planted in the villages to improve the environment and protect water catchment areas.

Local farmers, authorities and villagers have internalized practices enhanced to them by MVIWATA through its rural tourism programme on aspects of environmental conservation and cultural heritage protection and development as local tour products. This includes improving accessibility to tourism destinations, and packaging and presentation of handicrafts.

During the course of the Rural Tourism Programme, some issues have arisen that have had both positive and negative effects on project stakeholders. Positive aspects include the creation of new jobs to interpreters. However, the many positive results of the Rural Tourism Programme suggest that there is a need for further collaboration, trainings and implementation with different stakeholders. The programme has also clearly lead to an increase in the number of MVIWATA friends internationally.

Nevertheless, the programme’s many positive impacts, it has also faced manageable challenges. These include the image and concept of the rural tourism is not sufficiently understood by some farmers groups and host family members, who are not directly involved in the programme, and this has lead to complications and misunderstandings because some think the project generates massive benefits to fellow family farners in the village.

In addition, other challenges are possibility of bias in selecting and identifying household host families, language barriers as travelers sometimes may wish to interact directly with villagers during a free time, knowledge gaps of guides and translators. Regular trainings with village leaders and families are therefore necessary and inevitable.

Located at Chimala ward, Mbarali district, Mbeya region in the southern highlands, UPENDO Women Group was established on January 2013. The group is a member of MVIWATA and registered at Mbarali District council. The group is also registered as a company at BRELA. The main objective of the group is to raise members’ income through Village Community Banks (VICOBA). The group’s office is located at Chimala Bus stand.

Prior to joining MVIWATA, the group had small capital in such a way the group struggled to offer sufficient credits to members, the group also had inadequate knowledge and skills on operations and management of the farmers financial service, inadequate business skills, also the group had no long term business plan.

Through MVIWATA interventions, Upendo Women Group received a number of trainings, which include post-harvest handling and quality standards, marketing, youth, gender and group management and operations. In addition, different services were facilitated to build the capacity of the group including business development services, supporting brand development and packaging of rice and facilitate business linkage to various buyers for collective selling of their processed rice.

Apart from being members of Village Community Bank, the members are traditionally engaged on paddy production as their main economic activity. Having struggled to finance paddy production, add value on their produces and secure reliable market, the group through MVIWATA interventions overcame the barriers hindering their progress.

Thanks to MVIWATA initiatives, the group is now linked to local and international rice markets in countries bordering Tanzania in the southern highlands. In this season, the group managed to cultivate 10 acres, the produce is stored and will be collectively milled and sold to buyers.

The group, through a series of trainings managed to develop a proposal for a competitive mechanization grant offered under Nafaka project. The group successfully won the grant and received a rice-milling machine worth 12,000,000 TZS. Under this grant, the group was required to pay a cost share of 10% of the price of the milling machine.

MVIWATA in collaboration with Mbarali district council agro-mechanization department facilitated a milling machine operations, management and bookkeeping training to Upendo Women Group milling operators. This was done deliberately so that the group can efficiently and effectively manage the milling facility for sustained milling services and benefit the group members.

Currently Upendo Women Group runs a number of projects that include a Village Community Bank (VICOBA) with three (3) accounts namely shares 5, comfort and assurance account. Through VICOBA, the group has been able to offer credit three (3) times of the shares of a member. There is an account in which members can make savings for supporting education costs for their children at school.

The group through the mechanization grant received, manages a milling machine business, which provide rice-milling service to members and non-members. In addition, the group processes, packs and sells brown and white rice to specified buyers in and out of Tanzania.

Among the notable achievements the group has to its members is increased income, which has enabled members to manage education costs for their children, build residential houses and expansion of paddy cultivation fields for increased production.

Likewise, the group has been able to facilitate a formation of a youth group with 30 members that also operate as VICOBA. Market for rice has also expanded because of the group’s interventions facilitated by MVIWATA. The group has managed to mobilize a capital of amounting to 90 million TZS, with a capacity of lending up to 7 million TZS per member.

Due to increased customers, visiting Upendo Women Group milling machine project, the group leadership is challenged to expand their milling services. Therefore, the group plans to purchase a milling machine with big capacity abd technology and build a warehouse, which will provide a space for storage of at least three thousands (3,000) metric tons of rice, which will be processed at their own milling machine.

Networking and collective actions by grassroots smallholder farmers’ groups and networks being the core business of MVIWATA’s interventions, Upendo Women Group, given its achievements is playing a key role in facilitating skills and knowledge dissemination to neighboring farmers’ groups through farmer group to farmer group exchange visits.

Forest education and extension services.

Forestry education and extension services are among key elements in ensuring that forest and farm producers share and exchange knowledge and skills, learn and adopt new relevant skills.

MVIWATA’s role on forest and education and extension services dates back from the times when the organization was found up to now where the organization has grown to have membership in all parts of Tanzania. MVIWATA’s work has helped to bridge the extension gap in the country.

This presentation highlights some of the key areas of interventions and key areas in forestry education and extension services facilitated by MVIWATA.

Problem solving at local level.

Agricultural, environmental and some non- agricultural challenges and threats have been solved through this approach. In Mavala village, for example 50 acres of degraded land has been rehabilitated through forestry education.

Conservation of biodiversity

In some areas, the extension services from MVIWATA have managed to organize communities to conserve biodiversity through agro-ecology, agroforestry practices and local seed multiplication for seed banks establishment.

Provision of support services in agriculture

The organization of demonstration plots, and use of other extension methods in its networks, has managed MVIWATA and Non-MVIWATA members to acquire different support services like finance and market information.

Fighting climate change effects.

The forest education and extension services have managed to raise awareness on climate change and its effects and organize farmers in fight against the effects.

The role that MVIWATA plays in forest education and extension services.

• Training of trainers and others who later become community mobilizers in facilitating forest education and extension services.
• Providing platform for learning and testing knowledge. Both inherited local and new compatible knowledge, practices are tested and practiced.
• Provision of support services

Lessons learned from the ground.

• In most cases, there is little public investment in agriculture and thus very little support goes to the extension service and forest education.
• Recognition and protection of farmers’ knowledge, skills, seeds on farm and forest through policy processes.
• Majority of the population engaged in farm and forest activities thus it is possible to upscale the initiative to reach many more farmers.
• Tanzania being a multi-cultural country there is an opportunity of investing in farmers indigenous knowledge (through research and dissemination)

Smallholder farmers and members of MVIWATA at Mkuranga District on May 2021 were capacitated on land rights and legal aid service. About 50 participants’ representatives of farmers’ groups and networks from Kizapala, Tungi, Vianzi, Kibungachana, Nkelezange and Lupondo villages in Mkamba Ward, were directly reached by this intervention.

The training aimed at empowering smallholder farmers to realize the concept of land is life, land tenure, land dispute resolution techniques and the rights of women and youth to access and own land.

Land rights and laws training for smallholder farmers is part of MVIWATA’s strategy to ensure that farmers are aware of existing land policies and laws, including advocating for changes in policies and laws that hamper and undermine land tenure as a key pillar for production to smallholder farmers.

The delegation of IFAD-Tanzania, earlier today paid a courtesy visit to MVIWATA Headquarters in its attempt to develop new COSOP (Country Strategic Opportunities Programme) which is a framework for making strategic choices about IFAD operations in a country, identifying opportunities for IFAD financing and facilitating management for results for 2022 – 2027.

MVIWATA, being a member based national farmers’ organization, with extensive experience in advocating farmers’ affairs across various strategic areas, stressed on key areas of concern namely market for farmers’ crops and research and development with the focus on the need and priority of smallholder farmers.

The delegation of IFAD – Tanzania comprised of Country Program Officer Ms, Jacqueline Machangu, Country Program Assistant Ms. Nambu Muhaya, and Dr. Sizya Lugeye, and Dr. B. Lunogelo as consultants.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS INTENSIVE RESIDENTIAL TRAINING:

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

Morogoro, 1/10 September 2021

Voices, needs, and concerns among African producers are hardly a priority in national politics, but whole food systems depend on their produce. The farmers are rarely consulted about food markets and the how food gets from producer to consumer, or about their needs to support production and trade. At an international level, the voice of the small producer is virtually non-existent, with markets dominated by large multinationals in food trade, processing manufacture and more recently retail. Often, the farmers struggle to feed themselves and their families, and end up producing food to meet the demands of far-off markets. Farmers’ organisations like MVIWATA aim at making the voice of farmers heard in everyday politics. Academic researchers can help to this end, by producing research that is informed by the priorities and the agenda of farmers’ organisations.

This training, and the research internship programme attached to it, aims at strengthening the research skills of young scholars and activists who are interested in working with farmers’ organisations in the longer term. The broader idea is to support the training of the next generation of Tanzanian researchers to develop alternative visions of food and agriculture, with a focus on food sovereignty, in a spirit of service to the farmers’ organizations.

Step 1: the training programme

The training seeks to build capacity of post-graduate students and activists in agrarian studies. It is a pluralist training, delivered by Tanzanian and international scholars, integrating different theoretical perspectives broadly along the lines of Marxist political economy.

The methodological part will revolve around the Marxist framework of Systems of Provision (SoP)

, with particular attention devoted to the analytical connections between local, regional, national and global levels of analysis.

This is a residential programme, with an average of eight hours of activities every day, including lectures, seminars, small-group activities and practical sessions.

A total of 21 participants will reside in Morogoro from September 1st to 10th 2021.

The working language of the training will be English, to allow for international and national speakers to join.

Each participant will receive a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the training.

During the training, the skills and abilities of all participants will be actively assessed to establish their suitability for the internship programme. Out of 21 participants, 6 will be selected for the research internship programme (Step 2).

Step 2: the research internship programme

The 6 participants who will be selected during the training will be placed for an internship at MVIWATA- Morogoro for 3 months. The internship will start right after the conclusion of the training (13 September/13 December).

The objective of the internship is to support the creation of an internal research culture in the host organisation.

Step 3: Pilot Research

Each intern will design and carry out one pilot research, including primary research in rural areas. The design of this research will be defined during the final part of the training.

Each intern will be assigned an academic supervisor at one of the universities involved in the project (UDSM, SUA, and University of Leeds).

At the end of the internship, the intern will write a pilot research report, whose findings will be disseminated both internally at MVIWATA and at the national level through a dissemination event.

In the long-term, the research findings can lead to joint publications with the academic supervisors as articles in international journals. More details about the following steps will be shared with participants during the training.

Training Objectives

• Introductory module: introduction to food and agriculture in the global political economy of capitalism; introduction to alternative visions for agriculture and food, rooted in agro- ecology and food sovereignty paradigms
• Theoretical module: Marxist political economy and the System of Provision (SoP) approach
• Methodological module: how to design your research; quantitative and qualitative research methods; data analysis; research ethics.

Context

This training and internship programme is part of a broader project led by the University of Leeds (UK), with funding from the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project – ‘Farmers’ Perspectives on Challenges in The Food System – aims at strengthening the partnership between universities and farmers’ organisations, with the broader aim of ensuring that academic research responds to the needs and priorities of farmers’ associations.

The training will be hosted by Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA), in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the University of Leeds (UK). The project includes Tanzania and Ghana where the University of Leeds is collaborating with the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), besides the University of Cape Coast (Ghana) and the University for Development Studies (Ghana).

For further details about the project and application procedures kindly contact the reference persons mentioned below.

Who can apply?

Participation is open to students and activists. All participants will be equally treated as early career researchers (ERC).

Post-graduate students from other Universities in Tanzania are encouraged to apply, but priority will be given to students from the collaborating institutions namely the University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and activists who have a track record of activism on issues that are prioritised by the Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA) – such as agriculture, agroecology, land, seeds, food sovereignty and cognate issues.

For activists, there is a minimum requirement of holding an undergraduate degree and having a consolidated activist record in relevant fields.

For students, we particularly encourage postgraduate students at the early stage of their PhD or MA studies, as well as activists who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree or hold an undergraduate degree. All applicants are expected to have a consolidated interest in agrarian questions of food, land and agro-ecology, broadly framed in the political economy of agriculture and food. In your statement of interest, we want to know why you are applying, what you expect from the training, and how you are going to use the knowledge acquired during the training in your future endeavours.

We particularly encourage applications from students who have an interest in Marxist Political Economy and Agrarian Studies and participants who are involved or have experience of activism and research, or who have experience with civil society organizations on food and agriculture. Women who meet these qualifications are strongly encouraged to apply. Given that the general thrust of this project is to train early career researchers, against similar backgrounds priority will be given to younger candidates.

Minimum requirements

Applicants must:

• hold a Bachelor degree in a relevant discipline
• have a level of English that allows them to actively participate in class activities and write academic reports
• ensure their full, unconditional availability for the whole 10 days of the residential training

– no partial attendance will be allowed

• be potentially interested and available for a 3-months research internship at MVIWATA

Further info

The training will be hosted at the general headquarters of MVIWATA in Morogoro. MVIWATA will provide basic single-occupancy accommodation in Morogoro for 12 nights. Facilitation will include a public bus ticket to Morogoro and a daily allowance to cover for local transport, food and drinks. Participants will receive a hard-copy reader with all the readings needed to attend classes.

How to apply

Interested applicants should write an application letter and enclose it with the following documents:

1. Statement of interests – explain why you are interested in this training.
2. Curriculum Vitae (CV) with the names and contacts of two referees.
3. If already awarded, copy of certificate of the highest attained degree. If not yet awarded, a transcript of academic records will suffice, or in alternative, a reference letter.

Please send your statement of interest and CV in one document, in either Word or PDF format.

Key timeline

Applications should be sent in electronic form by July 5th 2021 at midnight (EAT) at the following email address:

info@mviwata.or.tz

This is a rigid deadline. Late applications will not be considered.

Only successful applicants will be notified of the results by end of July. If you have not been contacted by the end of July, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful. We are really sorry we cannot provide individual feedback on your application.

The training is scheduled for September 1/10 inclusive, with participants expected to report in Morogoro on August 31 and being released on the 10th in the evening.

The research internship programme will start after the training. Primary research in rural areas will be carried out in September and October 2021.

Reference persons

Theodora Pius (about application process and logistics) Project Coordinator- MVIWATA theodora.pius@mviwata.or.tz

+255 753 408 154

Dr. Richard Mbunda (about application process and training content)

Tanzania Team Coordinator – UDSM rmbunda@gmail.com

+255 714 848 685

Released on 17th June 2021

MVIWATA has conducted a three (3) days training on the establishment and management of microfinance services (VICOBA and SACCOS) for farmers and members of MVIWATA residing in Mkoka, Hongoro and Songambele wards in Kongwa District, Dodoma.

About 250 participants’ representatives of farmers’ groups and networks including VICOBA attended the training of VICOBA and SACCOS. The training covered different topics including management and sustainable operation of smallholder farmers’ microfinance services, establishment of products and services provided by smallholder farmers’ financial services.

Training on the establishment and management of farmers’ microfinance services is part of MVIWATA’s strategies to ensure that smallholder farmers have strong and reliable financial services that guarantee capital to their sustainable production activities as compared to commercial banks’ systems that significantly hamper prosperity of smallholder farmers.

Many times enormous amounts of resources are invested to generate solutions to crises facing smallholder farmers that are never adopted. A timely intervention against challenges early identified by rural family farmers themselves, allows farmers to observe the effectiveness of their approach.

MVIWATA through its established grassroots networks has adopted this methodology ever since its establishment.  The methodology puts family farmers in the leading role in addressing his/her challenges in collaboration with fellow family farmers, which makes it much more dynamic and efficient.

Smallholder farmers and members of MVIWATA in Njombe District in the southern highlands of Tanzania are engaged in a variety of cash and food crops. The members of MVIWATA are developing and adopting a number of solutions to counter the challenges facing them using the established grassroots networks through their unity and solidarity under MVIWATA’s slogan MTETEZI WA MKULIMA NI MKULIMA MWENYEWE (The defender of a farmer is the farmer).  

With eight (8) grassroots networks in the district, namely Mtwango, Lyamkena, Kichiwa, Yakobi, Mlowa, Igongolo, Lupembe and Njombe Mji. MVIWATA Njombe district network has 1,206 members (804 men, 402 women) from 131 groups. These members own an average of 3,648 hectares of trees in the district as per the conducted survey.

The Mtwango grassroots network of MVIWATA in Njombe district exemplary has a total of 61 family farmers’ groups engaged in credits and loans (VICOBA and SACCOS), Tree nurseries and planting, Beekeeping, Small and Medium Enterprises (juices and carpentry) and collective selling of crops and buying of inputs.

Interventions conducted by MVIWATA in addressing the challenges.

Since the commencement of MVIWATA interventions in Njombe district in 2007, members, promoters and facilitators with the aim of addressing family farmers’ challenges have implemented different activities. These activities includes capacity building on leadership and advocacy in defending farmers’ interests, collective actions on markets and inputs, trainings on establishment and management of farmers’ credits and loan groups, construction of seed bank with the aim of preserving farmers’ seeds and indigenous knowledge.

Other interventions includes beekeeping, tree planting and livestock keeping activities of the family farmers.

Through the implementation of these activities, financial stability and sustainability of the family farmers have been assured through selling farmers’ crops like sweet potatoes, maize, beans, honey, avocados. In addition, timely availability of quality inputs and the control of misuse of weight and unit measurements during selling of farmers’ crops have been influenced.

MVIWATA grassroots’ interventions that involves exchange visits and meetings between farmers, promoters and cooperatives, provides a forum of learning about the practices, skills, experiences, and improvements made by other farmers and promoters. This aspect of stimulating and socializing knowledge is part of the strategies of MVIWATA, as is the commitment to apply this knowledge in other farms by farmers.

Forexample, Mkombozi family farmers’ group has 40 beehives located in itunduma village in Mtwango ward. Different neighboring farmers’ groups and network pay visit to Mkombozi group to learn and adopt beekeeping skills.

Likewise,  Umoja A, Sinai and UWAPA groups engaged in tree nurseries and planting, having demonstration plots for avocado seedlings, pines and eucalyptus have benefited more than 300 family farmers’ apart from the group’s members. The groups also have managed to plant 6,500 avocado seedlings.

With the facilitators and trained promoters, family farmers engaged with tree planting have been capacitated to realize the value of their timber products using simple and friendly technology. So far, 190.5 acres of pine and eucalyptus trees owned by farmers 113 (49 women, 64 men) have been assessed by the farmers themselves.

These family farmers’ networks and groups interventions in Njombe district has played a great role in tackling challenges facing smallholder farmers in Njombe. Other observable benefits includes established garage that is involved in processing of wooden furniture’s, through which they provide services to the community, and the processing unit acts as a market for timber growers in Mtwango ward.

The grassroots networks have also created a single joint supplier of maize. They have been able to sell collectively an average of 440 tons of maize to National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) per annum. Likewise, environmental conservation initiatives through planting of avocado, pines and eucalyptus trees has enhanced the sustainability of farmers’ grassroots networks in Njombe district.