MVIWATA members in Zanzibar requested for a practical training on different agronomic practices required for spices production.  After receiving these request, MVIWATA carried out an assessment exercise of identifying their exact needs on spice production. The assessment was carried out to sixty-four (64) members in which thirty-four (34) were men and thirty (30) were women.

The main objective of the assessments was to determine the needs of trainings by MVIWATA members of which are smallholder farmers on spice production. Specifically, the assessment intended to achieve the following objectives, to identify current status of spice crops in relation to production and yield per area, to examine practices of spice farming among smallholder farmers, to examine smallholder farmers’ knowledge on the farming practices on spice production, to examine spices production and productivity of an area, to access the contribution of spice farming to livelihood outcomes of smallholder farmers, to assess group’s organization focusing on membership status and women participation.

The assessments were carried out in five (5) local level networks from Unguja and Pemba of which Bumbwini, Mpapa Mwendapole and Kizimbani local level networks were from Unguja and Mtambwe kaskazini and Tujiunge farmers’ groups were from Pemba Island. These 5 local level networks have a total population of 1042 members in which 751 are women and 291 males.

The assessment carried out observed a number of challenges facing smallholder farmers’ producers of spices in Zanzibar, these includes, low level of knowledge on nursery preparation, poor understanding on selection of planting materials, low knowledge of harvesting their produces, lack of marketing skills on their produces.

It was also realized that the most trainings needed to spice producers in Zanzibar are on plant preparation, seed selection and farm management on the following spices, Cardamom, Black pepper, Cloves, Vanilla, Cinnamon and Ginger.

The assessment also recommended the provision of practical trainings on nursery preparation, seed selection, selection of planting materials, quality control and post-harvest handling techniques (drying, sorting & grading and storage) of spices.

It also recommends a much needed farmer to farmer exchange visits for smallholder farmers to have a practical training on technical production practices and therefore addressing the   challenges faced by smallholder spice producers.

MVIWATA provided two (2) water pump machines to two youth groups namely MASHUJAA Group and UWAVIGWATA Group all found in Gwata ward, Morogoro rural District. The two groups presented their needs to MVIWATA during Nane nane farmers exhibition held from 1^st -8^th August 2019 so that they can engage fully in Agriculture production and mitigate their challenges.

MVIWATA assessed their needs by discussing with the particular youth groups and visited their fields of production and finally realized the necessity of providing youths groups with water pump machines.

Mr, Nickson Elly, Economic Empowerment Unit Officer at MVIWATA during provision of water pump machines urged youths in particular groups to utilize effectively the machines given and that such machines should not be a source of conflict among them.

Mr, Nickson emphasized youths to use such machines as a starting point with a vision of increasing production of horticultures produced by two groups and thereby increase capital that can be used to buy other needed facilities including addition of machines.

The Ward Executive Officer (WEO) together with a Village Executive Officer (VEO) and youths in general thanked MVIWATA for fulfilling its promise that was given during Nane nane farmers exhibition in August. Youths emphasized on sensitizing fellow youths to form groups in order to have one voice in advocating and defending their interests.

Youths also made a commitment to manage well water pump machines of which it was a much needed tool for easy irrigation of their horticultures in fields.

Previously the two groups of youths were expensively borrowing the machines and sometimes the machines for borrowing were not available of which it led to poor performance of crops and hence loss of resources.

MVIWATA’s mission is to unite smallholder farmers in groups and networks in order to protect their interests through capacity development, facilitating communication and advocacy on policies and systems.

In ensuring youths participate fully in national economic development, MVIWATA has initiated more than twenty youth groups with thirty members each in Morogoro rural District.  One of the goal of forming these groups is to capacitate youths in forming and managing their Village Community Banks (VICOBA) so that they can obtain capital to finance their projects particularly in agriculture sector.

MVIWATA organized a VICOBA training of trainers to thirty-two (32) youths (17 males and 15 female) representing 12 youth groups from Duthumi, Kisaki, Kinole, Mikese, Gwata and Mngazi wards all found in Morogoro rural district.

The trainings were held in a participatory method of which it involved field visits, discussions and presentations from groups. Youths have been capacitated with skills on sensitization among youths to form groups, financial records keeping, filling of fourteen (14) important ledgers of VICOBA and leadership skills in VICOBA.

After the training, youths will be required to go and influence youth groups formation, VICOBA in the such groups within the period of three months and thereafter monitoing and evaluation will be effected to see the impacts.

MVIWATA in collaboration with Tanzania grass roots oriented development (TAGRODE) and, HAKI ARDHI under the umbrella of Tanzania Land Alliance (TALA) through Land Tenure Support Program funded by DFID-UK, SIDA, and DANIDA together implemented a number of activities in Namhanga and Magereza villages in Ulanga, Alabama and Minazini villages in Malinyi and Mngeta village in Kilombero District in Morogoro regions.

These activities included provision of legal aid and land rights to stallholder producers, public dialogue with citizens and MVIWATA membership sensitization to smallholder producers in the three (3) Districts.

Alongside activities implemented above, MVIWATA in implementing its strategic goal number one (1) of enhanced land security to smallholder farmers, and under the collaboration of HAKI ARDHI and TAGRODE it organized radio session programs in Kilombero and Ulanga aiming on providing education about the land issues based on land law and the concept of group formation and MVIWATA local networks.

Radio session programs enabled the community to understand land policies and laws. Land as a principal factor of production is essential and has already been pointed out that whatever used can be traced ultimately to land. The economic prosperity of the country is linked to land.

Land is life, and smallholder farmers use land for production by which recently and throughout the history, smallholder farmers have been in a constant struggle on land which is evidenced by the massive appropriation of land and disposition of farmers from their areas and a number of land disputes.

The programs were conducted live in two Radio stations Pambazuko Fm in Kilombero and Ulanga Fm inUlanga.  The radio programs included discussions, questions (from the listeners) and answers from discussants.

The topics discussed were, Land governance system, Land conflict solving system in Tanzania, Land use planning, The concept of MVIWATA group formation and local networks

MVIWATA held a promoters training to 224 smallholder farmers in September and October in Shinyanga region, Mkuranga, District and Tabora region. The trainings in each region took ten days and included participants from more than one regions.

During the promoters training held at Ibanza hall in Shinyanga municipal, the participants were seventy-two (72) from five (5) regions namely Shinyanga, Dodoma, Singida, Mwanza and Mara. The training held in Mkuranga, Pwani region had seventy-five (75) participants from six (6) regions namely Pwani, Lindi, Mtwara, Tanga, Iringa and Njombe regions. During the training held in Tabora, there were seventy-seven (77) participants from four (4) regions namely Tabora, Kigoma, Rukwa and Katavi regions.

The trainings had an objective of equipping smallholder farmers with skills of being change agents, train of trainers among smallholder farmers in rural areas. It also aimed to equip smallholder farmers with awareness skills, sustainable production systems, class consciousness, the basics of political economy, public expenditure tracking systems, MVIWATA group and network formations, communications, monitoring and evaluation.

Prior to the commencement of lessons participants are usually familiarized with the History of Tanzania, the pillars of Arusha Declaration of 1967, peasants’ movements around the world and the basis as to why MVIWATA was formed back in 1993.

During all the three trainings held, government officers including District Commissioner, District Agricultural, Irrigation and Cooperatives officer (DAICO) were informed and participated directly and indirectly (through representation) of which they gave their remarks to the participants.

MVIWATA is envisioning to ensure empowered smallholder farmers work together to advocate, defend and advance their interests by influencing policies and systems.

A Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hon, Omari Mgumba put a foundation stone on the on-going construction of MVIWATA Headquarter Offices located at Bigwa market street, Morogoro Municipal on 22^nd November 2019. MVIWATA Headquarter building upon its completion will consist of eleven (11) offices, library, conference rooms with the capacity to hold up to two hundred (200) participants at once.

The event of laying down the foundation stone was witnessed by smallholder farmers, members of MVIWATA from all the regions in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, MVIWATA Staffs and guests from government authorities.

MVIWATA Executive Director Mr, Stephen Ruvuga, said during the event that the building will cost the organization an amount of three hundred fifty thousand million Tanzanian shillings (350,000,000/=) of which its main source is incomes from internal sources and donation from development partners including the government of Switzerland and previously the government of Ireland.

Hon, Omari Mgumba congratulated MVIWATA for having visionary leadership and been very effective on resource management to the extent of fulfilling the dream of accomplishing having its own Headquarter Offices and Radio station named “MVIWATA Fm” of which it will be on air shortly, running from 106.7 frequency.

He added that these resources will help smallholder farmers to organize well and coordinate their initiatives while managing the easy flow of information from and to the smallholder farmers through MVIWATA FM Radio station.

The Deputy Minister emphasized to smallholder farmers and members of MVIWATA to continue nurturing their unity through their groups and as an organization at large in order to fulfill their desired goals. Hon, Mgumba added that the Government of Tanzania is well informed with the efforts made by MVIWATA in achieving its goal of ensuring smallholder farmers’ interests (social, economic and political) are well represented at different levels of decision making.

Members of MVIWATA had an opportunity to represent their issues before the Deputy Minister of which among them were some of the cashew nut farmers not being paid on time after their cashew nut had been sold, charges to crops below one ton has continued been effected despite the government’s notice of stopping it, continued exploitation of smallholder farmers due to lack of proper use of weight and measurement units during selling of crops in Iringa and Njombe regions,  poor storage facilities and low price of cotton in Shinyanga and Mwanza regions and lastly the absence of reliable and smallholder farmer’s  friendly crop insurances.

The Deputy Minister explained in detail on the challenges said by smallholder farmers while emphasizing on immediate provision of information to the government authorities upon witnessing any challenge so that the government can act upon it immediately.

In conclusion, MVIWATA Chairperson Mr, Abdul Gea gave a word of thanks to the Deputy Minister Hon, Omari Mgumba for always been available when needed by MVIWATA regardless of his occupied working schedule. Mr, Abdul Gea also thanked his fellow MVIWATA members for their kind, patience and participation in an event of laying the MVIWATA Headquarters foundation stone.

Ufunguzi rasmi wa Wiki ya utoaji wa Msaada wa Kisheria umefanyika tarehe 23.10.2019 katika Uwanja wa Ofisi ya Serikali ya Kata ya Chamwino, wenye kauli mbiu “Msaada wa kisheria kwa Maendeleo Endelevu”. Hafla hiyo ilifunguliwa na mgeni rasmi Bi. Neema Haule (Mkurugenzi wa Mashtaka Mkoa wa Morogoro) kwa niaba ya Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Morogoro. Shughuli ya ufunguzi iliandaliwa na Ofisi ya Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Morogogo kwa kushirikiana na wadau mbalimbali ikiwemo MVIWATA. Shughuli za msaada wa kisheria wiki hii zinaendelea kutolewa katika vituo vinne ambavyo ni Chamwino, Msamvu Stendi kuu ya Mabasi, Mwembesongo na Mawenzi sokoni.  MVIWATA kama mdau muhimu katika utoaji Msaada wa kisheria imeshiriki kutoa Hema ambalo lipo kituo cha Msamvu Stand kuu ya mabasi na wanasheria wawili (2) ambao wanatoa msaada wa Kisheria kwa wiki nzima kuanzia tarehe 21 hadi 25 Oktoba 2019.

MVIWATA, HAKI ARDHI na TAGRODE chini ya mwamvuli wa TALA kupitia mradi wa mpango wa urasimishaji ardhi (LTSP) imefanya vipindi vya redio katika wilaya za Ulanga na Kilombero kwa lengo  la kuelezea masuala mbalimbali yanayohusiana na ardhi pamoja na dhana ya vikundi na mitandao. Vipindi hivyo vilifanyika katika redio ya Pambazuko iliyopo wilaya ya Kilombero  na Ulanga fm iliyopo wilaya ya Ulanga.

Mada zilizojadiliwa katika vipindi hivyo ilikuwa ni Nini maana ya ardhi na mfumo wa utawala wa ardhi ya kijiji, Mfumo wa utatuzi wa migogoro ya ardhi nchini Tanzania, Mpango wa matumizi bora ya ardhi pamoja na Dhana ya vikundi na mitandao. Wakulima walipata nafasi ya kupiga simu na kutuma ujumbe mfupi wa maneno kwa kuuliza maswali ambayo yalijibiwa na wanasheria kutoka MVIWATA na HAKI ARDHI pamoja na Mratibu kutoka shirika la TAGRODE.

Wajumbe wa Halmashauri ya MVIWATA wakiwa kwenye kikao cha siku mbili kilichofanyika katika Ukumbi wa Mikutano wa MVIWATA Makao Makuu, Morogoro. Kikao kimehudhuriwa na wajumbe takribani 120 kutoka Tanzania Bara na Visiwani lengo likiwa ni kujadili masuala ya maendeleo ya Taasisi.

One of the challenges faced by small-scale producers of potatoes is storage of potato seeds. Most of smallholder farmers obtain potato seeds from previous harvest, and the duration between one planting season to another one takes about five months. During this period of five months’ potato reserved as seeds are stored on ground with poor ventilations.

An interview with at least 20 smallholder farmers in Njombe region indicated high loss of potato seeds (about half of stored seeds) due to poor storage practices, the farmers also indicated challenges in germination for poorly stored seeds.

To address the challenge of potato seeds storage, MVIWATA facilitated a construction of potato seeds storage facility at Itunduma village in Mtwago ward, Njombe region. The aim of constructing the storage facilities was to demonstrate simple techniques for potato seed storage using materials available in Itunduma village.

During the monitoring visit which was conducted at Njombe in May 2019, MVIWATA recognized a greater use of potato seed storage facility constructed by MVIWATA with more demand to store potato seeds than the capacity of the storage facility, an average of 9 tons of potatoes seeds are stored annually.  It was found that about ten (10) smallholder farmers have learned and constructed their own storage facility almost similar to that constructed by MVIWATA (each with capacity to store 4.5 tons of seeds). The monitoring visit team paid a visit to two smallholder farmers who constructed potato seed storage facility.

From the previous year (2018) experience, smallholder farmers who applied this practice witnessed that using the improved potato seeds storage facilities resulted to no loss of potato seeds and the germination capacity of potato seeds stored on improved storage facilities was high compared to potato seeds stored locally.

Apart from these achievements by smallholder farmers who use improved practices for potato seeds storage, there are farmers within the village and near-by villages who have not received information about this practices and are still using poor storage practices.

To support more smallholder farmers to apply improved potato seeds storage facilities, MVIWATA will plan to facilitate practical learning for smallholder farmers on improved potato seeds storage in the respective areas with the aim of enhancing application of improved storage facility by potatoes producers and minimizing loss.

MVIWATA-Arusha and Iles de Paix in Tanzania have adopted Seed Sovereignty as an advocacy and sensitization topic in the frame of the development program implemented together – KILIMO ENDELEVU PROGRAM. To celebrate indigenous crop varieties in Karatu District Council and tackle advocacy and sensitization issues related to the Sovereignty of Seeds in the region MVIWATA-Arusha and Iles de Paix Tanzania took the lead in organizing a 1-day Food and Seed Fair at the Mazingira Bora ground in Karatu town on the 30^th of August 2019.

Hundreds of smallholder farmers’ members of MVIWATA and non-members including residents of Karatu Districts and other from Manyara and Kilimanjaro regions attended this remarkable seed and food fair which began by a rally of smallholder farmers holding placards with messages that urges the responsible authorities to protect, preserve and prioritize the use of indigenous seeds.

The objectives were;

• To gather and reach as many farmers as possible in Karatu District to celebrate the value of local varieties and to raise awareness on the threats placed on multiplying local seeds and the implications of these threats.
• To give farmers a venue to voice their opinions and formulate their own policy priorities in the matter.
• To put farmers and stakeholders who chaperone the continued existence of local varieties to Karatu in the spotlight and recognize their role as food sovereignty ambassadors.

Key implemented activities:

• Farmer local seed showcase, exchange and sales

Farmers and stakeholders engaged in preserving varietal biodiversity in an outside of Karatu were invited and participated to showcase, exchange and sell local varieties and their seeds and be encouraged to cook them for a seed competition where the best varieties were awarded a prize.

In addition, a place was given for related stakeholders to exhibit technologies or innovations related to sustainable production and food systems.

Displayed varieties were also shown on the biodiversity wheel providing a type of map indicating where varieties are lost and could be revitalized.

• Luncheon of traditional dishes in Karatu District making use of local varieties

To celebrate the richness in taste of various varieties a luncheon with traditional dishes in Karatu District making use of local crop varieties were cooked for participants to taste and cooking demonstrations raised awareness on how to cook the varieties available.

• Debates on Seed Freedom and the setting of an advocacy agenda by smallholder farmers on the topic.

The documentary Seeds of Freedom was screened to introduce a farmer debate on seed freedom where by smallholder farmers raised several policy issues that are most important to them and their arguments were taken in a position paper which were presented to relevant policy-makers during the event.

In order to keep the momentum of fighting for Seed Sovereignty going, representatives from different stakeholders were recognized and encouraged to continue their role as a chaperon and promoter of seed biodiversity and seed sovereignty.

The Primary targeted audience were Small-holder farmers and Government actors in Karatu District Council and relevant Policy-makers. While Secondary target audience were Food and value chain stakeholders (hotels, restaurants, processors, seed agencies and associations), Students, Representatives of like-minded organizations, Researchers and lastly the General public.

Crop yields are an essential aspect of every smallholder farmer’s day, impacting how profitable their farmland can be. Learning how to improve crop yields is key to successful farming, and access to new technologies and planting methods has given smallholder farmers an opportunity to increase crop production – the key to maintaining the long term sustainability of their farm.

Onion and garlic yield rates have steadily increased over time to smallholder farmers in Hanang and Mbulu Districts in Manyara region, thanks to harder facilitation efforts by MVIWATA for smarter planting practices. Practices and technologies that allow farmers to best understand their soil, what kind of nutrients they may be lacking, and when to plant onions and garlic have positively affected outcomes.

Prior to trainings and interventions by MVIWATA, many smallholder farmers were unaware that good yields were the result of good agricultural practices. MVIWATA – Manyara a middle level network is supporting smallholder farmers’ members of MVIWATA through field practical trainings on the necessity of good agricultural practices for onion and garlic production.

Smallholder farmers along the value chains on onions and garlic continues to deploy knowledge and skills given by MVIWATA. Members of MVIWATA in Hanang and Mbulu Districts organized in their respective groups got the practical training on how to prepare farms for the production of onion and garlic. The techniques included planting early and effectively, Practice seasonal soil rotation, knowing the yield potential, always scouting the fields, ensuring proper water drainage, utilizing natural fertilizers, tested soil, weeding early and often and seed quality to mention few.

These sustainable farming techniques can easily increase yields of the onion and garlic, while regenerating soil and reducing carbon footprints, all at low cost using indigenous technology available in smallholder farmers’ localities.

MVIWATA mission is to unite smallholder farmers in groups and networks in order to protect their interests through capacity development, facilitating communication and advocacy on policies and systems