First agroecological market centre owned by MVIWATA opens in Morogoro operating to collect from the smallholder farmers members of MVIWATA the vast produced agroecological produces and distribute to the wider community.
Within MVIWATA, Marketing of farmers produces to ensure better prices and fair distribution has been at the core of many discussions and strategies even during the early years of MVIWATA. For years programs, initiatives have been undertaken to ensure that farmers gain an equitable share and what is healthily produced gets to the final users. Attaining that, for example, MVIWATA in early 2000’s engaged in a massive work of building rural territorial markets including the famous Kibaigwa International Grain Market, Igurusi Rice market and 8 others across Tanzania (in Morogoro, Rukwa, Tanga and Njombe regions), building rural infrastructures (roads, bridges), local irrigation schemes and warehouses to facilitate production and storage activities.
To link production and marketing, MVIWATA also facilitated the establishment of farmer owned financial institution and credit schemes including revolving fund. Also, some markets (especially those located in Morogoro) were equipped with Quality control center for handling horticultural products to ensure that fresh produces are well handled.
This same model developed by MVIWATA, of building territorial rural markets, and involving farmers in their operations was taken and implemented with success in other countries such as Niger (https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/-/project/1100001688), Guinea (https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/-/project/2000001059), Guinea Bissau (https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/-/project/2000001605), Turkey (https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/-/project/2000001409), Uganda (https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/-/project/1100001681) albeit the challenges that the same model faces in Tanzania.
Understanding the complexity of the Agricultural market question, that, it is contributed by many factors one being proper linkage between producers and consumers, which translates to accessibility, availability, proximity, quality and quantity of the produced and needed produces, MVIWATA in August 2023, has opened its own Agroecological market centre, first to provide a market outlet for agroecological produces and secondly to bring to consumers an option of procuring and consuming local, healthy and agroecologically produced farm and forest produces.
The centre exists to ensure consumer accessibility to agroecological products at a fair price for consumers and producers and targets to carter at the convinience of the consumer with vast services including walk-ins, online ordering and delivery services.
The market centre is located in Mwalimu Nyerere show grounds, Nane-Nane, Morogoro. Visiting the centre physically, you will also get a chance to see and learn agroecology directly from our small plot located within the same space.
