PROJECT PROPOSAL
Agency: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Project Title: Supporting sustainable agriculture initiatives for vulnerable smallholder farmers to counter soaring food prices
Sector: Agriculture and Livelihoods
Objective: Overall objective: improve food security and sustainable livelihoods of vulnerable, agriculture-based households using sustainable technologies to counter soaring food prices in Tanzania.
Specific objectives:
• strengthen the food security status of 25 000 vulnerable households using sustainable conservation agriculture (CA) technologies;
• support small-scale water-harvesting initiatives; and
• promotion of community-level small-livestock initiatives, such as chicken and goat rearing.
Beneficiaries: 25 000 households
Implementing Partner(s): Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) and National Research Institute
Project Duration: July 2008 – December 2009 (18 months)
Total Project Budget: USD 3 000 000
Needs
Over 80 percent of Tanzanian's vulnerable households live in rural areas, with an average per capita annual income of USD 2301 .
Regular occurrences of natural disasters, such as floods and droughts, have led to conditions of food insecurity, which have been aggravated by soaring prices of food, agricultural inputs and fuel, mainly affecting the vulnerable poor. Levels of chronic malnutrition remain high and 54 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Approximately 80 percent of the population are dependent on agricultural livelihoods. Some 520 000 people are in a situation of chronic food and nutrition insecurity in the arid and semiarid provinces of Mwanza, Kagera, kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Pwani, Morogoro and Lindi (according to the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN) of October 2007).
Only about five million hectares (13.8 percent) of the arable land is under cultivation, with 99 percent cultivated by smallholder farmers2 . While land is available in abundance, expansion of land under effective agricultural use is limited by constraints that include labour, limited availability of sustainable farming options (such as CA) across the agro-ecological zones and limited use of draught power. Additional constraints to productivity include: limited access to water for household use and irrigation; nutrient leaching and water-logging owing to excessive rainfall; and the rising number of chronically sick, elderly-headed, female-headed and orphan-headed households, as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. As a result of soaring prices, an increasing number of agricultural inputs are becoming unaffordable, culminating in increased food insecurity and vulnerability.
1 The country ranks 168 out of 177 countries in the United Nations development index.
2 Trabalho de Inquérito AgrÃcola (TIA) 2007.
Tanzania registers a 4000 tonne deficit of various food products, including rice, wheat, maize, Irish potatoes, chicken, fish and cooking oil, according to the Government’s strategic plan to combat soaring food prices. The shortage of sufficient basic food commodities, owing to the lack of established food value chains and increases in international market prices, has had the greatest impact on the net food buyers in the rural and urban areas. Bread prices have increased by over 50 percent, provoking protests to price increases in major urban areas. Supporting sustainable agriculture initiatives for vulnerable small-holder farmers strengthen food security, income generation and sustainable livelihoods, thereby buffering the negative impacts of soaring food prices.
Activities
FAO’s Emergency Programme for Tanzania is a poverty reduction and food security-oriented package of integrated project activities. Rehabilitation of small-scale irrigation schemes and promotion of CA have been the main activities. Provision of agricultural inputs through input trade fairs (ITFs) and promotion of crop diversification have been done through practical demonstrations at school garden and community levels, in collaboration with MINAG. Support is also being given at small-holder level to promote the local production of food commodities, such as cassava, including their processing, in order to counter soaring food prices. Disaster risk reduction activities are also being promoted to improve the resilience of producer households to natural disasters.
The proposed project activities to assist in sustainable and diversified agricultural production include:
1. identification of stakeholders and beneficiaries
2. participatory procurement and distribution of agricultural inputs, to include:
a. drought-tolerant varieties of maize, sorghum, pearl-millet, finger-millet, cowpeas, mung-bean and sweet-potato during the rainy and dry seasons; and
b. 5 000 jab planters, 200 oxen-drawn seed planters, fertilizer, 1 000 knapsack sprayers for the use of botanical pesticides, 1 000 knife rollers to promote labour-saving conservation technology covering 25 000 vulnerable households
3. preparing and disseminating training materials on CA techniques
4. conducting training on various technical packages and practices on CA and crop management to cover 25 000 vulnerable households and 250 extension officers of MINAG
5. establishing 500 Training and Demonstration Units (TDUs) on CA techniques to provide visual evidence and facilitate learning, including:
a. establishing water harvesting and moisture conservation techniques, such as water tanks and wells for small-scale irrigation, construction of contours and use of organic sources of nutrients (e.g., manure and plant biomass)
6. conducting field activities by farmers with extension support from MINAG and other stakeholders´ extension staff, including:
a. crop production;
b. producing organic manure using local materials and technologies; and
c. promoting post-harvest technologies and value addition of produce for local markets.
7. conducting monitoring and evaluation of the activities (e.g. surveys at pre- and post-planting phases, as well as during the crop growth period, to monitor progress and assign impacts)
Small livestock initiatives:
1. introduction/strengthing of small-livestock (poultry and goats) re-stocking activities
2. training and capacity building of stakeholders and farmers in small-livestock production and management
3. provision of essential veterinary drugs, vaccines and supplies
4. coordination with other livestock projects
Outcomes
• Diversified and intensified food production leading to improved food and nutrition supply, as well as income generation by 25 000 households currently facing transitory or chronic food insecurity
• Environmentally sustainable, cost-effective and technically productive agronomic, water and plant pest/disease management techniques being practiced in the arid and semi-arid areas of Tanzania for increased resilience to the negative impacts of soaring food prices
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Budget Items USD
Staff costs 150 000
Input costs 2 650 000
Administration costs 200 000
Total 3 000 000
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