We are working with local institutions to restructure Tanzania's cotton sector and build supportive markets to ensure more than 400,000 farmers can access the quality inputs and training they need to improve agronomy, increase yields and boost incomes.
Cotton in Tanzania is a sector which has huge potential for pro-poor impact. Up to half a million smallholder farmers - concentrated in some of the poorest and least fertile regions of the country - grow the crop. The sector has scope for significant growth: Tanzania’s average cotton yields of 550kg per hectare are barely a quarter of the world average and even smallholders in West Africa achieve yields twice as high. Furthermore, there is potential to raise the quality of Tanzanian cotton from its current low level which sees it trading at a discount on world markets.
Low quality and limited availability of supporting services and inputs.
Tackling these constraints by strengthening sector institutions, regulatory frameworks, farmer-processor relationships and supportive markets would transform Tanzanian cotton, enabling more than 400,000 farmers to access a sustainable supply of the quality inputs, training, information and credit they need to improve agronomy, increase yields and boost incomes. Poverty in the Lake Zone - where most of Tanzania's cotton is grown and 20 per cent of its population lives - would be massively reduced.
To help achieve this vision, in 2007 Gatsby launched a large-scale, long-term and holistic programme in partnership with the sector’s governing body – the Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB).
The Programme is supporting the TCB to champion the restructuring of the entire industry around contract farming – a system that addresses the key constraint of farmers’ lack of finance for inputs by ensuring that only ginners who invest in smallholders are licensed to buy, sell and export cotton. After three seasons of pilots a form of contract farming was implemented in the 2011/12 season which saw more than 290,000 farmers receive inputs on credit, contributing to a record crop.
However political support faltered and the system was largely abandoned for the following season. The Programme has since worked closely with the TCB to build District-level support for contract farming, refining mechanisms for local government ownership of the contract farming agenda and enhancing systems for data dissemination and communication. You can learn more about our changing approach to regulatory reform in the sector by clicking here to download a 2015 case study.
The Programme is supporting a public-private partnership between local research stations and an international private sector seed company to develop, multiply and distribute improved seed. This has secured the effective multiplication of a new generation of seed (UKM08) which offers significant yield improvements (+25%) as well as significant ginning outturn benefits (>20%). Through its work with local research institutes, the Programme has also identified a set of improved pesticides for better Integrated Pest Management and these are currently being approved for widespread use.
The Programme has established demonstration farms piloting conservation or “minimum-tillage” agriculture and good agricultural practices, which can dramatically increase yields and rebuild nutrient-poor soils. Ongoing and on-farm research shows that these practices can triple average yields when combined with improved seed and correct pesticide use. The Programme has trained and supported a network of about 1,700 lead farmers across the sector to educate their peers on the practice and benefits, and is currently developing a network of private service providers to offer support services, such as tractor-drawn ripping for field preparation.
Since reversal of the contract farming policy in 2012, the Programme has trialled efforts to develop its network of lead farmers into input distributors, initially bulking village demand but eventually developing into stockists of inputs for a range of crops. In November 2014 lead farmers collectively purchased more than US$60,000 of inputs for distribution. This developing network might ultimately be coordinated in the future under a not-for-profit enterprise or even a farmer-owned business, which could play further roles including in crop purchase, marketing and even credit supply.
The Programme’s early work convinced other donors of its benefits, and co-funding has been secured from the UK’s Department for International Development, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
Looking ahead, the Programme will continue to promote contract farming while mitigating against the risks of future reversals in policy by supporting lead farmers as input distribution agents. It will also continue work to deliver training in conservation agriculture; support ginners in engaging with farmers; and secure the sustainable supply of inputs and improved seed.
We have established the Textile Development Unit in Tanzania’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Unit is tasked with developing the resources and skills needed to create the right environment for increased foreign and domestic investment into the sector.
We have set-up the Forestry Development Trust – an independent institution working with the public and private sectors to transform the Tanzanian forestry sector by increasing the supply of higher-value wood products and energy from sustainable sources while promoting smallholders’ profitable participation in the sector.
We are building the Tanzanian tea sector in partnership with the Wood Foundation Africa, government bodies and the private sector. The Chai Project aims to expand tea cultivation, increase productivity, improve quality and boost returns to smallholders.
We have expanded our partnership with the Wood Foundation Africa in tea sector development from Tanzania to Rwanda. The Imbarutso Project is working with government, factories and farmers to bolster the sector’s competitiveness and ensure that smallholders benefit from its growth.