Feb. 2015—In the minds of many young Tanzanians aged 18 to 35, farming does not offer the economic opportunities or the attractive lifestyle many aspire to achieve. This sentiment is best encapsulated in the lyrics of the popular post-World War I song, “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?).”
This desire to pursue something aside from farming is further exacerbated in Tanzania by patriarchal cultural traditions that limit access to land by younger family members. This restriction to land has quickened the tendency of younger generations to migrate to urban centers where they perceive the quality of life and earning potential to be not only better, but also less constrained by tradition. As the song goes, “They’ll never want to see a rake or a plow…”
To halt this trend and its impact on the future of Tanzanian agriculture, USAID, through the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future, works to create rural youth groups and train them in techniques that will generate new economic opportunities in the agriculture sector. The youth groups are trained to provide services to farmers, such as seeding, weeding and spraying.
Ester Oscar Kiyule, 35, is chairperson of the Huduma Youth Group in the agriculturally rich Morogoro region of Tanzania. Prior to joining a USAID-supported Tanzania Staples Value Chain (NAFAKA) group, she farmed rice using traditional methods.
“My life status has really improved since I joined a NAFAKA youth group because I was able to build my own house, and my children receive quality education due to more household income,” said Kiyule.
By training youth groups on good agricultural practices like land preparation, proper planting and spacing, crop management, and post-harvest handling, Feed the Future helps to renew interest in agriculture and provides youth with important training in techniques that benefit the entire sector. Seventeen youth groups have already been formed with a total of 220 members and, of those, 43 members (51 percent of whom are female) have started offering services to farmer customers.
Group members are hired by farmers to perform spraying services, transplanting, direct seeding and weeding activities. The Huduma Youth Group’s 10 members, of whom half are women, have already generated a total of $1,280 working as agricultural service providers.
The group has invested 70 percent of its profit into the purchase of 1 acre of shared land, four spraying pumps, and three dibblers (a tool for planting bulbs or seedlings) and has collectively decided to divide the remaining 30 percent amongst themselves for individual use. The group has 21 regular clients and has delivered services on 50 total acres of land.
“Working as a group has helped many of our members believe that they can be someone reliable to many,” said Kiyule. “I am very excited that I am a role model for other youth in our community.”
Through this initiative, a wider range of economic opportunities in the agriculture sector are being developed, creating jobs for youth and young adults in rural areas, establishing linkages that strengthen agricultural value chains and increase productivity, and ensuring the future of the sector in Tanzania.
The NAFAKA project, which runs from 2011 to 2016, seeks to sustainably reduce poverty and food insecurity by increasing incomes for smallholder farmers, including men, women and youth. It integrates agricultural, gender, environmental and nutritional development efforts to improve smallholder farmer productivity and profitability within the maize and rice value chains in Tanzania.
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