Projects in Tanzania
Since August 2009 ADDA and our Tanzanian partner Njombe Agricultural Development Organisation – NADO have been working together with the implementation of Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) in Tanzania. For many years ADDA’s projects with Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) have been successful in the north western part of Vietnam. Today African farmers in the southern highlands of Tanzania are learning valuable lessons from their Vietnamese colleagues. This new south-south partnership is now thriving with assistance from ADDA. The project is taking place in Njombe town district.The area is generally known as the Southern Highlands, because it iss characterized by high plateaus and several mountain ranges. The largest part of Njombe district is the Njombe High Plateau, with altitudes reaching 2,000 to 2,400 meters above sea level.
New changes are taking place in Tanzania and a reform has approved Njombe as a region. This is a new challenge for NADO. NADO is an agricultural organisation which aims at helping its members in the rural areas to improve their livelihood. The focus is on agricultural productivity, health and education. NADO holds some 3000 members in approximately 21 villages in the surroundings of Njombe town.
Objective and work approach
The objective of the development project is to improve the livelihoods of smallscale farmers in Njombe district. It is NADO’s responsibility to ensure dialogue with local authorities.
The project in Tanzaniais based on well known ADDA principles of FFSs. A FarmerFieldSchoolis a participatory work apporach. Main trainers are selected in villages and join and complete a course – Training of Trainers (ToT). The various farming techniques are passed on and taught to the FFS participants who are mainly fellow farmers in the village. The FFSs are focusing on crops such as maize and beans.
The primary targetgroup of the project are poor farmer families in Njombe district. Approximately 3,000 smallscale farmers should be trained in FFSs. After the FFS courses the project aims at facilitating the initiation of 36 interest groups. These groups are called Self Help Groups (SHGs) and should consist of farmers who have joined the FFS course. The idea behind the SHGs is to initiate small cooporatives which should be self suffient and help to develop the local community. The project also includes HIV / AIDS education in both ToT (Training of Trainees) as in FFSs.
Status quo
The ADDA office is a small office consisting of two full time personal, an intern, and our partner organization Njombe Agricultural Development Organization (NADO). 36 NADO members have received training as trainers for the FFSs. By now the trainers have trained around 500 farmers in the first FFS season that just finished in October 2010. The project has been fortunate to receive interest from local Medias such as newspapers and there is awareness of the project and its current activities in the communities.
So far the project has shown good results. Participation is very good (approximately 80%) and the trainers show consistent performance and are the key responsible for the implementation of methodology in the villages. However, ADDA Tanzania is still a very young program. We are still learning how to communicate with participants as well as the local authorities in order to reach the objectives of the program. The next step is to initiate around 70 FFSs ultimo 2010 and train approximately 1500 farmers. There will be some changes in the upcoming new season to ensure higher levels of participation.
