There is nothing small about a smallholder

Smallholder farmers are people who own or work on small plots of land, typically less than two hectares, and rely on farming as their primary source of income. These farmers often grow a variety of crops and raise livestock to provide for their families and sell surplus produce in local markets.

Smallholder farmers are a vital part of the global food system, producing a significant amount of the world's food, particularly in developing countries. In Tanzania, for example, over 75% of the country's population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, and smallholder farmers produce about 90% of the country's food.

Smallholder farmers face a number of challenges, including limited access to financing, markets, and technology. Many also lack basic infrastructure, such as roads and irrigation systems, which can make it difficult to transport and store their crops. Additionally, smallholder farmers are vulnerable to climate change and other environmental risks, such as droughts and floods.

Women make up a significant proportion of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women make up over 70% of the agricultural labor force in Tanzania and are responsible for producing over half of the country's food.

However, despite their significant contributions to agriculture, women farmers in Tanzania face a range of challenges that can limit their productivity and economic opportunities.

These challenges include limited access to land, credit, and markets, as well as social and cultural barriers that prevent women from fully participating in decision-making and accessing resources.

By investing in women farmers, we can help to promote sustainable development, reduce poverty, and ensure food security for all.

Thank you

Nina

How do you grapple with old age when you live in severe poverty?

As most women are not employed formally, they do not have a pension to look forward to, nor would they have a any savings for old age. Less than 25% of all Tanzanians hold a bank account – and the number of women with a bank account is significantly less.

Working in the informal sector means doing cash-in-hand jobs like selling tomatoes on the side of the road, rearing chickens and selling the eggs, doing cleaning services for someone more well-off, or mending clothes.

Typically, these jobs only generate enough cash for you to get by (or not even that) and there is not anything left for saving.

So how are you going to eat and pay for medical needs in old age?

The most common way is to have enough children for them to look after you financially and practically in your old age.

Tanzanian women have an average of four or five children – the global average is two. It is a vicious cycle. Having children young – Tanzania has a high rate of teen pregnancies – negatively affects their opportunities to have a better education or job. Knowledge and acceptance of contraception is lacking or misleading. Abortion is illegal and although backstreet clinics exists their procedures comes at a high risk.

Tanzania will be one of eight countries responsible for more than half of the increase in global population by 2050. Five of those countries will be in Africa. According to UN, sub-Saharan Africa’s population will nearly double to more than 2 billion by 2050. The region is growing three times faster than the global average and, by 2070, it will become the most populous place globally, surpassing Asia.

One way of breaking this cycle is providing ways for women to become financially independent and remove barriers (such as finances) to send girls to school to acquire knowledge, and getting better and higher paying jobs.

That is one of the very important outcomes of our Kilimu Bora | Smart Farming project:

“Participants are offered a hands-on training, in which they are taught both the agricultural and business aspects of operating and managing a mushroom farm.

By giving a preference to women and people with disabilities we are ensuring the initiative is supporting the most vulnerable groups within the community.

Through research, it has been proven that when women are being supported in taking up income generating activities, the financial outcome is then reinvested for the benefit of the entire household i.e., invested in children’s education and health or in long-term and sustainable investments in collective living standards. Furthermore, such women tend to benefit from increased social status due to their newfound income, directly improving situations in which gender inequality is the norm.”

If you want to support us or know more about our Kilimu Bora | Smart Farming project you can click here

Is there any hope for Irene's children?

It is 12 noon, and the sun has reached its highest point, beating down on my head as I walk towards a few neighbourhood houses scattered in a remote village.

A delicious smell of cooking is reaching me from some of the homes. However, when I reach Irene’s house, the smell is different; a stale and empty smell come from the little mud house in which she lives.

Irene* is sitting on the ground under a tree outside her one-room mud house. She is not alone; with her is her youngest daughter aged 3. After spending hours looking for water, this is the only time she gets to rest before she starts to prepare the evening meal for her family. “I am so tired; I have been up since 4am to fetch water from a seasonal waterhole. It has taken me almost six hours to fill all my buckets. Because the waterholes are dry most of the year, once there is water, you spend a long time waiting in line,” she explains.

The 38-year-old mother of five is currently raising her children alone after her second husband left her two years ago. Coming from a poor family, she never had an opportunity to go to school because her parents couldn’t afford to pay for her school expenses.

Even though tuition is free in Tanzania her family could not afford the costs for a school uniform, pencil, paper, and books. 

She admits poverty is taking its toll on her children, especially her eldest son. Irene says her son has become a village boy with no future after completing form four (Grade 10 equivalent). There are no jobs and they do not have the money for school fees for him to go to college.

Irene earns about $2 a day selling tomatoes on the side of the street. Most days she can afford to cook two meals a day for her little family but some days, when business is slow, she can only afford to offer her children one meal a day.

Irene sees little hope for her children. She wishes her children will get to finish their education, get a job, and break the poverty cycle in her family. “It’s hard to predict the future. Unless my children finish their education and get good jobs, they will end up like me. No parents wish to see their children live in poverty. Reality is, things are hard, and they keep getting tougher each day,” the struggling mother says.

Last Monday we marked the International Day for Eradicating Poverty. Irene and her children are just one family among thousands of families living in poverty throughout the Nyamatongo Ward, and Tanzania.

If you would like to help us eradicate poverty, you can make your difference here:

https://www.australiaforcedartanzania.org/make-a-difference-australia-for-cedar-tanzania-changing-lives

Thank you.

* Irene is not her real name.

Best Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility

Australia for Cedar Tanzania received a Highly Commended award for our mushroom project in Tanzania.

This award is part of Australia-Africa Minerals and Energy Group’s (AAMEG) yearly Africa Awards presented as part of the Africa Downunder (ADU) conference.

ADU is the largest mining conference with a focus on Africa held outside Africa, and AAMEG is the peak body representing Australian companies engaged in the development of Africa’s resource industry. 

What is Kilimu Bora | Smart Farming?

Kilimu Bora means Smart Farming in Swahili. All projects under this banner revolve around food security, entrepreneurship, gender equality, climate change, nutritional health, and the environment.

Our first Smart Farming project has been the establishment of mushroom farming. This includes mushroom growth, drying methods, business skills and export agreements.

Mushroom farming as a business is new in Tanzania, and we are one of the leading pioneers in the area.

Through this project we are addressing a range of social, economic, and environmental challenges. We provide skilled training for vulnerable groups such as young women and people with disabilities and their household members.

Participants are offered hands-on of training, in which they are taught both the agricultural and business aspects of operating and managing a mushroom farm. The training includes how to grow and harvest mushrooms, preparing substrate, drying and packaging, how to meet international sterilisation and hygiene standards, quality control, bookkeeping, environmental best practises and compliance, market navigation, and customer service. The participants also learn how to source organic substrate materials locally and how to store this for optimal produce production.

Our high-quality mushrooms can be sold both locally and internationally thanks to our innovative custom-built driers, not using electricity but only the heat from the sun and a clever use of the airflow.

During the selection of participants priority was given to young women and to people with disabilities or their household members.

Gender inequality is prevalent in Tanzania and starts for girls already at a very young age when they often are deprived of the chance of an education in favour of their brothers. Without a good education, many girls and young women will remain both financially and emotionally dependent on parents, partners, or husbands. People with disabilities bear the double burden of poverty and exclusion due to financial, social, and environmental barriers coupled with a high degree of stigma present across Tanzania.

Why Mushrooms? 

90% of the Tanzanian population of 60 million people are living on less than $5.00 PPP. 49% is surviving on less $1.90 PPP per day – the international definition of severe poverty. Of these, the vast majority, 80%, are living in rural areas such as the Nyamatongo Ward.

Choosing mushrooms as the vehicle for agri-business is beneficial for several reasons:

No Land Required

Mushrooms are grown in buckets and indoors, and hence easier allow women and disabled people to become equal participants in their family’s and community’s economic life.

Research shows that fewer women and people with disabilities own land, and that they do not have equal access to manual labour.

Year-Round Crop, Independent of Rainfall

Through careful selection of species and growing conditions, mushrooms can be grown year-round regardless of change in rain patterns.

Climate change has shown irregularities to rainfall in the region with current draught and famine in the Horn of Africa. More specifically, the Mwanza region has experienced persistent irregular rainfall over the last number of years, which can have extensively harmful effects on local agriculture.

Minimal Initial Investment

This allows for economic opportunity even for women and people with disabilitiess with minimal control of their family finances.

Our project encourages collaborative farming and includes financial support and training during the initial set-up period.

Fast Return on Investment

The mushroom growth cycle can be as short as 8-10 weeks, allowing farmers to see profit extremely quickly.

This is important for the ability to establish income and re-investment in next growth cycle.

Not Labour Intensive

Mushrooms can easily be grown by any member of the household without the need to hire additional help. One of the main barriers seen to extensive farming is access to labour and machinery.

No Educational Background Required

After a relatively short training period, participants are ready to begin cultivating mushrooms.

We embrace a hands-on learning process which allows participants to gain the necessary skills no matter previous level of schooling and their academic capabilities.

High Nutritional Value

Mushrooms are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals and provide an excellent nutritional boost in areas that suffer from malnutrition such as the communities in which we are working.

Community Benefits

We encourage all our participants to establish collaborative farms servicing the local community. Collaborative farming minimises investment costs for the participants including cost to transport bio waste, initial purchases of buckets and tools, and a cost-effective solution to house the farm.

A collaborative farm has other advantages too: the strength of the shared knowledge and the ability to support each other in farming duties. This increases the success rate of the farm as well as enhances the quality of the produce.

By giving a preference to women and people with disabilities and their household members we are ensuring the initiative is supporting the most vulnerable groups within the community. Through research, it has been proven that when women are being supported in taking up income generating activities, the financial outcome is then reinvested for the benefit of the entire household i.e., invested in children’s education and health or in long-term and sustainable investments in collective living standards.

Having an increased production of fresh mushrooms will benefit the entire community of more than 35,000 people through access to an additional and affordable crop with high nutritional value.

Stunted growth and development are caused by a combination of malnutrition, prolonged and repeated infections, and untreated worms and parasites. This is common sight as it affects 38% of children under 5 years old in rural Tanzania. Supplementing their diets with oyster mushrooms will assist in combatting stunted growth in children.

 Sustainability

Responsible Cyclic Agriculture and Prevents the Burning of Agricultural Waste

Our mushrooms are grown on agricultural waste, saving expenses, and preventing the common practice of burning waste.

Avoiding burning of agricultural waste ties in with climate change best practises.

No Pesticides or Fertiliser Required

This both saves on expenses while also ensuring no chemical runoff or harmful agricultural practices. Spent substrates can be reused or sold as fertilizer after the mushroom growth is complete.

With the current hike in fertiliser price and scarce availability this makes mushroom farming a very appealing and cost-effective crop. In addition, in rural areas women are often at a significant disadvantage in regard to purchasing quality fertiliser, since access to such products are often prioritized towards male farmers.

Long-Term Financial Growth Potential

There are several ways a farm could expand: Entrepreneurs can expand into more exotic, high-value mushroom strands as their financial stability increases. Alternatively, there is a growing market for medicinal mushrooms.

Further several niche products are being produced such as mushroom leather, mushroom bricks, or to dispose of oil spills and non-degradable waste products.

Part of our long-term project plan is to provide a safety-net option to purchase any surplus production which will be dried and exported as wholesale to the international market.

High Demand on the International Market

Dried mushrooms have a one-year shelf life and can be sold internationally to a wide range of customers. This includes both B2B and B2C customers, wholesaling, distribution, and to businesses for further processing.

We currently have buyers in Singapore and in East Africa for distribution in Europe and in the USA.

Financial Sustainability after Seed-Funding

After initial central set-up and establishment of first round of collaborative farms the project is financially sustainable with income generated from export of central production as well as surplus production from the collaborative farms.

As a not-for-profit, any financial surplus will be re-invested into further strengthening and expansion of the mushroom project or into our healthcare services.

Furthermore, interest has already been shown from international impact investing companies for further scaling and expansion.

Scalability to other areas

Long-term plans include scaling this project to other areas outside of Nyamatongo Ward. Interest for our project has been shown by organisations working in the refugee camps in the Kigoma area housing approximately 250,000 residents.

Additionally, a potential collaboration with companies working with other dried fruit and vegetables could be imagined. Also in this area, interest has been shown from potential partner companies.

What now?

Currently we are actively seeking seed funding for a year-long upscaling after which the project is financially sustainable.

Our goals include creating a permanent production and ongoing teaching centre at our Community Centre. In the first year we are aiming to have successfully trained 200 residents in mushroom farming. We will deliver ongoing support to new farms and provide teaching in business skills and banking.

Wellbeing and nutritional health will improve throughout the area for all its residents. There will be a steady supply of highly nutritious locally sourced produce and indirectly an increase in household income. It will also strengthen women and people with disabilities position in their communities. 

Through an upscaled project we will also be able to safety-net newly established mushroom farms against loss from over-production by setting up procedures to approve and test each farm is in alignment with international requirements allowing their produce to be used for export.

You can of course help us get a head start towards our ambitious AUD $150,000 goal by clicking on the big green button to donate. Even $20 gets us towards this goal.

If you want to know more about the project you can contact Nina here.

 Thank you!

Mushrooms are the answer to…. EVERYTHING!

Poverty alleviation, better nutrition, job creation, equality, health, climate change, sustainability, and long-term funding of al our projects!

It can’t get much better than that, can it?

Please listen to Tzippora explain here:

How does it work?

We are currently teaching the skills of mushroom farming in the rural communities in which we work. Collecting 2 tonnes of harvest waste from the surrounding fields that would otherwise have been burnt. This creates the basis of our substrate in which the mushrooms will grow.

Our mushrooms grows in buckets in which we have drilled holes in sides. We are using a couple of rooms in our newly refurbished community centre to house the mushroom farm.

Once the mushroom are ready, our participants will learn the right technique to harvest the mushrooms.

Fresh mushrooms have a relatively short shelf life and needs to be sold quickly. To help with this potential issue, we are adding a drying process at the end. Custom built driers not using electricity but only the heat from the sun has been developed and will enable us to make a product ready for local distribution and export.

How can mushrooms help fund other projects?

Once we start selling our crop the income will be used to sustain the mushroom farm and any surplus will support any of our other projects like Kamanga Health Centre and our Outreach Team.

How does the participants benefit?

Each participant learns a skill. Mushroom farming is very new in Tanzania and as such we are pioneers in this area.

The participants can use this skill to set up a small scale farm at home for own consumption, or they can set up a collaborative farm producing mushrooms in larger scale.

Any surplus of produce can be sold to us where we dry the mushrooms and package them to international standards and export the end product.

How can YOU help?

Even though we have provided the training for our participants free of charge, and we will provide continuous support to those who chose to continue to grow mushrooms, there is a small initial cost for the participant to get things needed to starting growing.

You can help by sponsoring one of our conveniently packaged bundles that will enable our participants to start growing mushrooms right away.

“Home Growing Kit” consists of everything needed for a participant to take home to start growing for own use, or maybe sell any little extra at the local market. A kit costs AUD $15 (USD $10).

“Farm Bundle” consist of everything needed for a 30 bucket farm. This is a small scale collaborative farm that can produce for own consumption, the local market or for drying and export. A farm bundle has the value of AUD $110 (USD $77).

Want to know more?

You can read more about this project on our website here

Regular updates are also on our social media platforms - click one of the Social Media buttons below and make sure to follow us!

Or contact Nina, our Founding Director and CEO, directly here

Neema defies paralysis thanks to Cedar Tanzania

What would you do?

Have you ever imagined what your life would look like if an accident was going to happen to you? Would you have the strength to keep going on?

Neema surely has. Seven years ago, Neema went to one of the larger regional hospitals to get treatment for typhoid. Unfortunately, Neema experienced nerve damage during her treatment and lost most of the mobility in her legs.

Neema is now 31 years old and lives with her parents. She relies on their help for all her basic needs. Neema also has three younger siblings who all still go to school.

Being dependent of her parents has had a huge impact on Neema’s mental health. She has been struggling with depression and feelings of being a burden to her family. As the family already lives in poverty having a member of the family not able to contribute financially is a huge strain. On top of that, there are all Neema’s extra medical bills.

Finding Neema

Our Outreach Team met Neema in 2019 and has since been working in close partnership with her and her family. This free service has provided Neema with a variety of treatment options for both her physical and mental health. 

With the help of our team, Neema has regained some movement in her legs and has literally taken her first few steps towards independence.

It is Neema’s desire to get to a point where she can support herself and contribute to her family. She is grateful to her family, particularly her parents, for the support they have given her through the difficulty times she has encountered. She hopes she one day will be able to return the kindness she has received.

A new beginning

Neema is excited to start our entrepreneurial training.

She says “I have some basic knowledge on sewing. I learnt a while ago before I suffered from paralysis, and I am confident that I can regain some skills if I will get the opportunity to practice again. It is something am interested about and something I am capable of doing”.

According to Neema’s physiotherapist, the tailoring training will help Neema to re-gain her sewing skills and hopefully help her to earn an income. It will empower and strengthen her emotionally, mentally, and physically. Sewing provides an opportunity to rebuild physical strength and this project also provides her with an opportunity to be surrounded by others who are facing similar challenges. 

What is typhoid?

Typhoid is a bacterial disease spread through dirty water and can be life-threatening if not treated. 

The residents of Nyamatongo Ward do not have access to treated water. The only water source is water collected from the lake. With no sewage systems in place, long-drops or open defecation is the norm and is naturally led to the water. Typhoid, and other waterborne diseases are very common in the area.

In fact, diarrhea, which is often caused by typhoid, is the biggest cause of death for children under five.

Can you help Neema and people like her?

Will you give a tax-deductible gift to help Neema and others like her become agents of change in their communities? 

Your gift can pay for training, material and sewing machines to help people with disabilities learn income-generating skills and challenge social stigma.

Changing Lives begins with you. We can’t do it without you.

How a deaf and mute young man learned a trade in 6 months and now supports his mother and 3 siblings.

Today I am going to tell you about Fred and how our Entrepreneur Program has changed his life.

Despite Fred being both deaf and mute from birth, and growing up in a very poor household, he has been determined to learn a trade and become able to provide for his family. 

In this case study I will show you how our Entrepreneur Program makes a real difference for people just like Fred and his family.

Meeting Fred

Fred is a 21-year old young man living in rural Tanzania. Throughout his life Fred has had to rely on his mother for support. Going to school has been particularly hard for Fred as there are not any special education or help available in this poverty-stricken community. Only with the help of his mother he has learned to write and communicate with some simple gestures.

Fred grew up with his single mother and three siblings. It has always been his dream to be able to contribute to the household and to be able to look after his family. Although societies in Tanzania often disregard people with disabilities Fred and his mother never gave up hope.

Reaching Out

Our Outreach Team met Fred and his family on one of their daily rounds in the Nyamatongo Ward where we work. The Outreach Team provide medical healthcare services to people in their own homes for those of the 30,000 residents who are unable to visit our hospital, Kamanga Health Centre. 

Often the team stops and talks to families about life and the problems they are experiencing. They will share knowledge on a variety of healthcare topics such as nutrition, and treatments and services available. Sharing their own stories and speaking to people on a daily basis has made this team a trusted part of our community service.

After meeting Fred and his family our team instantly offered him a spot in our Entrepreneur Program. They couldn’t help but feel Fred’s determination and eagerness to be given a chance to learn a trade and finally give something back to his family and community.

Earning a living

Fred joined our Entrepreneur Program in October 2020 and now 6 months later he is well on his way to opening his own tailoring business. 

The trainer and Fred’s fellow trainees have publicly acknowledged his passion and commitment to the project and his untiring support of others.

With only a limited number of sewing machines available in our program our students must take turns to practice. This means it takes even longer to gain the practical skills needed to finally be able to live independent lives. Fred is now advocating for more support and funding which could allow us to buy more sewing machines so more people with disabilities can join in the future. 

Apart from the practical tailoring skills our program is also teaching the participants simple bookkeeping skills, market research, project planning, and we offer support and help throughout the program.

Living with a disability in Tanzania

In Tanzania, living with a disability has a significant impact on health, education and work possibilities. More than 50% of children suffering from a disability never gets to go to school.

In Tanzania, having a member of the household living with any kind of disability presents a double burden. Just 3% of people with disabilities earn an income from paid employment which means they are extremely vulnerable to abuse and poverty.

This project provides an opportunity for the participants to gain the skills to reach independence and the chance to get a job or to open their own businesses. 

It also demonstrates, both to the people living with a disability themselves and to the community, that a disability is a barrier that can and should be challenged.

It provides people living with a disability with an important and valued role within the society showing they are equal members of their communities.

Tanzania in numbers:

•  There are about 57M people – 68% or nearly 40M people are living in rural areas and most of these are living in poverty. Life expectancy is 65 years.

• In fact, 49% of Tanzanians (26M people) are living on less than $1.90 a day. This is the international definition of severe poverty.

• Most people, 90%, is living on less than $5 a day. That’s about the amount you spent on that take-away coffee earlier today.  
  
  

Can you help people like Fred?

Will you give a tax-deductible gift to help more people like Fred to become agents of change in their communities? 

Your gift can pay for training, material and sewing machines to help people with disabilities learn income-generating skills and challenge social stigma.

Powerful Young Women Expanding Business During COVID-19

The aim of our Girl Power Project (Nguvu ya Binti) is to teach a group of young girls to set up and run their own business, based around sewing as a skillset.

Since the start of Girl Power in 2019, the girls have been taught how to use the sewing machines they have received through the project, how to grow their business and refine their skills. Unfortunately, due to the global coronavirus pandemic we were forced to suspend the Girl Power Project. This was a necessary step in order to protect not only our field team but also the powerful young women.

Young women in Tanzania often experience gender inequality early in life when they deprived of the chance of an education in favour of their brothers. Without a good education, many girls and young women will remain financially dependent on parents, partners or husbands. 

Further, should a young girl fall pregnant during her years at school she will be expelled and not able to return to any public education again.

Even so, these young powerful women showed us their resilience and strength when they approached us and asked if we could teach them how to sew face masks which they could sell at Kamanga Health Centre. What a brilliant idea!

Our sewing teacher, Mussa, and our senior field officer, Jacqui, were more than happy to carry out this training, and created a COVID-19 protocol making sure safety measures where in place to ensure the girls and facilitators were protected from contracting the virus during the sessions (e.g. use of sanitiser, social distancing, small group teaching). 

The first session took place in May and has continued with weekly sessions. Capital to buy materials where taken from their own savings made previously through this project. They are now aware this capital has to be repaid before profit is made.

In order to guarantee that the masks are used safely and correctly, each mask will be accompanied by an instructional leaflet.

The Girl Power Project has embedded an entrepreneurial mindset in these powerful young women who are now playing a vital role in contributing to the COVID-19 response and having a real impact on the community.

---

Girl Power

Cedar Tanzania’s volunteer from US Peace Corps, Dylan Parkin, has been hard at work these last few months, investigating potential educational and entrepreneurial projects that could be implemented in the village of Kamanga. This May has seen Dylan venture out on his very first pilot entrepreneurial project called “Nguvu ya Binti” (Girl Power)!  This has resulted in him putting into use, for the very first time, the Community Centre that Sengerema District Council kindly donated to Cedar Tanzania to support us in our community projects. In mid May Dylan together with Cedar Tanzania’s field officer Jackie held their first entrepreneurial meetings with seven young women between the ages of 18 -24 years old.

Dylan writes, “The aim of the project is to facilitate the setting up and running of a women-owned social enterprise that manufacture reusable cloth sanitary pads to help girls and women of Nyamatongo handle their periods safely, hygienically and inexpensively. The approach entails to train a group of girls on entrepreneurial skills, menstrual health and hygiene, and sewing classes to equip them with what is needed to be able to produce and sell the pads economically."

The pilot phase started on May 13th and is planned to be reviewed after 10 weeks. It is hoped however that the project will be able to continue until mid-September. The training has been divided into 3 parts: Training on entrepreneurship, sewing classes, education on menstrual hygiene. 

After the topic of generating business ideas, we started on the topic of analyzing the idea's potential. Upon finishing this, the girls were sent into the village to do market research. Through this, they have found that the women of Kamanga are indeed interested in reusable cloth sanitary pads.

Now the only research which remains is the cost analysis. We have recently covered the topic of costs and pricing. The girls will soon be going to shops in Mwanza to price the needed materials. This means that within the next week we should know if we will continue with the reusable cloth pads business idea, or if we need to go back to the drawing board and find a new business idea.
We felt it was important to do things this way so the girls could get first-hand experience of doing the research and of taking ownership of the business they are developing.
 

ACT is excited to find out how these amazing young women will fare and we wish them, Dylan and Jackie the best of luck.