Helvetas restores mined natural productivity of two key Tanzania’s landscapes

MONDAY December 9, 2024

By Paul Sarwatt

The Tranquility News Correspondent, Tanzania

Helvetas Tanzania is, in collaboration with local authorities and communities, working round the clock to enrich landscapes in Singida and Simiyu regions, central Tanzania, through Ukijani Project.

The overarching goal of Ukijani, literally translated as greenish, is to improve livelihoods of the people in the drought-stricken semi-arid regions.

Smallholder farming communities in the landscapes are increasingly being hit by impacts of climate change, thanks to the ever growing population contributing to deforestation and soil erosion.

Years of monoculture farming, including indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, has mined the natural productivity of the landscapes in the regions.

The loss of biodiversity and declining soil health has left a negative impact on rural livelihoods, rendering the smallholder farming communities vulnerable to climate change, poor harvests and indebtedness.

Participatory needs assessment, which informed Ukijani, shows smallholder farmers wish to make a decent living, not only for themselves, but also for their future siblings, from the nearly 7.5-million-hectare landscapes.

Key for the communities is making their land sustainably productive once again and more resilient within the landscapes currently marred by floods and droughts.

They would like to have and apply more ‘nature-based solutions’ – technologies and approaches that are in their hands and that allow for a diversification of crops to take advantage of market variations.

They seek to reduce their dependence on expensive inputs and on single crops with single buyers who dictate prices.

The Ukijani, also known as Women in Green Production initiative, is in this backdrop working with the smallholder communities and private sector players operating in the regions, including cotton ginners and sunflower oil processors, to jointly promote organic farming in a bid to restore soil fertility on the landscapes.

The project links the smallholder communities through value chains of their products to markets beyond their geographic or administrative boundaries, as the private sector shapes the landscapes through demand and supply of the value chains involving large groups of the smallholders.

At the village level, Ukijani imparts entrepreneurial skills to youthful Local Service Providers (LSPs) to deliver advisory, input and marketing services related to ‘nature-friendly’ agriculture and business development.

This results into both opportunities for local youth to be employed and equips smallholder farmers with innovative skills, as the LSPs promote agroforestry, incorporating the use of nitrogen fixing species, drought-resistant crop varieties, composting, mulching and natural pesticides.

Ukijani has also introduced Village Loan and Saving Associations (VSLAs) to empower women and youth financially for them to buy or lease land, determine crops to grow, try out new crops or practices, and have enough voice to negotiate fair prices for their produces as a group.

VSLAs participate in village-level land use planning meetings and argue for land restoration and regenerative practices within the landscape, including planting trees at water catchment areas, protecting riverbanks from trampling livestock, and preventing gully erosion.

“Business as usual is no longer possible,” said Ukijani Project Manager Shoma Nangale, explaining that the project already had surpassed its target of reaching out to 5,000 women and youth, 3,300 being women and 2,500 men, just in one out of its three-year tenure.

“Ukijani boasts reaching out to 6,134 women and youth aged between 18 and 35 years,” said Shoma, adding that over 100 LSPs, 60 being women, from 150 villages of the project area had so far been trained.

Ukijani engages a consultant in training the VSLAs and the LSPs. The consultant creates rural entrepreneurship; suppors MSMEs development and growth; and identifies, promotes and incubates start-up ecosystem.

Ukijani boasts reaching out to 6,134 women and youth aged between 18 and 35 years,” Shoma Nangale, Ukijani Project Manager.

The consultant also builds ecosystems in villages that would nurture and promote sustainable livelihood options for the community through farmer-producer organisations and agri-entrepreuners.

In Singida Region, Helvetas Tanzania is implementing the $1.4-million worth Ukijani in Manyoni, Ikungwi, and Iramba districts as well as in Singida Municipality, while in Simiyu Region, the project covers Meatu and Bariadi districts as well as Baridi Town.

Shoma told The Tranquility News recently when she visited Utulivu VSLA along with the Ukijani team at Muahalala Village in Manyoni District, Singida Region:

“We initially focused on imparting environmental conservation education, organic farming, horticulture, and agroforestry at household level, but we have now widened the scope to reach out to primary and secondary schools. Results are promising.

“The project has exceeded its goals, public awareness has doubled, the provision of social services has improved, and the quality of nutrition at the household level has also increased.”

Among objectives of Ukijani include empowering women to secure more economic opportunities, skills and to penetrate into decision-making machineries of their communities, she added.

Roda Anderson, the Chairperson of Utulivu VSLA, said Ukijani saved their lives, as with the education imparted to them, they had improved the environment surrounding their households and farms by planting trees for both fruits and timber.

“We also have a nursery for raising tree seedlings we sell to people in need of fruits, medicinal herbs and timber. So far we have 13,744 seedlings,” explained Roda, adding that leadership skills Ukijani had imparted to them had increased their participation in basic development issues in their villages.

Nuru Mayengo, another Utulivu VSLA member, however, highlighted a number of challenges the group was facing, including pests such as ants destroying trees, water scarcity and lack of reliable markets for their value chain crops.

Sasilo Village in Manyoni District is also a beneficiary of Ukijani through organic and agroforestry farming as well as bee keeping projects which Tumaini Beekeeping Group is pursuing, Pili Hussein, the Chairperson of the village Environment Committee, admitted.

Ukijani provided the village with 10,000 tree seedlings, said Pili, explaining that they were also grappling with ants, drought, and stray livestock which were destroying tree seedlings once planted.

Tumaini Beekeeping Group Secretary Saleh Nasri said the beekeeping project with over 100 hives had increased income of its membersΩ