Tanzania Fund

Tanzania Agricultural Scale-Up

'to provide Tanzanians with sustainable and secure sustenance and income'

Tanzania has become the third country (after India and Honduras) to be part of the Oxfam Global Agricultural Scale Up Programme. This programme is intended to increase agricultural productivity and crop and farming reliability in agrarian economies across the world. As lessons are learned and techniques proven from these pilot countries, it is intended that they will be rolled out to other countries.

80% of Tanzanians work in agriculture, so improving agricultural yields and resistance to drought would lead to a significant improvement in living standards, quality of life and life expectancy. Shinyanga was chosen in 2007 to be the pilot region for the Tanzanian Agricultural Scale Up (TASU) programme. Oxfam requested the Tanzania Fund to be the cornerstone investor in this project.

Future for TASU

The focus on chicken farming in Tanzania is the first stage of TASU. Building on the success of the chicken project TASU will expand to include other essential food production in Tanzania such as rice, sisal and chickpeas. These foods are everyday nutrition for Tanzanians and can be improved by the training of farmers and correct equipment. This will help stablise food supplies and prevent futures famines which have troubled the area.

The whole TASU programme has now been secured until 2011, with a massive €1.0m grant from the European Union. This will cover the next stage of the local chicken and rice production and marketing work, as well as additional activities around road construction and irrigation, and disaster risk reduction activities in all 60 villages across the 4 districts.

Typical skinny Tanzanian rooster






Mrs Esther Deus Jackson with her chickens. For more about the Jacksons click here.

Counting Your Chickens

The project started with a focus on chicken farming. This is because chicken is the principal source of protein in the area, being relatively cheap and easy to rear. Moreover women are usually responsible for looking after chickens within a household and so this project also aims to elevate the role of women and offer them greater security through their own production.

1. Education. Currently many people in the region are not familiar with the best techniques of chicken farming. The project aims to provide farmers with the knowledge of selective breeding, construction of chicken houses and preventing disease. In addition business knowledge such as record keeping and market analysis will be provided.

2. Community. Shared knowledge, experience and feedback is coordinated within communities to provide support and trust between local farmers.

3. Finance. A credit facilities have been set up for local farmers so they can receive small start-up loans and even expansion loans at lower rates than standard banks would offer.

To see how the project is progressing please look at the Tanzania Fund Annual Report 2009, Oxfam Tanzania Report 2007-2009 and also the Mid-term September 2009 progress report.