Farmers in Chemba and Kondoa benefit from project on Agroforestry and Livelihood empowerment

Nearly 4000 farmers from various local communities of Chemba and Kondoa Districts, in Dodoma Region have benefitted from the five-year hybrid program entailing Agroforestry and livelihood empowerment.

Executed through Inades Formation Tanzania the project was sustained between 2028 and 2022.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) bankrolled the initiative through Vi Agroforestry Tanzania with the aim of reaching out to smallholder communities in eight villages of Dodoma.

There are also eight other core partners working with nearly 21,000 community members in the Lake Zone Regions of Mara, Mwanza and Kagera.

The ‘Institutional capacity building project of eight core partners for appropriate service delivery (ICBP),’ program is implemented under the Agroforestry Livelihood for Empowerment (ALIVE).

It helps to empower peasant families economically through sustainable market-oriented agriculture based on agroforestry.

Project coordinator, Abbawesiga Kamulali mentions other objectives of the program which has just been phased out, was to increase access and motivation of women and youth groups in Chemba and Kondoa to participate in leadership and decision-making matters concerning their communities.

“The other specific target of the initiative was also to heighten community engagement in natural resource management, sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation and mitigation among the beneficiary farmers in Dodoma,” he stated.

Inades Formation Tanzania also implemented the ‘Climate Change Adaptation for Improved Livelihoods in Semi-Arid areas,’ another special project on climate change resilience involving local farmers in Dodoma region.

The project which was executed in cooperation with the Agricultural Non State Actors Forum (ANSAF) had successfully managed to train the beneficiary farmers on proper land management, biological practices for the restoration of land fertility as well as soil moisture maintenance.

Farmers were also trained on how to restore soil fertility and moisture through agro-ecological methods, the initiative also capacitated the farmers to adopt improved drought tolerant seeds varieties as well as the Quality Declared Seeds (QDS).

Inades Formation Tanzania is a non-governmental organization (NGO) affiliated to the international association of Inades Formation. It was established in 1989 as a branch of Inades Formation Kenya