Farmer to Farmer East Africa
Volunteer Assignment Scope of Work
NOTE: THIS SCOPE OF WORK AWAITING FINAL EDITS
Assignment SummaryAssignment Code / TZ96
Country / Tanzania
Country Project / Tanzania horticulture value chain
Host Organization / Hai District Council- UWAKICHI cooperative and Moshi District Council- Tujiendeleze Farmers’ Group
Assignment Title / Farming as business
Objective of the assignment / Improvement of farmers’ skills on farming as business for planning and managing their farm enterprises. Focusing on:
· Farm record keeping
· Basic financial management
Assignment dates / October 2016 onwards
Desired volunteer skill/expertise / Agribusiness Specialist
A. BACKGROUND
The Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) East Africa program is a program that leverages US volunteer’s expertise to assist smallholder farmers and small-scale processors in 4 East African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia) to improve their business practices through volunteer assignments conducted with host organizations. Through F2F, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) will improve the livelihoods and nutritional status of significant numbers of low income households by: i) broadening their participation in established commodity value chains as producers and service providers; ii) strengthening community resilience to shocks such as drought, that adversely affect livelihoods; and iii) preserving/enhancing natural resources upon which most rural communities depend.
Horticulture is a focal sector for F2F program in Tanzania because the value chain is the key sources of livelihood for the majority of Tanzanians. Strategic interventions in this value chain also contribute to the USAID goal of sustainably reducing poverty and food insecurity by increasing productivity and profitability of the value chain. Growth of the horticulture sector in Tanzania is being hampered by a number of challenges; chiefly low productivity of horticultural crops due to poor faming skills, limited processing of horticultural products, poor farmers’ skills on farming as business and poor access to markets.
This scope of work is for providing volunteer technical assistance to two farmer associations; UWAKICHI Cooperative in Hai District and Tujiendeleze Kirima Boro Farmers’ Group in Moshi District. Hence, the assignment for this scope of work is to be hosted by Hai District Council and Moshi District Council. The F2F program has agreements with the two councils, for providing volunteer technical assistance to farmers in the respective districts.
The UWAKICHI cooperative, loosely translated to the “Association of Kikavu Chini River Scheme Water Users”; was established by farmers in Kikavu chini village (12km from Moshi town, the nearest big settlement with hotel and other facilities) and registered in 1999 under the Cooperatives Act of Tanzania. The cooperative currently has 168 members (126 men and 42 women) even though the total number of farmers benefiting from the scheme is 600. Under the scheme are farmers cultivating a variety of crops including maize, paddy, beans and assorted horticultural crops.
Tujiendeleze Kirima Boro Farmers’ Group is in Kirima Boro village- 10km away from Moshi town, Moshi Rural District. Members of Tujiendeleze group mainly cultivate purple passion fruit and tomato, with land holdings of half to 5 acres. The group has 45 members (25 men and 20 women) and about 548 potential beneficiaries. Horticulturalists from the government and an NGO called VECO Tanzania have trained the group on best farming practices and advice market access to the group.
In Tanzania setting, the district Council has the broad authority and responsibilities to carry out functions as a local government authority in the district (which is made up of numerous small wards which hold 3-5 villages) to look after the common interest of its residents. As far as agriculture development is concerned, the district council is mandated to do the following;
· Coordinating and organizing agriculture activities for farmers in the district
· Facilitating equitable availability of resources and infrastructure, e.g. land, water, farming inputs, marketing etc.
· Providing agriculture extension services to farmers. This is provided by extension officers who are employed by the council.
· Conflict resolution and maintaining law and order.
· Conduct and finance adaptive research in order to address problems/issues raised by farmers.
B. ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Enhancing farm incomes through market-oriented farming is considered a key strategy to address poverty and transitioning of Tanzania’s agriculture from subsistence to commercialized farming. However, majority of rural farmers lack the appropriate skills to operate their farms as income generating businesses. This is understandable considering that the average Tanzanian rural farmer has historically carried out farming primarily to meet household food requirements, selling only the excess. Therefore, to improve the livelihoods of rural farmers, it is important for them to view farming as a business.
Farming as business requires long term planning of the use of resources, day to day management and emphasizes a shift from farming for subsistence to farming for profit. Farmers must learn to critically examine the costs related to production and marketing and critically relate them to the benefits that accrue, through improved efficiencies and better farm management information. A farmer needs to know not only how to cultivate crops, but also how to manage his farm as any other business. Thus every farmer faces management problems of deciding which enterprise to have, economically how much to produce in each enterprise and what methods to use. Apart from the skills and knowledge necessary to manage the farm, a farmer also needs factors of production such as land, labor, capital and organization skills. A farmer has to plan well and also combine them well for maximum benefit from his farm.
The two farmers’ associations, i.e. UWAKICHI Cooperative and Tujiendeleze Farmers Group; have expressed the need for training on farming as business due to the following reasons:
- The farmers lack basic proficiencies in keeping production, financial and market records, resulting in bad business decisions in their farming enterprises.
- Due to inability to keep farm records properly, the farmers cannot correctly establish the actual cost that they have incurred in a farming season, which makes it difficult for the farmers to determine their profit margins. Without establishing profit margins, farmers fail to determine benchmark price for their produce, which results to middlemen fixing prices; sometimes well below market value.
- Poor record keeping coupled with poor market research and poor planning, contributes to inability to decide which crops to grow based on sound business principals of supply and demand. Most of the time their produce is of low quality and they fail to match production with high demand for their crop.
- Farmers do not have the ability to connect with loan and banking agencies to gain outside financial support for expanding farming enterprises.
C. Assignment Objectives
The overall aim of approaching farming as a business is to increase the incomes of the rural poor, or to put more money in the farmers’ pockets and into the rural economy. This will enable them to improve their standards of living in terms of housing, food security and basic household needs.
The volunteer will provide technical support to farmer groups in the areas of:
· Small farms record keeping;
· Small farm cost benefit analysis
· Small farm business budgeting matching with the regional farming calendar
· Small farm financial management
Most of farmers with in the two associations are literate and have experience in farming, which will make it easy to understand what they will learn during the assignment, and implement recommendations.
Host contribution – Moshi and Hai District Councils - the two hosts for this assignment, will collaborate with leadership of the two villages to mobilize not only members of the associations; but also farmers who are not members to attend trainings. Also, the leadership will avail key personnel to work with the volunteer and prepare training venue.
D. ANTICIPATED RESULTS FROM THE ASSIGNMENT
The primary immediate anticipated result of the training is improved knowledge of operating small scale farms as a business. The farmers will improve their ability to plan farming activities, allowing them to be able to negotiate price of their produce in the market. This will contribute to improved incomes and a higher level of resilience for farmers and their families.
The anticipated deliverables include:
· Trainings conducted and people trained
· Debriefing with USAID and in country group presentations after assignment
· Field trip reports and expense report
· Outreach activity, press release or a media event back in US
E. SCHEDULE OF VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY IN TANZANIA
N.B: This schedule is only indicative. A firm schedule will be prepared by the volunteer in collaboration with farmers. Sundays are rest days
Day / ActivityDay 1 / Travel from home to US international airport
Day 2 / Arrival in Tanzania at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. The volunteer will be picked from the airport by a designated cab and driven to the Uhuru Hotel in Moshi
Day 3 / Briefing and logistics discussion with CRS F2F staff at the hotel and visit UWAKICHI afternoon for introductions and program planning
Day 4-8 / Training to UWAKICHI farmers on farming as business.
Day 9 / Action planning and wrapping up with UWAKICHI
Day 10 / Visiting Tujiendeleze farmers for introduction and program planning
Day 11-14 / Training to Tujiendeleze farmers on farming as business
Day 15 / Action planning and wrapping up with Tujiendeleze farmers
Day 16 / Feedback meeting at Moshi and Hai District Council offices
At night the volunteer flies off to the US
TBD / Outreach events in the US
F. DESIRABLE VOLUNTEER SKILLS
The desired volunteer will have the following attributes:
· Formal qualifications in agribusiness development, farm business management, agricultural development or production economics
· Experience in farm management (an advantage)
· Experience with training and mentoring farmers in developing countries (an advantage)
· Ability to quickly adapt to new working environments and use interpreters (for example, to verify correctness of interpretation).
· Ability to sense and adopt if farmers are not understanding recommendations,
· Good writing and analytical skills, interpersonal communication and presentation skills (adult education skills),
· Flexibility and ability to work with groups of varying age, experience and literacy level
G. ACCOMODATION AND OTHER IN-COUNTRY LOGISTICS
The volunteer will stay at ELCT Uhuru Hotel (Website: www.uhuruhotel.org, Tel: +255 (0) 754 068852. CRS will pay for hotel accommodation, and provide volunteer with per diems to cater for meals and other incidentals. Transport to and from the host will be provided by CRS. For more information, please refer to country information that will be provided.
H. RECOMMENDED ASSIGNEMENT PREPARATIONS
As part of preparation for the work ahead the volunteer should familiarize with USAID Feed the Future program, the EARO and Tanzania F2F cereal and horticultural program proposals and scope of work for this particular assignment. It is also advisable that the volunteer read and familiarize with Tanzania, its development challenges and opportunities. For any printed material these will be printed at CRS office before commencement of the assignment.
Flip charts stand, charts, markers, masking tapes will be provided by CRS office for volunteer use during the training. Use of LCD projector for training is discouraged due to electricity power challenge in the villages where host farmers are located. Hence, the volunteer will be expected to prepare training materials and have handouts printed at CRS offices for distribution to the participants.
I. KEY CONTACTS
CRS Baltimore / CRS EA Regional OfficeMaria Figueroa
Volunteer Support Coordinator
EA Farmer-to-Farmer Program
228 W. Lexington Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-951-7366
Email: / Nyambura Theuri
Deputy Project Director
EA Farmer-to-Farmer Program
P.O. Box 49675 – 00100
Nairobi, Kenya
St. Augustine Court Karuna Close Road
Email:
CRS Tanzania
Mary Kabatange
Farmer-to-Farmer Program Country Director
CRS Tanzania
Plot # Migombani Street, Regent Estate, Mikocheni
P. O. Box 34701 Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Office Tel: +255 22 2773141
Mobile cell phone +255 758 820025
Email: / Brian Gleeson
Country Representative
CRS Tanzania
Plot # Migombani Street, Regent Estate, Mikocheni
P. O. Box 34701 Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Office Tel +255 22 2773141
Mob: +255 754 930966
Email: