Farm Concern International (FCI) with funding from Traidcraft enabled beekeepers in Rufiji and Tabora to increase their income. Through the Beekeepers Economic Empowerment in Tanzania (BEET) project,FCI oversaw the fast tracking implementation of the four-year BEET project in Tanzania within three months. Through the Beekeepers Economic Empowerment in Tanzania (BEET) project, FCI empowered the farmers to realize incomes worth USD 21,010.9 from 12.04 Tonnes of honey in just three months. 

BEET project worked to increase incomes through capacity development of beekeepers, improving the quality of the honey, and increasing the volumes of the honey sold by linking them to reliable and sustainable local and regional markets.  

FCI targeted 2,760 beekeepers in the districts of Urambo, Uyui and Sikonge in Tabora region and in Rufiji district, Pwani region.  By the third month, the multi-dimension capacity building trainings conducted under the project had resulted in improved honey quality in the target regions. As a result, honey prices increased by 43% and 66.7% in Rufiji and Tabora respectively. 

FCI’s notable achievement was being able to link the project beneficiaries to one of the largest companies exporting honey to Germany from Tanzania (NAYOPEKER). Towards the end of the consultancy, NAYOPEKER Company had ordered more than 20 MT of honey from the project’s beneficiaries. In addition, FCI in partnership with the beekeepers in Tabora and Rufiji was able to identify and established strategic business partnerships with three more formal markets from the area to ensure sustainability of the honey trade in the area. 

Qabri-bahar Cooperative collapsed due to war and 300 households who had invested in the cooperative lost all their investments. Now 22 years later, the cooperative has not only adopted commercialization and market access but has also invested in a sugar processing plant factory. Qabri-bahar Cooperative has a market-led production informed by FCI Value Chain Analysis for staples and horticulture targeting domestic markets. This has been made possible through the Somalia Rural Commercialization Programme implemented by Farm Concern International, FCI and Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO supported by European Union (EU).

Mr. Kingori is a member of Embaringo Commercial Village in Central Kenya started as a result of FCI commercialization trainings and whose life has been transformed from a subsistence farmer earning only Ksh. 40,000 per season to a commercial farmer making Ksh. 300,000 per season. His household is one of the 115,491 smallholder households commercialized under the Domestic Markets Regional Programme funded by Bill and Melinda Gates and implemented by FCI. Proceeds from onion sales have seen King’ori buy two dairy cows valued at Kshs. 80,000 and two plots valued at Kshs. 600,000.

Samuel owns a one acre piece of land in Ngano-ini village in Central Kenya and another 0.5 acres which he has hired for onion farming. He has been practising subsistence farming for a long time using the knowledge he had acquired from his parents. His main cash crop is onion though he also crop rotates with Irish potatoes, maize and beans as food crops.

Before Farm Concern International intervention, Kingori used to grow onion in small scale in his one acre piece of land. The management of the farm was poor and this led to him incurring great losses. He was also growing Open Pollinated Varieties (OPV) just like other farmers in his village. The market for the produce was unattractive thus leaving them at the mercies of middlemen who would often exploit them. As such, King’ori did not have enough money to meet his family needs. 

FCI intervened by conducting various commercialization campaigns, training farmers on the importance of forming Commercial Villages (CVs) and various agronomical modules. In addition to this, farmers were linked to inputs suppliers who sold the inputs to farmers at discounted prices besides offering technical and extension support in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture. This led to King’ori and other farmers in his Commercial Village being introduced to hybrid onion varieties which have better yields as compared to the OPV. The better yields influenced Kingori to get into onion commercial farming due to its profitability and market availability.

King’ori says, “Before FCI interventions, the highest sale I ever made was Kshs. 40,000 from 2000 Kgs of onion that I had produced in my one acre piece of land; after the project interventions, I was able to make Kshs. 300,000 from that same piece of land.”

Proceeds from onion sales have seen King’ori buy two dairy cows valued at Kshs. 80, 000, a pickup valued at Ksh. 260,000, two plots valued at Kshs. 600,000 and savings of Kshs. 300, 000. He has also built a house and managed to take his children to boarding schools. He additionally has a storage facility for his onions which was set-up as a community demonstration on multi storage facility.

Low productivity is the key explanation for the poor performance of African agriculture. A review of performance of agriculture over the last 50 years shows that Africa has clearly lagged far behind other regions of the world. For instance, whereas the other regions were able to increase yields by more than 150%, Africa managed only 72% from the 1960s. In per capita terms, food production in China has risen by a factor of nearly 3.5%, whereas it has fallen in Africa and only recently recovered to match that of the 1961 levels (Godfray et al. 2010). 

Part of the reasons for low yields in Africa is the lack of co-ordination and inability of smallholder farmers to extract the maximum from the markets (IFAD, 2010). In spite of this recognized need, progress in improving Africa's smallholder farmers has been elusive over the last decade.

Since 2010, Farm Concern International (FCI) has been implementing a 5 year Domestic Horticulture and Markets (DoHoMa) programme. The programme works towards improving smallholder farmers' capacity to produce by organizing them into groups (also known Commercial Villages), training them, and ensuring their inclusion in Commercial Village activities. 

By its fourth year, the programme had successfully clustered 115,491 smallholder farmers into 496 Commercial Villages (CVs) and extensively engaged 549 Commercial Village Facilitators (CVFs/CoTeFs) in farmer training at the village level. Additionally, 254 CV leadership and functional committees went through systematic capacity building geared towards enhancing governance and participation at both CV and Commercial Producer Group (CPG) level. 

These efforts by FCI are now bearing fruit. DoHoMa programme has impacted over 118,282 direct beneficiaries who include smallholder farmers, buyers and frontline facilitators at farmer and market level in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi.

In the 2014 reporting year, commercialization interventions impacted more than 115,491 households. The program beneficiaries continued to be exposed to the use of new technologies and management practices resulting in a general increase in investment on production. For instance, land under target crops increased to a total of 99,322 acres from an initial baseline figure of 21,538 acres in 2011. This represents a 41% share of total acreage owned by smallholder farmers under DoHoMa programme.

Moreover, over 90% of participating households reported adoption of agricultural technologies such as increased use of inputs, improved varieties/clean planting materials, fertilizer, and management practices. The technology has helped farmers increase yields by up to 15%. This led to a cumulative production output of 747 Million MT for bulb onions, Irish potatoes and TAVs with a gross realized value of approximately USD 240 Million.

As a result, participating farmers recorded cumulative sales worth USD 197,759,320, a 400% increase in turnover against the target sales value. They also realised a cumulative production output of 747 Million MT for bulb onions, Irish potatoes and TAVs with a gross realized value of approximately USD 240 Million.