Starting 2012, Fredrick Shirima, a smallholder farmer from Manyire village, Arusha region, started enjoying the benefits of farming, having made a total of TZS 1.5 million (USD 692.582) through onion farming on a half an acre of land, and selling the onions at Mbauda market in Arusha. Previously, Fredrick would cultivate the same area of land under onions and make TZS 700,000 (USD 323.205).

In 2013, Farm Concern International (FCI) linked him to FrigoKen, a company in Kenya that processes vegetables. He planted French beans on half an acre and sold to Frigoken earning a total of TZS 900,000 (USD 415.55) . In 2014, he planted French beans and made TZS 1.8 million (USD 831.098). The French bean enterprise has been an income source for him and his family for the last two years as he continues to expand the area under production. In 2015, he has planted French beans on one acre of land and expects to get even more yields through good agricultural practice. 

Fredrick is a member of Vukani Commercial Village (CV) formed in 2012 after FCI introduced the Domestic Horticulture Market (DoHoMa) programme to Manyire village. FCI offered training to farmers on how to use collective action as a tool for marketing agricultural commodities and accessing other services. 

Fredrick indicates that with the marketing committee in place, they now  access accurate  market information. He also learned to grow the right varieties and access quality seeds that are acceptable to the markets. “In the past, farmers would wait for the middlemen to come and buy from them from the village,” says Fredrick. They had little negotiating power on the prices. Vukani Commercial Village Marketing Committee set out to scout for markets in  Arusha town. The committee would research on market prices, qualities and volumes required by the traders and disseminate the findings during their Commercial Village  meetings.

In 2015, Fredrick  started  building a house valued at TZS 1.5 million (USD 700.332). He will be making finishes on his house with the income from the current crop. He has also been able to send one child to college at Singida and buy two cows at a cost of TZS 1 million (USD 466.888). “The biggest challenge I am experiencing is lack of adequate water, erratic rainfall and high inputs costs,” he says.

Fredrick is married and a father of seven children.

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