New agroecology drive targets food gaps, farmer incomes, nutrition and climate challenges in Arusha

ARUSHA: For a farmer, a healthy harvest is more than food in the home. It can mean income, improved nutrition, knowledge passed to other farmers and, increasingly, a way of protecting the land on which future generations will depend.

That vision is at the centre of a new 3bn/- investment by the Island of Peace (IDP) organisation, which is rolling out three projects aimed at strengthening agroecological farming, improving nutrition and building more sustainable food systems in Arusha and Karatu districts.

The Sustainable Agriculture Arusha+ II, ECO-FOOD II and SAFI projects will build on the experiences and achievements of the Sustainable Agriculture Arusha+ and ECO-FOOD initiatives, which concluded this year after recording significant results.

The new projects will run for two and three years, respectively, with their focus extending from farmers and agricultural enterprises to schools, consumers and the environment.

According to a statement issued at the weekend, IDP Executive Director Ayesiga Buberwa said the new phase was designed to preserve the gains made previously while addressing challenges identified during implementation.

“The total budget for all three projects is approximately €1.3 million, equivalent to more than 3bn/-, and each project has its own budget,” he said.

More than 90 percent of the funding, Ayesiga said, would directly benefit communities through training, the establishment of small-scale processing enterprises and development of food distribution facilities in urban areas.

The investment comes after the previous projects achieved more than 85 percent of their targets, but Ayesiga cautioned that progress in food systems cannot be treated as a finished task.

 “We achieved more than 85 percent of the targets of the previous projects, but food systems are complex and face many challenges. These new projects are intended to address the challenges we identified and build on the successful innovations and lessons we gained,” he explained.

One of the key areas of the new phase will be entrepreneurship. Through ECO-FOOD II, agroecological entrepreneurs will receive support to strengthen their skills in processing, value addition and marketing, helping agricultural products move more effectively from farms to consumers.

The project is also intended to accelerate agroecological businesses while promoting resilient and inclusive food systems involving farmers across northern Tanzania.

Running from 2026 to 2028, ECO-FOOD II is funded by the McKnight Foundation, coordinated by IDP and implemented by the Arusha Regional Farmers Groups Network (MVIWARUSHA).

The broader objective is to make agroecological businesses part of the drive towards resilient landscapes and sustainable food systems by linking business innovation, consumer confidence and inclusive economic approaches.

“In this phase, at least 500 farmers will be reached through lead farmers who will disseminate knowledge. On the entrepreneurship side, we will continue working with the existing 50 entrepreneurs in Arusha District and add between five and 10 new groups of innovative young people, including those interested in producing fertiliser from market waste,” Ayesiga said.

Behind that ambition is another practical challenge: access to agricultural inputs.

The SAFI project will focus on improving farmers’ access to organic fertilisers, biological pesticides and modern tools suitable for small-scale agriculture.

Ayesiga noted that agroecological farming can require considerable labour, particularly when farmers prepare natural pesticides and fertilisers from chilli and other plant materials. The new interventions are expected to make such work easier and more efficient.

The foundation for this work has already been laid. Ayesiga said one of the previous projects’ important achievements was connecting farmers with suppliers, a relationship that will help address some of the remaining challenges.

But the story of food does not end at the farm gate. For IDP, it also reaches classrooms, where nutrition and education intersect.

During the previous phase, the organisation reached 15 schools 11 in Arusha District and four in Karatu, where agroecological gardens were established to provide children with vegetables and fruits.

The new projects are expected to extend this effort to all students, including those facing nutritional challenges and children whose parents have limited financial capacity to contribute to school meals.

“Some parents are unable to contribute to school meals not because they do not want to, but because of difficult economic circumstances. Therefore, this second phase will look at ways of closing that gap so that all children can access food equitably,” Ayesiga said.

The connection between farming, nutrition and the environment is also reflected in the involvement of local government.

Arusha District Council Director Suleiman Msumi commended IDP for implementing the projects and introducing a new phase aimed at advancing agroecological farming and environmental conservation.

He said IDP, working with RECODA and MVIWARUSHA, had supported the planting of 50,000 trees through agroecological farming initiatives and hoped the new projects would build on that achievement.

The council, he added, would work with IDP to ensure Sustainable Agriculture Arusha+ II, ECO-FOOD II and SAFI achieve their objectives of promoting agroecological agriculture and improving nutrition.

For Msumi, the 50,000 trees planted over three years represent more than a numerical achievement. They form part of a wider response to environmental pressures affecting Tanzania and the world.

He said the initiative should be emulated by other stakeholders and noted its contribution to conserving soil and plant resources for future generations.

“As we know, water sources are drying up and rainfall is becoming increasingly unpredictable because of uncontrolled deforestation. This tree-planting project is significant and unique, and we should support it,” he said.

Yet, for the investment in knowledge and resources to have lasting value, farmers must turn what they have learned into continued action.

Msumi urged beneficiaries to use their knowledge, resources and funds to expand production and increase value addition throughout the agricultural value chain.

“We have seen the foundation being laid. Let us use this knowledge and become ambassadors among farmers who missed the opportunity. Do not keep the knowledge to yourselves; share it with others in simple language. When we say tomorrow that you have graduated, there should be significant value behind that achievement,” he emphasised.

The impact of the projects has also been felt inside schools.

Msumi thanked IDP for supporting school meals in 15 primary and secondary schools in Arusha and Karatu councils, saying the programme had contributed to improvements in academic performance, attendance and discipline.

“We have clear evidence that before students started receiving meals at school and after the programme began, academic performance improved. Absenteeism has become a thing of the past in some schools because students’ concentration has increased, performance has doubled and even their behaviour has improved. This is a great sacrifice and a great reward,” he said.

He welcomed the continuation of the projects for another three years until 2029 and encouraged farmers to use the opportunities to improve their families’ welfare and contribute to national development.

He also urged communities to embrace the principle that “good health is the foundation of development” through the consumption of natural, chemical-free foods.

For farmers themselves, however, the value of the projects is perhaps best understood through the changes taking place in their fields and communities.

Bakari Sumawe, a farmer from Karatu District, said many farmers had benefited from the initiatives. He called for a formal distribution system for indigenous seeds so they could become readily available through agricultural-input shops.

Sumawe said he was now able to produce indigenous seeds in large quantities, but believed the next priority should be ensuring such inputs are accessible across the country.

His own achievements, he said, had encouraged farmers in his village to learn and adopt agroecological methods. The strong response to his training on indigenous seed production and conservation, he added, should be supported by establishing shops selling such inputs.

Vegetable farmer Flora Mollel, from Oldonyowas village in Arusha District, also described the three-year projects as transformative for her life and surrounding community.

She called for shops selling organic agricultural inputs, saying farmers were increasingly embracing such products and needed reliable access to them.

Flora urged the Government to work with IDP, RECODA and MVIWARUSHA to extend agroecological farming support to more farmers.

Another farmer, Adili Msangi, said continuation of the projects would further improve the production of seeds and fertilisers. He highlighted the benefits of organic agricultural inputs and commended IDP for continuing its agroecological initiatives.

Still, the road ahead has obstacles. Farmers and agricultural-input producers cited limited markets and inadequate access to reliable equipment for producing agricultural inputs among the challenges they continue to face.

The new projects therefore arrive not as a beginning from scratch, but as another stage in an evolving effort to strengthen farms, markets, schools and communities.

Their success will depend on how effectively previous lessons are converted into practical solutions and how knowledge, resources and opportunities move from projects into the hands of farmers and communities.

In Arusha and Karatu, the ambition is clear: stronger agroecological farming, better nutrition, healthier environments and food systems capable of serving communities more sustainably.