At the beginning of 2017, Fair & Sustainable Consulting conducted three studies for Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) in Tanzania:
- Value Chain Analysis on cassava
- Value Chain Analysis on beans
- Domestic end-market assessment for beans
The studies took place in support of the Sustainable Agriculture Kigoma Regional Project (SAKiRP), which aims to facilitate value chain development through organising and empowering smallholders and linking them with traders, facilitating value chain financing, strengthening value chain service provision, market intelligence and multi-stakeholder processes.
The studies were implemented by a multidisciplinary team including one consultant from Fair & Sustainable in the Netherlands, one from Fair & Sustainable Ethiopia, and five Tanzanian national consultants. Field work was done in Kigoma Region, as well as Mwanza, Shinyanga, Dodoma and Dar es Salaam.
It was found that most of the cassava grown in the region is exported in large quantities to Burundi and Rwanda, and lesser quantities to the DR Congo and Uganda. This makes cassava a cash crop in the ‘commercial production areas’ Kasulu, Kibondo, and Kakonko districts. The findings of the value chain analyses lead to recommendations to enhance the overall competitiveness of the value chain whilst ensuring effective and equitable participation of smallholder farmers, considering gender and youth inclusiveness.
Tanzania is the largest producer of beans in Africa, and within Tanzania, Kigoma is the second biggest beans producing region. Contrary to cassava, beans are hardly exported but rather marketed inside Tanzania, mainly in Mwanza, Kahama, and Dar es Salaam. The characteristics of specific end markets for dry beans are very similar in terms of buyers’ requirements and transaction modalities with their suppliers. The modality of transactions is “Relationship Referral Marketing Network”. The main challenge to producers is low productivity, caused by a low area farmed per person (acres/person) and low productivity per area (kg/acre). It was recommended to the project to give priority to increasing the business orientation of main actors in the value chain, and to improve access to finance.
