November 6, 2010Dorothy Magesse

TANZANIA AGRICULTURE

PRODUCTIVITY PROGRAM (TAPP) -

GENDER INEQUALITIES, ASSETS

DISPARITIES AND RURAL LIVELIHOOD IN

TANZANIA

OUTLINE

• INTRODUCTION

• CURRENT INTERVENTIONS

• CHALLENGES TO WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

• TAPP GENDER MAINSTREAMING STRATEGY

• MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Introduction

• TAPP is a 5-year initiative supported by USAID

• The goal of the project is to increase smallholder

horticultural farmers’ food security and incomes

through enhanced productivity and improved

domestic and export marketing

• Through the life of the project, TAPP is expected to

reach 25,000 smallholder farmers

• The projects work with 338 farmer groups, 14

partners and 4 exporters

• TAPP is working to address issues and constraints

facing smallholder farmers and institutions

• Most critical component of the program is to show

those involved in the industry that horticulture can be

a profitable business

• Products include wide variety of vegetables, fruits,

spices, nuts and smallholder flowers

• Currently working in 7 regions of Tanzania, to expand

after year 2011

Key activities

• Increasing availability of food through increased

productivity;

• Increasing access to food through income generation

from sales of horticultural products as well as

improving market delivery systems;

• Improving household nutrition through product

diversification; and

• Decreasing vulnerability of populations through

improving adaptation to climate change and market

fluctuations.

TAPP’s Gender Interventions

• Because gender, food security

and poverty are often linked,

TAPP is providing gender

sensitive assistance to target

beneficiaries to improve income,

living standards, and quality of life

• TAPP’s gender interventions focus on a “whole family

approach” which encourages the equality of men and

women as a guiding principle for all activities

• Recognizes the varying social/cultural roles that men

and women traditionally play in agricultural value

chain

Areas of Emphasis

Women Participation: TAPP began in October

2009, has achieved a women beneficiary

participation rate of 52%. Have already reached 9131

farmers of which 4748 are women

• Gender Sensitive Trainings and Extension

Services: Current interventions include gender

sensitive trainings that target women.

• Health and HIV/AIDS

Services: TAPP is

conducting HIV/AIDS

awareness and prevention

trainings with both women

and men.

• Training Female

Agronomists: Employing

women, especially in

positions of leadership,

allows TAPP staff to act as

role models

• Improving Access to Inputs: According to the

World Bank, it’s estimated only 5% of Tanzanian

women participate in a formal banking system. TAPP

emphasizes the involvement of women in VICOBAs

(Village Community Banks) as a way of improving

access to micro-finance.

• Women can benefit from established groups

structures and the access it gives its members to the

finance necessary to procure agricultural inputs

needed to make the most of TAPP’s advice and

trainings.

Challenges to Women’s Involvement in Agriculture

• Over-Worked (Time-Poor): In Tanzania, there are

no real cultural constraints to women’s participation in

agriculture- they are involved in farming throughout

the country.

• Women are such full participants, in fact, that

between their farm duties and household chores,

women have significantly more work and less free

time than men.

Men in Tanzania have 4.5 hours of free time per day, where as

women only have 2 hours -World Bank

• Control over Resources: Despite a woman’s time-

consuming participation in the home and on the farm,

she has disproportionately less access to and control

over incomes and resources than men. Women

control small income generation activities.

• Land Ownership: Although women have legal

landholding protections, cultural barriers and

traditional inheritance rights inhibit their right to own

land.

• Entrepreneurship skills: Women farmers are not

confident or informed enough to negotiate deals with

male middlemen or buyers and ask their husbands to

make the sales.

• Turning over control of product sales generally

means that women lose control over the income

produced.

TAPP’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy

• By already targeting a large number of women, TAPP

is training hundreds of female farmers weekly in good

agricultural practices, business development skills,

nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention.

• In June, TAPP conducted a Gender Assessment that

identified further constraints to women’s active

participation in agriculture and developed a

Mainstreaming Strategy to ensure women’s full

participation in all levels of the Project’s activities.

• This Gender Mainstreaming Strategy will enhance

the project’s impact on female farmers in the coming

years of the project.

• Continue Providing Gender

Sensitive Trainings and

Extension Services

TAPP is already using gender

sensitive trainings and extension

services. The project will

continue employing field day

methodologies, gender-sensitive

client selection (including

targeting women’s groups),

appropriate training duration,

location, timing, and topic

selection tailored to female

farmers’ needs.

• Train Female Agronomists

With a sufficient number of female agronomists

entering the workforce, TAPP has the opportunity to

hire and increase the capacity of already skilled

female graduates. TAPP already works to increase

the capacity and specialization of the female

agronomists and field managers on staff, thereby

providing role models for female farmers and making

agronomy seem a viable career option for women as

well as men.

• Introducing labor-saving approaches: In order to

ease workloads and time constraints of women.

Some examples are:

– Tailor Crop Selection: TAPP’s strategy introduces crops

and products tailored to the strengths of all productive

members of the household. It works to increase the quality of

seeds, thereby increasing crop yields and quality, which

ultimately decrease the amount of labor necessary –

something crucial for time-poor Tanzanian female farmers.

– Establish Seedling Nurseries: Seedling nurseries create

opportunities for women because their labor requirements

are less exhaustive than traditional methods and they can

generally be located close to homes. TAPP will integrate

seeding nurseries into their work with groups that have high

female participation.

– Low-Labor, Value-Added Processing: Value added

processing that requires little additional labor will increase

incomes and reduce the workloads of female farmers. TAPP

has and will continue to introduced value-added processing

techniques to female farmers

– Introduction of New

Technologies: TAPP’s GMS

aims to increase food security,

household nutrition and

income generation through

trainings in new technology

areas. Drip irrigation systems,

water harvesting, manual

water pumps and greenhouse

technology that target women

farmers increase production,

decrease workloads and

enhance food security for the

entire household.

• Improving Nutrition: Because gender, food security

and poverty are often closely linked, TAPP will focus

on introducing new, high-nutrient food security crops

and kitchen gardens.

• Business Development Services (BDS) and

Trainings: Because TAPP knows how crucial

income generation is to most women, especially

women heads of household, the project’s GMS

focuses on women entrepreneurs, providing them

with market information and sector-specific training.

Measuring Results

• TAPP uses Fintrac’s proprietary monitoring and

evaluation system, the Client Impact and Results

Information System (CIRIS) to track indicators in the

field and disaggregate all data by gender.

• Additionally, Fintrac’s Home Office Gender Specialist

is working with the TAPP gender team to monitor

gender activities on a quarterly basis. Results,

highlights and success stories are posted quarterly to

Fintrac’s Development Information System (DIS) and

are submitted for review by USAID.

THANK YOU