VSO Helps Smallholder Farmers Increase Yield
Subsistence farmers have been producing only 40 per cent of the demand of vegetables and fruits in the islands while the rest is imported from Tanzania Mainland or abroad.
In their first meetings with VSO officers, the small-scale farmers attributed low quality and quantity production to lack of skills, insufficient farm in-puts, and financial constraints.
In response to the complaints, VSO officers based in the United Kingdom initiated the formation of associations to help farmers. A three-year cash project, dubbed Commercial Agriculture for Smallholder Farmers in Horticulture - Zanzibar, was established targeting 10,000 farmers and 100 entrepreneurs/small business people in Unguja and Pemba.
USAID