Our collaboration with the Njombe South Highlands Development Association
To strengthen our supply chains and support smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods, we do not only source our ingredients from farmers groups, we also work with them through training, seed supply, and more recently providing them with equipment! One example is the Njombe South Highlands Development Association (NSHDA).
NSHDA is a group of 5,000 farmers that mostly produces organic avocados in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. We are working with NSHDA to diversify their crops by adding organic mint and chamomile to their farms. This means that in the long run they will have additional income streams.
Value addition with the power of the sun
With external support and training the farmers started already a mint and chamomile nursery and even started to expand. A great environmental fact about chamomile is that it is contributing to biodiversity – many of these farmers are also beekeepers that make honey. The bees are attracted to the chamomile which allows for cross pollination!
Last month, we supported the farmers to install a solar dryer for the mint and chamomile. This will increase their value addition and reduce post-harvest loss. We also installed solar powered drip irrigation systems for two demonstration plots where mint is grown. These enegry efficient irrigation systems allow climate change adaptation and demonstrate to the farmers the yield potential for investing in irrigation.
One of the demonstration plots is run by a woman named Juliana and her son Chediel. Other farmers in her village come to her farm and learn how she uses the solar powered irrigation system and grows mint and chamomile.
If you want to get a better impression of what is happening in Njombe, you can watch a short video here.
We are very excited to grow together from farm to factory! More updates soon…
All of this is made possible by our projects funded by WE4F and CARE.
For further information, check out our Special Projects page!
