This was narrated by the farmers in their groups who benefited from the RIPAT SUA project in Mvomero district, Morogoro region when they were visited by stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture, and other experts from Sokoine University of Agriculture.
  
Welcoming the stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture, experts from RECODA, SUA students, the Institute for Community Development and Non-Governmental Organizations, Tukaleghoya Farmers Group representative Mr. Ramadhani Iddi said the great success that the group members have achieved is having the skills to practice modern agriculture.
   
Mr. Abiasi Msinde who is a farmer and also a facilitator said that in ensuring the technology is more widespread their group learned to make sure they train farmers who do not belong to the group with the aim of reaching more farmers and the community at large.

He thanked Sokoine University of Agriculture through the project mentioning that they have found great knowledge to add value to crops products and how to pack them.

"Personally, I have trained four people how to grow bananas and I have given them 40 seedlings and those who are not members of the group continue to use technology due to great success they are having" said Mr. Msinde.

Dr. Emmanuel Malisa who is the project coordinator from Sokoine University of Agriculture said there are seven wards that the project has already reached.

"There are seven wards where the project has already reached such as Mlali, Mzumbe and five other wards of Morogoro Municipality and the project has already reached 22 groups and 650 farmers with the aim of reaching 720 farmers by February 2021 so the project is going well" said Dr. Malisa.

For her part, Ms. Josephine Kuhanda who is the RECODA project manager and coordinator explained that the groups that are already benefiting from the technology provided by the project are a group called Tukaleghoya which has 26 farmers and the Imara group which has a total of 24 farmers.
 

Giving a word of thanks Mr. Comrad Mhonda who is the Extension Officer in Mlali ward thanked the RIPAT SUA Project for their efforts to disseminate the technology and has brought him closer to farmers through the groups established by the project and he see the good results made by those farmers.

Read also

• RIPAT SUA project continues to benefit farmers in Tanzania
   
• Farmers encouraged to eliminate hunger, poverty and land conflicts through RIPAT SUA farming technologies
   
• RIPAT SUA: A Project that helps farmers to eliminate hunger and poverty in Mvomero and Morogoro Districts

ABOUT THE PROJECT
RIPAT (Rural Initiative for Participatory Agricultural Transformation) is a programme that has goals and objectives of reducing poverty, hunger and undernutrition among smallholder farmers by improving agriculture and animal husbandry through the application of the principle of help to self-help. Through practical and theoretical training conducted on a common field, groups of farmers are introduced to a variety of crops and agricultural technologies with the potential to improve their agricultural production. Each farmer can then choose which crops and methods he/she wishes to adopt in his/her own farming practice.

RECODA (Research, Community and Organizational Development Associates) is a local NGO founded in Tanzania in 2000 with the aim of bridging the technology gap in community development through research, consultancy, capacity building and facilitation of community-based projects. The organization aims at making food insecurity and poverty to be history in Tanzania and other Sub-Saharan countries which are poor because of agriculture which is the main source of livelihood for 80% of the population has very low production and rely on subsistence farming due to lack of a reliable extension approach for technology transfer to rural communities. 

RECODA in collaboration with Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) implements RIPAT SUA project in Mvomero and Morogoro Municipal districts

Learn more at https://recoda.or.tz/