World Vision Canada

Published purpose

This initiative aims to improve the economic well-being of 5,000 women, men, and children in four districts — Meru, Hai, Siha, and Same — of the Kilimanjaro Region through market-led agricultural production by helping small-scale farmers have improved access to production, market, and processing knowledge, and inputs and opportunities in order to generate more household and community income. This region is vulnerable to high levels of rainfall variability and environmental degradation, and as such, people have experienced acute food shortages. The project also seeks to build farmers' resilience to the impacts of climate change. The local government has expressed a need for institutional capacity to support greater community resilience, and community groups report having difficulty identifying and accessing needed services and inputs to improve their livelihoods and climate resiliency. The project builds on a pilot initiative that helped producers access insurance, microcredit, and improved seed varieties. This initiative seeks to scale up results by strengthening natural resource conservation; improving producers' access to information and linking suppliers, including farmers and processors, with others in the food chain to give increased value to the foodstuffs produced and respond to consumer needs (value chains); and strengthening the institutional capacity of service providers and producer groups to develop more sustainable agriculture-based livelihoods in the region.