Trusted fund managers
The Mandeleo Agricultural Technlogy Fund (MATF)
This MATF, set up by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, is managed by
FARM-Africa and has an annual budget of nearly US$2million. It makes agricultural technologies accessible
to farmers in East Africa and supports 52 projects in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania by:
- Helping farmers make the most of new technology to
increase yields, without jeopardising long-term farming of
agricultural resources
- Building relationships between researchers, private sector
firms and farmers, so that modern farming techniques can
be introduced effectively
- Sharing proven technologies and good practice
Funding success
Following years of devastation by the cassava mosaic virus (a disease that kills the plants), scientists
at Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and local farmers have now introduced
disease-resistant varieties.
Thanks to the MATF, there's been a 400 per cent increase in cassava harvests.The project so impressed the
Japanese International Cooperation Agency that it invested US$40,000 in a processing plant near the village.
This has encouraged more farmers to grow cassava, improving many lives.
Another MATF project in Homa Bay, Kenya resulted in farmers and scientists developing a new variety of sweet
potato. Unlike the common variety, it is high in beta-carotene, which the body converts into Vitamin A. The
programme is now alleviating night blindness in children, which is caused by a deficiency of the vitamin.
There is an urgent need for more of this type of funding to increase farmers' access to new technologies.To
find out more about MATF, visit www.maendeleo-atf.org.
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Nanyoni's story
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Nanyoni Sharifa, 44, lives in Uganda. As a cassava grower, she's been badly affected by the mosaic virus
since the early 1990s. In that time, she's seen yields fall from eight tonnes to just one tonne per acre.
That all changed when, two years ago, she joined the Farmers' Association in Nakasongola. It had just won
a US$57,000 grant from the Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund to test new varieties of cassava.
They began farmer field trials - and discovered two or three varieties that were particularly productive.
Surplus yields enabled the 500 farmers to chip, dry and grind cassava to produce flour for bread, biscuits,
doughnuts and cement.
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"Before the project, there was often famine because of the diseased cassava plants, but now everyone
has enough food. We can also afford to pay for secondary school fees and medical bills."
Nanyoni Sharifa,
Uganda
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