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From mushroom farming to ecotourism – Tanzania’s forests have it all!
A year in, and Farm Africa’s four year project in the Nou Forest, Tanzania, is in full swing. Women are increasing their family’s income though the production and sale of raffia products and farmers are harvesting honey from the forests’ bees and selling it for a good price at market.
Now, instead of cutting down trees to sell as firewood and charcoal at markets, communities are learning about alternative ways to earn an income from the forests’ resources. This gives them a more reliable source of income as well as reducing deforestation.
But it doesn’t stop there; Farm Africa has helped communities to identify even more alternative sources of income, which are now being explored.
Farm Africa has supported farmers to form groups - whose members are identified by their communities as being the most in need. To date, communities in 13 villages have formed 39 groups with a total of 585 members. A range of activities to be trialled were identified at the start of the project and agreed with villages.
Each village is trialling three new alternative sources of income, opportunities include mushroom farming, butterfly farming, fish farming, ecotourism and medicinal plants. At the end of the trial, the groups will conduct field days in their village and wider district to share their results, enabling even more farmers to see the benefits of these alternative sources of income.
Comments
Outstanding work, diversity brings about opportunities for different people, gender and ages.
Well done Farm Africa, this programme is quite relevant to the communities around the forests. Keep it up
I read with interest your info on farming in particular bee keeping, I am Tanzania born and lived there many years and still visit, I have been self employed for many yeaqrs here in Zimbabwe, one of my proffesions (have many) has been commercial bee keeping I operated with 1000 langstroth hives moving them to follow the honey flows, very difficult due to theft and honey badgers, hives were placed on the ground and temporarily fenced to no avail!! at the same time I befriended many local beekeepers in different areas, I showed them how I wanted them to collect and sell to me honey and comb, I was processing in excess of 100 tons of honey a year including theirs. I have a lot of experience in this regard and as I am still fluent in Kiswahili am considering returning home (Tanzania) to do just this! Bill Isemonger
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