SUPPORTING SMALL HOLDER FARMRS TO ACCESS AGRO- INPUTS

Supporting Small Holder Farmers to Access Agro-Inputs

Agricultural inputs are defined as products permitted for use in agricultural farming. These include Fertilizers and Chemicals, Seeds and Planting Materials and Machinery and Equipment. The important inputs that STAWI helps SHFs to access are seeds, fertilizers, machinery and labor. STAWI connects farmers to Inputs supplies who supply relevant and certified inputs to the soil that are essential for plant growth. Agricultural inputs supplied by different suppliers under STAWIs connections help a farmer’s upcoming yield. Consumable inputs are usually natural materials that will be “consumed” by the crops to improve crop production

Strengthening effort to access for Agricultural Inputs and Outputs Markets in Tanzania is a multi-partner initiative working to improve inclusive agricultural sector growth in Tanzania executed by different stakeholders. In this concerns, STAWI is the prime recipient of the cooperative agreement. This activity has been another major function of STAWI through existing partnerships with TPRI and the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC). All of this is to ensure that the SHFs get the best out of all the agricultural seasons. STAWI pursued its overall goal through this primary program objectives:

“Improved Agricultural Production through strengthening agro-dealer networks to improve smallholder farmers’ access to improved agro-inputs and appropriate agronomic practices”.

Thus raising the agricultural productivity is of paramount importance. It highly depends upon resource use and their efficiency. The most notable constraint faced by farmers is access to farm inputs mainly due to their poor financial status to enable those accessing potential inputs. Financial muscles is a critical factor to enable SHFs to access inputs for agriculture. Small and marginal farmers usually use the on-farm produce and wastes as inputs but for successful commercial farming, major inputs are brought from outside the farm and are called off-farm inputs. These inputs are usually energy intensive and produced mainly in the urban regions

What STAWI do in this segment

      1. Raise knowledge and awareness of the importance of Agro –Inputs

STAWI work to educate SHFs to use agro inputs in order to produce quality agro- products which will meet farmers goals – Getting agro products sufficient for their house holding consumption and also enough for selling. In Tanzania, most of farmers are subsistence farmers. Subsisting farming is defined as a system of farming which provide a self-sufficient lifestyle for the farmer and family where crops and livestock are maintained to support family need with little or no excess produced for marketing”. This is because of poor access to Agro –Inputs to increase production. So, the best use of recommended agro-inputs assures increment on agro- productivity.

      2. Foster effective utilization of the agro-inputs

STAWI trains farmers on the standard application of agro-inputs as recommended for each specific crop in each specific agricultural program. As the organization understand the expensiveness of the inputs despite their importance, STAWI works hard to connect farmers to different inputs supplier by creating strategic financial schemes which are accepted and offered by different financial institutions supporting agricultural programs in Tanzania. Consequently, STAWI trains SHFs on ways to understand signs and symptoms showing signs of inputs scarce such as fertilizer deficiency. STAWI’s Officers work strongly to connect farmers / link SHFs between affordable inputs supplying agencies and the recommended doses of fertilizers, insecticide and hybrid seeding rates adhered to by farmers. The extension support has also been a stand-alone activity that was not linked to the resources needed to put the acquired knowledge into practice

      3. Foster Uses of Certified Seeds, Fertilizer and Pesticides

Generally, seed certification is a process designed to maintain and make available to the general public continuous supply of high quality seeds and propagating materials of notified kinds and varieties of crops, so grown and distributed to ensure the physical identity and genetic purity. STAWI foster uses of certified seed by SHFs in order to open doors to new opportunities and greater sales by providing proof of varietal identity. Certifies seed have got improved traits like better yield, pest resistance, drought tolerance, herbicide tolerance, and give out much more outputs to farmers that ordinary seed. Ordinary seed are just cereals. The use of certified seed helps to maintain the value traits of the crop because of their variety purity.