FORI results Tanzania We Effect
FORI | Project results | Tanzania
Farmers leading the research on agroecological sunflower farming
4,692 farmers took up the practices, 12% above target. Sixty lead farmer researchers in Arusha Region, most of them women, ran the same eight-treatment experiment on their own plots for four cropping seasons. The evidence they produced went into the national seed and agriculture budget debate, and thirteen indigenous landraces were publicly released.
Photo: We Effect
Why this project
A young country, an edible oil gap, and rising input costs
Tanzania's population is now about 70.5 million with a median age of around 18.5 years, and roughly 65% of employment is still in agriculture. Farming contributes about a quarter of GDP. Any shift toward resilient, low-cost, sustainable practice therefore reaches a very large share of the country at once.
Sunflower sits at the centre of that question in Arusha Region. It is a cash crop with a growing domestic processing market, but smallholders were caught between the rising cost of commercial seed and inputs, declining soil fertility, and climate variability that turned severe with the floods of early 2024.
The project Improving productivity and profitability of the sunflower value chain by enhancing women's participation in the Arusha Region of Tanzania set out to answer that with action research run by farmers themselves, and to do it in a way that changed who decides. It is led by MVIWAARUSHA, the network of farmer and pastoralist groups of Arusha Region, with We Effect as agri-agency and co-executor and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) as research partner.
What the farmers did
A farmer-led research cycle
The starting point was not a research question written in an institute. It was an inventory of what farmers already knew: 98 households across the three districts took part in focus groups and interviews on their own agroecological practice, and 1,055 farmers were found to be practising some form of it already. From there the project followed three stages, with MVIWAARUSHA organising the farmers and TARI building their capacity to run the research.
Inception and baseline
Indigenous knowledge on sunflower and legume production was documented through focus groups with 98 households, led by lead farmer researchers within their own networks.
TARI ran five hands-on trainings on trial set-up for 172 farmers, 108 of them women, and analysed 60 soil samples, one per lead farmer researcher, at the TanSIS dry chemistry laboratory at TARI-Selian. Soil pH ranged from 5.3 to 6.4, so recommendations were made site by site. A gender analysis of the sunflower value chain was run with the lead farmer researchers in two sessions of 30.
On-farm experimentation
Eight treatments, described in the reporting as eight innovations or agroecological principles, were implemented as a single experimental set by the 60 lead farmer researchers across four cropping seasons, reaching a total of 32 local experiments.
Farmers were trained on randomisation and plot allocation, bio-pesticide preparation, pest and disease management, post-harvest handling, and agronomic data collection in their own field books. After the floods of early 2024, trial plots in affected areas were replanted to protect the integrity of the research.
Evidence into policy and products
A socio-economic and marketing study across the three districts tested whether the practices were actually profitable. Eight capitalisation products were produced, including five policy briefs and three research papers, two of them presented at conferences and one submitted to a journal.
Farmers were trained on the Farmers Advocacy Consultative Tool and used it to identify the issues they wanted to raise. Six policy papers went to government, to Parliament, the ministries and the East African Legislative Assembly, and a seventh was presented at a regional conference and published.
The same eight treatments were run in Karatu, Monduli and Arusha District Council, which lets results be compared across quite different conditions and makes the weaker-performing villages visible. Each set of eight counted as one local experiment, and the reported count reached 32 across the four seasons.
Farmers recorded their own observations, practices and yields in printed field books, one per researcher, reviewed by field officers. Flooding in 2024, rainfall variability in 2025 and travel conditions in remote areas delayed visits and training. In October 2025, post-election unrest brought a curfew and an internet shutdown, and activities had to be rescheduled.
Photo: We Effect
Results at a glance
Start of the project, and where it stands now
Bars compare the first reported year with the latest within each indicator. They are not scaled against one another, because the units differ. Figures are cumulative to December 2025.
Two indicators held steady by design rather than growing: the 60 lead farmer researchers reporting increased action-research capacity, and the one formal cooperation agreement between MVIWAARUSHA and TARI, both at 100% of target throughout. The project also reports rising uptake of climate-smart practice: drought-resistant varieties grown by 30% more farmers than in previous years, an average yield increase of 20%, a 15% reduction in climate-related crop losses, and up to 40% water savings from micro-irrigation and solar-powered pumps.
What the trials found
Four practices farmers tested, and the one that won
The RECORD variety combined with farmyard manure and intercropping produced the highest grain yield and strong oil content, outperforming every other treatment in the set.
RECORD variety with farmyard manure and intercropping
The best performer across the four seasons, at 1.0079 t/ha and 30.71% oil. The project's recommendation is to prioritise scaling this combination, particularly in the villages that performed less well.
By replicating what the high-performing villages did, the report estimates yield gains of up to 40% and oil content improvements of 4 to 5 percentage points are achievable across the project area.
Farmyard manure as the nutrient source
An organic input farmers already have, replacing part of the bought-in fertiliser that pushes up production costs. The trials showed it does two jobs at once: it lifts yield, and it improves oil quality, which is what the buyer actually pays for.
Soil analysis at the start found pH between 5.3 and 6.4 across the 60 plots, so nutrient recommendations were made site by site rather than as a blanket rate.
Intercropping sunflower with legumes
Promoted as a dual-benefit practice: it improves soil health through nitrogen fixation and it produces a supplementary crop for food or income on the same land.
The socio-economic study across the three districts found that the technology integrating sunflower, legume and farmyard manure was the most profitable in the first year, and gave the highest net profit among farmers who made a profit at all.
Bio-pesticides prepared on the farm
All 60 lead farmer researchers were trained on bio-pesticide preparation and went on to prepare their own, cutting dependence on purchased chemicals and on the cash needed to buy them.
The same training covered pest and disease management and post-harvest practice, which the lead farmers are now rolling out to other members of their networks.
The socio-economic result is reported for the first year of implementation, and not every participating farmer reached a positive net profit. Fair trade requirements have been only partially met, with progress concentrated in Ekenywa, Arusha DC and Karatu.
Advocacy and policy
From trial plots to the parliamentary budget debate
This is where the Tanzanian project pushed hardest. MVIWAARUSHA ran 20 advocacy training sessions for selected stakeholders and 20 advocacy events in 2025 alone, five international, seven national and eight local, averaging 165 participants of whom 60% were women. Fifty-seven lead farmer researchers were trained on the Farmers Advocacy Consultative Tool and used it to identify the issues themselves, which produced five advocacy papers.
The landmark result was the official public release of thirteen indigenous landraces under the Farmer-Managed Seed System, giving formal recognition to local genetic diversity and opening access to resilient varieties adapted to local conditions.
Alongside it, the report credits the advocacy with helping to take forward the National Ecological Organic Farming Strategy and states that the government committed over 450 billion Tanzanian shillings to establishing a gene bank at TARI-Selian. Working with SHIWAKUTA, the project also ran advocacy on land rights for agroecological production and submitted a policy brief to the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock, Industry and Trade in Dodoma. The East African Legislative Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources in Arusha. The national workshop inaugurating Tanzania's Action Plan for the UN Decade of Family Farming. The Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Photo: We Effect
Seed rights in the FY 2025/2026 agriculture budget: five recommendations to Parliament April 2025, Dodoma
- 1. Increase budget allocations for farmer-managed seed systems, including community seed banks, participatory plant breeding and local seed multiplication
- 4. Integrate agrobiodiversity and seed diversity indicators into agricultural planning, monitoring and budget oversight
- 2. Review and reform seed legislation to recognise and protect farmers' rights to save, exchange and use seed
- 5. Strengthen collaboration between Parliament, research institutions and farmers' organisations for evidence-based policy-making
- 3. Allocate dedicated resources for agroecological research and extension, focused on farmer-led innovation
- Prepared with SHIWAKUTA and the Seed Working Group
Regional legislation and market integration: six recommendations to the East African Legislative Assembly 2025, Arusha
- 1. Initiate a regional framework on agroecology recognising it as a pillar of sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty in the EAC
- 4. Strengthen legislative protection for informal cross-border traders, particularly women
- 2. Review and amend regional seed laws to protect farmer-managed seed systems, including cross-border exchange of traditional seed
- 5. Institutionalise stakeholder engagement so farmers' organisations can contribute to regional legislative processes
- 3. Promote simplified trade regimes for agroecological products, including workable sanitary and phytosanitary requirements for small-scale traders
- 6. Enhance EALA oversight through studies and public hearings on how regional trade policy affects agroecology
Prepared with SHIWAKUTA and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa. Evidence drawn from research on cross-border trade in agroecological products, which found that traditional grains, legumes, vegetables and non-timber forest products are already traded across borders, largely informally, and that traders face confiscation of goods, fines and inconsistent application of the rules.
National policy positions of Tanzania's family farmers: seven positions 29 July 2025, Dodoma
- 1. Recognise family farming as a foundational pillar in national agriculture, food system, rural development and climate strategies
- 5. Finance targeted policies for women's leadership and youth, with secure access to land, finance, markets and services
- 2. Institutionalise and finance the UN Decade of Family Farming National Action Plan, aligned with Vision 2050
- 6. Mainstream agroecology in extension, research, education, market development and climate adaptation
- 3. Position TANCOFF as a national multi-stakeholder coordination platform for family farming
- 7. Develop fair, inclusive and territorial markets, including within the East African Community
- 4. Formally recognise farmer-led organisations as strategic partners in policy formulation and oversight
- Tabled through TANCOFF, with SHIWAKUTA as secretariat
"When farmers participate in designing trials, selecting indicators and interpreting results, uptake is faster and the evidence is stronger for scaling." Lesson learned, MVIWAARUSHA and TARI
One farmer in detail
What happens when the seed stops being the end of the line
Some farmers have reached markets paying a premium for agroecologically produced crops, supported by a farmer centre established in Karatu for collective marketing.
Hawa Akyoo, a lead farmer researcher in Monduli District, took up sunflower oil processing using produce from her own farm. That single step moved her past selling raw seed and let her capture more of the value along the chain.
The income from oil sales let her expand her agribusiness and invest in productive assets, including a motorcycle for the business. Her mobility improved, her market access strengthened, and her trading became more efficient, which turned into a more stable and more diversified income.
Her case is the argument for the project's market-oriented turn: farmer-led innovation and value addition are what convert an agronomic result into household economic power, and in this case into the economic empowerment of a woman farmer in her own community.
Photo: We Effect
For farmers who have not yet met fair trade standards, the project identifies what is needed: capacity building on certification, forming cooperatives, more farmers practising agroecological principles, and stronger links to fair trade organisations so the benefits are shared more widely.
How it was governed
A farmers' organisation and a research institute, on paper
The governance rests on one formal cooperation agreement between MVIWAARUSHA and TARI, which is also a project indicator, met at 100% every year. The division of labour is explicit: MVIWAARUSHA organises the farmers through its grassroots networks, and TARI builds the capacity of the lead farmer researchers to run their own experimentation. We Effect takes the social and institutional innovation side, TARI the technical.
Around that sits a regional innovation platform, established in 2022 with 42 stakeholders from TARI-Selian and TARI-Tengeru, the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, ASA, TOSCI, ECHO, traders, sunflower processors, agro-dealers, financial institutions, extension and community development officers, and the farmers themselves. Agriculture Innovation Platforms then ran regularly through the project.
Each year the partners held two programme review meetings, three planning meetings and one coordination meeting, producing a semi-annual and an annual work plan with matching progress reports. Joint monitoring visits by TARI, MVIWAARUSHA and We Effect checked progress and trial establishment on the ground.
Advocacy engagement worked well when it was backed by field evidence and farmers' own voices, which made for more credible dialogue with duty bearers.
The project's own lesson learnedWho benefits
Women and young people
Women's participation is not a cross-cutting note in this project, it is in the project title. Of the 60 lead farmer researchers, 38 are women, and 70% are young people. By 2025, 337 women, including 236 young people, were taking part in decision-making on the local experiments.
The instrument for that was the Gender Transformative Approach, rolled out through six training-of-trainers sessions reaching 487 farmers, and then through GTA Innovation Platforms facilitated by gender champions, model couples, religious leaders and village leaders. The aim was to move past attendance and into decision-making, leadership and access to resources. The subjects were the difficult ones: masculinity, shared household responsibility, prevention of gender-based violence, human rights, women's leadership and equitable ownership of land and other resources.
Masculinity training with 50 participants, 34 of them men, opened space for women to run small businesses, restaurants and casual work.
Counselling for three couples reunited one separated pair. Leadership promotion led to two women being elected Ward Councillors. Rights training reached 60 people, 44 of them women.
Equal responsibility training with 70 participants increased men's involvement in household chores, in attending clinics with their wives and in farming. Training on equal ownership with 23 participants helped young people run income-generating activities independently.
In Karatu, women still receive a disproportionately small share of income after produce is sold, and training attendance suffers because participants expect transport allowances. In Monduli, mobilising participants, and men in particular, remains difficult: male attendance at gender training is low.
Photo: We Effect
People trained on gender transformation, by district
The project also notes that giving women farmers equal access to resources and decision-making could raise overall agricultural productivity by up to 30%.
Performance against target, 2022 to December 2025
Where the project stands
Dissemination
The results went public
Fairs, community days and trial-side posters
District agricultural fairs in Karatu and Monduli showcased farmer-managed seed systems and the outcomes of the lead farmer trials, and community days took the results directly to villages.
481 printed posters and signboards were installed at demonstration and trial plots, so the experiment explains itself to any visitor, extension officer or neighbour who walks past.
Forums, exhibitions and Parliament
Tanzania Agricultural and Food Security Week, the National Ecological Organic Agriculture Forum, the Nane Nane exhibitions in Dodoma and Arusha, and the Dodoma workshop inaugurating the UN Decade of Family Farming National Action Plan.
A booklet of success stories from the lead farmer researchers was produced in 150 copies, with plans to translate it into local languages. A documentary video was screened at learning events and shared through social media and WhatsApp groups.
Beyond Tanzania
The East African Farmers' Federation conference, the Arusha Agroecology Stakeholders Forum, the second Eastern Africa Agroecology Conference, and the International Conference on Cooperatives for Sustainable Development at Moshi Cooperative University.
Weekly radio segments featured lead farmers and technical experts discussing agroecology, climate resilience and lessons from the on-farm trials, alongside coordinated social media campaigns with partners.
What it means going forward
Built into the farmers' organisation, not bolted on
The project runs to June 2026, and the approach is expected to continue after EU support ends because it has been institutionalised inside MVIWAARUSHA's member-based structures and local partnerships rather than run as a parallel project.
Follow-up activities envisaged include continued farmer-led trials and validation of practices, the ongoing operation of the GTA Innovation Platforms, and periodic on-farm learning events for replication and quality control. The people are already in place: trained lead farmer researchers, trainers of trainers and environmental champions, and field officers to keep mentoring.
Key activities are being written into village and farmers' organisation work plans. TARI and local government extension services provide the technical backstopping, while links to Community Microfinance Groups and SACCOs give communities a route to finance the practices and invest in scaling them. The advocacy work continues through TANCOFF, the Seed Working Group and the regional platforms.
Photo: We Effect
Resources
Download the outputs
This project is part of the FORI programme (Farmer-led Research and Innovation), implemented by the AgriCord Alliance with the financial support of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
