Enhancing vegetable value chains in rice-based and sole crop production systems to improve household income and

consumption in Morogoro

Victor Afari-SefaAVRDC-The World Vegetable Center

Fen Beed

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Africa RISING East and Southern Africa Research Review and Planning Meeting,

Arusha, Tanzania, 1-5 October 2012

Project Description

• Morogoro region a major rice production basket. Use of residual water from rice to produce vegetables such as tomatoes

• Identify options for system intensification and increase returns to resource use in rice-vegetable systems

• Improve household income and nutrition through increased dietary diversity and consumption of safer vegetables

• Develop strategic partnerships, evaluate results through participatory learning to create awareness through stakeholder workshops and intervention strategies for target beneficiaries.

Project Outputs 1. Establish baseline status of production and market

constraints of 4 vegetables as intercrop with rice or as sole cropping system and food safety analysis with vegetable supply chain actors.

2. Characterization of rice-vegetable based production sites and consumption patterns of farm households

3. On farm assessment of the incidence of pests and diseases for tomato and African eggplant.

4. Analysis of microbial, pesticide and heavy metal contamination of market and farm samples of tomato and African eggplant.

5. Develop strategic partnerships, evaluate results through participatory learning, action research tools to refine intervention strategies through stakeholder workshops.

Selected Sites for StudyMvomero District

Division Ward villages VL#Mlali Mlali Mlali 1

Kipera 2Doma Msongozi 3

Mvomero Dakawa Wami Dakawa 4Mvomero Dibamba 5Hembeti Mkindo/Hembeti 6

Kilombero DistrictDivision Ward villages VL#Mang'ula Mkula Mkula 1

Katurukila 2Mang'ula Mang'ula A 3

Mang'ula B 4Kisawasawa Kisawasawa 5

Ichonde 6Kiberege Kiberege 7

Siginali 8Ifakara Kibaoni Kilama 9

Lumemo Lumemo 10

Main activities

• Enumerator training followed by quantitative survey of 237 farmers • 28 qualitative value actor surveys: seed and agro-dealers,

collectors, wholesalers, retailers traders and consumers.• Training of SUA personnel by OSU in protocols for human &

plant pathogen detection• Collection and analysis of samples from 50 farms & 4 markets for microbial, pesticide, and heavy metal detection.

IPM for Solanaceae spp.; tomato, pepper and African eggplant

Field:Morogoro - Mvomero

Farm inspections and surveys

Pest & disease /pesticide awareness

Costs and profits

Market:Mamibo (29), Kigamboni (25) Temeke (29), Mvomero (58)

Vendor and wholesaler perceptions

Pesticide analyses

Heavy metal analyses

Human pathogen analyses

Ralstonia solanacearum Ralstonia solanacearum

Characteristics of rice-vegetable production systems • Over 50% grow vegetables as

sole crop after harvesting rice• Over 20% grow vegetables as

sole crop on non-rice associated land.• Less than 20% grow vegetables

on temporal rotation (as sole crop after harvesting rice).• Less than 10% of respondents

grow rice and vegetables as an intercrop

Perceptions of Other VC Actors • Most important challenges facing vegetable traders• Unpredictable market/ Price fluctuation• Inadequate trading capital• High transportation cost• Lack of specific measurement tools

• Village collectors opinions on what should be done:• Credit accessibility should be enhanced for farmers and middlemen• Intensification/commercialization of land area to cultivate to

vegetables• Educate farmers on how to identify quality seeds (i.e., non certified

and adulterated seeds)• Provide market support systems and link producers to functional

markets• Facilitate establishment of processing plants at strategic locations

Possible Areas of Intervention

• Access to improved cultivars (i.e., seeds that are more resistant to pest & diseases)• Access to better extension services • Access to good quality farm inputs/credit facilities• Farm record keeping and business mgt. skills• Access to information and technologies (e.g., ICPM aimed at reducing production costs)• Strengthening marketing information systems/services• Producer access to “bigger” markets) such as supermarket chains & processors; particularly for tomato)

 

What Worked & What Didn’tWorked• Partnerships successfully established, e.g., joint surveys

conducted.• Most activities implemented including 2 workshops albeit with

delays .

Challenges• Delays in signing of partner sub-agreements and transfer of

funds slowed down implementation of certain activities.• Harmonization of a single socio-economic survey and on0farm

farm sample collection for food safety analysis due to logistics and time constraints.

• Lack of some specialized equipments for food safety analysis• Awareness creation and dissemination of intervention actions

delayed.

Further Work • Finalize data cleaning and descriptive analysis of

socioeconomic surveys.

• Finalize analysis of on-farm and market samples for human pathogen, pesticide and heavy metal contamination.

• Harmonize results with plant pathology surveys.

• Finalize awareness creation/dissemination approach

• Report writing

Thank you!

SRI