TanzaniaAs a relatively new market economy, Tanzania is still testing how business is done in a free market. Many farmers and other small business owners remain highly risk averse, and even the most compelling opportunity can be rejected.
80% of Tanzania's residents live in rural areas and work primarily in the agricultural sector.
However, there is a growing portfolio of successful Tanzanian businesses, which is helping to attract investors and new enterprises. Nearly 90 percent of Tanzania's residents live in rural areas, work primarily in the agricultural sector and lack access to information, technology and markets.
For more than 25 years, TechnoServe has been working in Tanzania with farmers, cooperatives, suppliers and processors to strategically develop competitive industries around key crops, including cash crops such as cocoa and coffee and staples such as maize and rice. We are helping farmers make the transition from subsistence to commercial production, assisting processors to improve operations and identifying opportunities for investment in agriculture. We are also supporting the diversification of Tanzania's economy through entrepreneurship programs that empower men and women to create thriving small- and medium-sized businesses in a variety of sectors.
The Coffee Initiative worked with local farmers in East Africa to improve agronomy and business practices, establish new coffee cooperatives and strengthen existing ones, and help cooperatives create business plans and access financing for wet mills.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Heifer International, the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) program is designed to boost the milk yields and incomes of small-scale farmers so they can lift their families and communities out of poverty.
The Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA) is a public-private partnership that seeks to promote commercially sustainable mobile agriculture solutions and increase productivity and revenues for 500,000 smallholder farmers across Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The program also aims to increase revenues for agribusinesses and agricultural value chain service providers.
In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechnoServe’s Innovation in Outcome Measurement (IOM) project aims to identify breakthrough innovations capable of transforming agriculture and to develop a framework for scaling these innovations for business use.
Staple crops like maize, soy and bean can provide much more than just subsistence for smallholders, they can also increase income, create jobs and improve food security. The Storage and Proper Post-Harvest Improvements for Resource Efficiency (SAPPHIRE) program, funded by the DFID, worked to capitalize on the potential of maize and increase incomes for farmers through increasing productivity and improved aggregation.
Cocoa production began in Tanzania in the late 1960s, yet has not been significantly promoted or developed as a cash crop in the past 40 years. TechnoServe, supported by a grant from Irish Aid, is working with farmers to improve post-harvest handling and better position farmer groups as credible sellers.
TechnoServe partnered with the Mastercard Foundation to help rural youth in East Africa transition to economic independence. The Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise (STRYDE) program delivered a comprehensive package of services including skills training, business development and mentoring to young people ages 18 to 30 in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) was a public-private partnership between TechnoServe, Partners in Food Solutions, and USAID that aimed to increase the competitiveness of the African food processing sector to expand availability of affordable and nutritious foods to local populations. The program benefited more than 1,000 food processors who source from more than 800,000 smallholder farmers in five countries.
“Hidden hunger” is a form of undernutrition affecting millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Food fortification is a cost-effective strategy for addressing hidden hunger, helping people to access the nutrition they need.
Business Women Connect was born out of research showing that micro-savings products are one of the most impactful tools for women entrepreneurs to access in order to grow their businesses.
Extension services are an important feature in improving cotton production for farmers in the Lake Victoria region of northwest Tanzania.
TechnoServe is working with small- and medium-sized maize, rice and sunflower oil processors to increase the supply of, and demand for, nutritious and fortified foods.
The inability to access safe, nutritious, and affordable food is a problem for many people across East and Southern Africa, leading to widespread malnutrition in children.
Read the 2021 TechnoServe Annual Report in English, French, or Spanish in the PDFs on this page. You can find Portuguese here.
This final report explores five years of impact through the Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE), a public-private partnership between TechnoServe, Partners in Food Solutions and the United States Agency for International Development that aimed to increase the competitiveness of the African food processing sector and expand the availability of…
Technical brief from the International Center for Research on Women highlighting the gender approach in TechnoServe’s Coffee Initiative in Tanzania.
This collection of impact and learning briefs detail how to leverage the power of the private sector to create better nutritional outcomes for low-income consumers and more profitable market opportunities for local farmers.
The Strengthening African Processors of Fortified Foods (SAPFF) program presents an innovative industry-led approach, drawing from its experience in Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania to promoting the fortification of staple foods and tackling micronutrient deficiencies amongst the most vulnerable
This CASA Technical Assistance Facility report examines the role carbon finance could play in the transition of smallholder agriculture to a more sustainable, productive, and resilient future. It draws on qualitative research of 17 smallholder agroforestry carbon projects and quantitative analysis of three smallholder agroforestry opportunities to provide recommendations to…
This series of business profiles and case studies explores how COVID-19 impacted food processors and how financial and technical assistance helped them recover.
A survey of food processing firms in seven African countries reveals the challenges facing the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the results from TechnoServe's survey of 337 micro-retail program participants about the impact COVID-19 has had on their businesses.
TechnoServe surveyed 106 food processors, representing seven countries in Africa, on the impact of COVID-19 on their operations. This survey presents our findings.
TechnoServe offers a guide on the challenges and responses facing food processors during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a survey of 106 food processors from seven African countries.
In 2017, TechnoServe engaged ImpactMatters, an impact audit firm founded with support from Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), to review several projects within our portfolio. This impact audit reviews the second phase of the Coffee Initiative, C.I. II, which was implemented by TechnoServe from 2012 to 2016 in Ethiopia, Kenya,…
