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The FSCs also benefit by earning income through direct sales or commissions from the linkages they create . In remote farming areas , FSCs play an essential role in mobilizing farmers and delivering swift and cost effective agricultural interventions to smallholder farmers .
“ Carbon credits will create an extra revenue stream to smallholder farmers and enhance the extension services provided to farmers by FSCs , which are critical to the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices ,” said Antony Kweyu , Project Manager at Participatory Approaches for Integrated Development ( PAFID ).
Main activities Boomitra and FtMA will work closely with 570 FSCs to implement the carbon farming project . This initiative will focus on four main activities . First , it will identify and enroll farmers into the program . Second , it will map and monitor farmland using geospatial and remote sensing technology .
Third , it will submit carbon credits to the international verification body ( VERRA ). Fourth , it will transfer carbon credit finance to farmers based on their carbon sequestration activities . This project is expected to remove an additional 300,000 tCO2e of carbon from the atmosphere annually . After the success of the pilot phase , there are plans to expand the partnership to other countries in East Africa where FtMA operates .
Tanzania develops four drought resistant coffee varieties
The Tanzania Coffee Research Institute ( TaCRI ) announced it has developed four drought resistant coffee varieties .
Seeds of the newly-discovered Arabica varieties will be released to the farmers during the coming 2023 / 24 cultivation season . This was revealed on Monday by an agronomist with the institute , Nuhu Aman , saying the discovery was among efforts underway to improve productivity .
“ Development of drought resistant varieties is also aimed to mitigate against the impact of climate change ,” he told journalists .
The varieties are in the process of being certified by the Tanzania Official Certification Institute ( Tosci ). “ They will later be deployed to the farmers in the coffee growing zones which are most affected by drought conditions ,” he said .
“ There are a growing number of agricultural carbon projects around the world , but most of them have minimum acreage enrollment limits that are much larger than the sizes of the majority of farms in the world . This project will be unique in its ability to engage with even the smallest farmers in a meaningful manner that is not only financially viable for both the farmers and the project in the long run , but also has the propensity to scale rapidly to a healthy percentage of farmers in the broader region ,” said Aadith Moorthy , Founder & CEO of Boomitra .
Building on WFP ’ s legacy Building on WFP ’ s legacy of innovation , the WFP Innovation Accelerator was launched in 2015 to scale promising innovations to disrupt hunger .
The collaboration between Boomitra and WFP aims to enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers , boost cropland productivity , and raise farmer incomes by a target of 20 percent – enabling them to reinvest in their farms and communities .
With over 2,700 farmers enrolled to date , Boomitra , FtMA and WFP remain dedicated to scaling up carbon farming practices in East Africa , to create sustainable agricultural models that will benefit the farmers and their communities for generations to come .
23 coffee varieties resistant to disease and drought TaCRI has in recent years released 23 improved varieties of coffee , not only those which are resistant to drought but also diseases .
Mr Aman assured coffee growers in areas often hit by insufficient rains that they should no longer panic of reduced yields with the introduction of the new varieties .
A laboratory expert with TaCRI , Epafra Mosi , said soil fertility was also key for higher productivity of coffee , one of the leading export crops .
He regretted that most farmers were not aware of that , often leading to poor harvests due to failure to use the recommenced fertilizers . He said soil fertility has been going down in many coffee growing areas because of poor agronomic practices .
Relief to farmers A coffee farmer from Rombo District in Kilimanjaro Region , Monica Matemu , said discovery of the new varieties would be a relief for them . Shortage of inputs such as fertilizers , has fuelled the problem .
For decades since the 1960s , coffee production in Tanzania has hovered around 50,000 annually , at one time reaching the 60,000 tonne peak . Production picked up in recent years following a number of reforms , reaching a record 85,000 tonnes last year , according to the Tanania Coffee Board ( TCB ).
According to the Moshi-based board , coffee production in Tanzania picked up in volumes in the past three years because of improved productivity and quality control , among others .
Coffee production in Tanzania Coffee production in Tanzania increased since 2019 / 2020 , when the output was 1.25 million bags . This amount surged to 1.35 million bags in 2020 / 2021 .
A large share of the crop is arabica coffee grown using diverse farm systems , including pure stand / smallholder , intercropped and bananas / smallholder , and estate coffee production .
The uptrend in production on Tanzania ’ s total coffee farming land area of 265,000 hectares gained momentum from domestic reforms and international demand .
4 | November - December 2023