Agricon Boresha Chai fosters sustainable livelihoods, nutrition, and gender equality among tea farming families in Southern Tanzania. Funded by the European Union, the project promotes the inclusiveness, productivity, competitiveness, and resilience of smallholder tea farming.
Background
Tea is a high impact sector in Tanzania. Around 31,000 smallholder farmers collectively produce a third of the country’s output. The tea crop is generally harvested all year round and provides a regular and dependable source of income for growers.
However, the tea sector faces significant challenges:
- Tea smallholder farmers in Tanzania achieve low yields.
- Factories are not getting sufficiently consistent supplies of green leaf volume and quality throughout the year to operate efficiently and keep variable factory costs low. Consequently, they are only able to offer low prices to farmers.
Due to these and other factors including lack of or limited shareholding in processing plants, tea growers in Tanzania receive a much lower share of the Mombasa auction price. As a result, there is a clear downward cycle within smallholder tea production, leaving Tanzanian farmers among the lowest paid in the East African region.
Partners
The European Union and the Government of United Republic of Tanzania have signed a financing Agreement called Agri-Connect: Supporting value chains for shared prosperity. The Agricon Boresha Chai program is part of Agri-Connect and co-financed by the European Union. The Agricon Boresha Chai program is implemented by a consortium consisting of: