1. November 6, 2010Dorothy Magesse
TANZANIA AGRICULTURE
PRODUCTIVITY PROGRAM (TAPP) -
GENDER INEQUALITIES, ASSETS
DISPARITIES AND RURAL LIVELIHOOD IN
TANZANIA

2. OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION
• CURRENT INTERVENTIONS
• CHALLENGES TO WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
• TAPP GENDER MAINSTREAMING STRATEGY
• MONITORING AND EVALUATION

3. Introduction
• TAPP is a 5-year initiative supported by USAID
• The goal of the project is to increase smallholder
horticultural farmers’ food security and incomes
through enhanced productivity and improved
domestic and export marketing
• Through the life of the project, TAPP is expected to
reach 25,000 smallholder farmers
• The projects work with 338 farmer groups, 14
partners and 4 exporters

4. • TAPP is working to address issues and constraints
facing smallholder farmers and institutions
• Most critical component of the program is to show
those involved in the industry that horticulture can be
a profitable business
• Products include wide variety of vegetables, fruits,
spices, nuts and smallholder flowers
• Currently working in 7 regions of Tanzania, to expand
after year 2011

5. Key activities
• Increasing availability of food through increased
productivity;
• Increasing access to food through income generation
from sales of horticultural products as well as
improving market delivery systems;
• Improving household nutrition through product
diversification; and
• Decreasing vulnerability of populations through
improving adaptation to climate change and market
fluctuations.

6. TAPP’s Gender Interventions
• Because gender, food security
and poverty are often linked,
TAPP is providing gender
sensitive assistance to target
beneficiaries to improve income,
living standards, and quality of life

7. • TAPP’s gender interventions focus on a “whole family
approach” which encourages the equality of men and
women as a guiding principle for all activities
• Recognizes the varying social/cultural roles that men
and women traditionally play in agricultural value
chain

8. Areas of Emphasis
 Women Participation: TAPP began in October
2009, has achieved a women beneficiary
participation rate of 52%. Have already reached 9131
farmers of which 4748 are women
• Gender Sensitive Trainings and Extension
Services: Current interventions include gender
sensitive trainings that target women.

9. • Health and HIV/AIDS
Services: TAPP is
conducting HIV/AIDS
awareness and prevention
trainings with both women
and men.
• Training Female
Agronomists: Employing
women, especially in
positions of leadership,
allows TAPP staff to act as
role models

10. • Improving Access to Inputs: According to the
World Bank, it’s estimated only 5% of Tanzanian
women participate in a formal banking system. TAPP
emphasizes the involvement of women in VICOBAs
(Village Community Banks) as a way of improving
access to micro-finance.
• Women can benefit from established groups
structures and the access it gives its members to the
finance necessary to procure agricultural inputs
needed to make the most of TAPP’s advice and
trainings.

11. Challenges to Women’s Involvement in Agriculture
• Over-Worked (Time-Poor): In Tanzania, there are
no real cultural constraints to women’s participation in
agriculture- they are involved in farming throughout
the country.
• Women are such full participants, in fact, that
between their farm duties and household chores,
women have significantly more work and less free
time than men.
Men in Tanzania have 4.5 hours of free time per day, where as
women only have 2 hours -World Bank

12. • Control over Resources: Despite a woman’s time-
consuming participation in the home and on the farm,
she has disproportionately less access to and control
over incomes and resources than men. Women
control small income generation activities.
• Land Ownership: Although women have legal
landholding protections, cultural barriers and
traditional inheritance rights inhibit their right to own
land.

13. • Entrepreneurship skills: Women farmers are not
confident or informed enough to negotiate deals with
male middlemen or buyers and ask their husbands to
make the sales.
• Turning over control of product sales generally
means that women lose control over the income
produced.

14. TAPP’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy
• By already targeting a large number of women, TAPP
is training hundreds of female farmers weekly in good
agricultural practices, business development skills,
nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention.
• In June, TAPP conducted a Gender Assessment that
identified further constraints to women’s active
participation in agriculture and developed a
Mainstreaming Strategy to ensure women’s full
participation in all levels of the Project’s activities.
• This Gender Mainstreaming Strategy will enhance
the project’s impact on female farmers in the coming
years of the project.

15. • Continue Providing Gender
Sensitive Trainings and
Extension Services
TAPP is already using gender
sensitive trainings and extension
services. The project will
continue employing field day
methodologies, gender-sensitive
client selection (including
targeting women’s groups),
appropriate training duration,
location, timing, and topic
selection tailored to female
farmers’ needs.

16. • Train Female Agronomists
With a sufficient number of female agronomists
entering the workforce, TAPP has the opportunity to
hire and increase the capacity of already skilled
female graduates. TAPP already works to increase
the capacity and specialization of the female
agronomists and field managers on staff, thereby
providing role models for female farmers and making
agronomy seem a viable career option for women as
well as men.

17. • Introducing labor-saving approaches: In order to
ease workloads and time constraints of women.
Some examples are:

18. – Tailor Crop Selection: TAPP’s strategy introduces crops
and products tailored to the strengths of all productive
members of the household. It works to increase the quality of
seeds, thereby increasing crop yields and quality, which
ultimately decrease the amount of labor necessary –
something crucial for time-poor Tanzanian female farmers.
– Establish Seedling Nurseries: Seedling nurseries create
opportunities for women because their labor requirements
are less exhaustive than traditional methods and they can
generally be located close to homes. TAPP will integrate
seeding nurseries into their work with groups that have high
female participation.

19. – Low-Labor, Value-Added Processing: Value added
processing that requires little additional labor will increase
incomes and reduce the workloads of female farmers. TAPP
has and will continue to introduced value-added processing
techniques to female farmers

20. – Introduction of New
Technologies: TAPP’s GMS
aims to increase food security,
household nutrition and
income generation through
trainings in new technology
areas. Drip irrigation systems,
water harvesting, manual
water pumps and greenhouse
technology that target women
farmers increase production,
decrease workloads and
enhance food security for the
entire household.

21. • Improving Nutrition: Because gender, food security
and poverty are often closely linked, TAPP will focus
on introducing new, high-nutrient food security crops
and kitchen gardens.
• Business Development Services (BDS) and
Trainings: Because TAPP knows how crucial
income generation is to most women, especially
women heads of household, the project’s GMS
focuses on women entrepreneurs, providing them
with market information and sector-specific training.

22. Measuring Results
• TAPP uses Fintrac’s proprietary monitoring and
evaluation system, the Client Impact and Results
Information System (CIRIS) to track indicators in the
field and disaggregate all data by gender.
• Additionally, Fintrac’s Home Office Gender Specialist
is working with the TAPP gender team to monitor
gender activities on a quarterly basis. Results,
highlights and success stories are posted quarterly to
Fintrac’s Development Information System (DIS) and
are submitted for review by USAID.

23. THANK YOU