Presented by Victor Afari-Sefa (World Vegetable Center) and Fen Beed (IITA) at the Africa RISING East and Southern Africa Research Review and Planning Meeting, Arusha, Tanzania, 1-5 October 2012

1. Africa RISING
East and Southern Africa Research Review and Planning Meeting,
Arusha, Tanzania, 1-5 October 2012
Enhancing vegetable value chains in rice-based and sole crop
production systems to improve household income and
consumption in Morogoro
Victor Afari-Sefa
AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center
Fen Beed
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Selected Sites for Study
Mvomero District
Division Ward villages VL#
Mlali Mlali Mlali 1
Kipera 2
Doma Msongozi 3
Mvomero Dakawa Wami Dakawa 4
Mvomero Dibamba 5
Hembeti Mkindo/Hembeti 6
Kilombero District
Division Ward villages VL#
Mang'ula Mkula Mkula 1
Katurukila 2
Mang'ula Mang'ula A 3
Mang'ula B 4
Kisawasawa Kisawasawa 5
Ichonde 6
Kiberege Kiberege 7
Siginali 8
Ifakara Kibaoni Kilama 9
Lumemo Lumemo 10

5. 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.

6. 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
Ralstonia solanacearum
Heavy metal analyses

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. What Worked & What Didn’t
Worked
• 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.

12. 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

13. Thank you!
SRI