Yara Tanzania programme lifts Monica from zero to heroine

Moshi. Rice is a key staple food in Tanzania, grown primarily in Mbeya, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Mwanza, and some sections of the Kilimanjaro region.

Paddy cultivation, despite its reliance on rainfall, is the principal source of income for the majority of smallholder farmers, particularly women.

In Kilimanjaro, the areas of Chekereni, Mabogini and parts of the Same District are renowned for their extensive cultivation of paddy rice, leading to significant improvements in the livelihoods of numerous women farmers.

To mark International Women’s Day (IWD), The Citizen features the amazing success story of Monica Paul Kilombe, a 55-year-old native of Chekereni in Moshi, Kilimanjaro, who has built a reputation for herself as a paddy farmer.

Ms Kilombe is a widow and paddy farmer participating in Yara Tanzania’s digital agro-business programme, Africa Connect, which provides smallholder farmers with a variety of value-chain solutions.

Africa Connect, a programme, draws on Yara Tanzania’s digital innovation targeted at assisting smallholder farmers to overcome a variety of setbacks that impede their output.

According to Mr Deodatus Mtei, Digital manager at Yara Tanzania, the Africa Connect platform has favourably benefited farmers by providing inexpensive agro-input loans, extension services and pesticides, agro-insurance, and off-takers for their output, all through mobile phone registration.

The plan benefits paddy, maize, Irish potatoes, sugarcane, and sunflower farmers.

The platform has already registered over 200,000 growers, with an additional 130,000 expected this year.

“Our prime target is to hit a record registration of 1 million smallholder farmers by the year 2025,” noted Mr Mtei.

He noted that some 2000 farmers have received agro-input loans worth Sh2 billion under the Africa Connect initiative.

Ms Kilombe says her efforts and the support she has received from Yara have enabled her to take her four children to school and save enough to award herself one standard modern house.

Having lost her spouse 10 years ago, when no one believed in her struggle any more, she took a step and started paddy farming on her own.

Her active engagement with the Africa Connect changed her life for the better, helping her navigate all the struggles she was facing as a woman farmer.

“Once you register with Africa Connect, you have access to necessary inputs, crop nutrition and crop management services.

With this platform, I was able to meet all paddy rice value chain players from the farm straight to the market,” Ms Kilombe said.

As the cards stacked in her favour, at the onset of 2024, Ms Kilombe raised the voice of farmers like her at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) virtual meeting, lobbying for member countries to grant tax and policy reliefs for digital and e-commerce services in an effort to expand the reach and access to agriculture demands by the majority of smallholder farmers.

Speaking of how her life improved after teaming up with Yara Tanzania, Ms Kilombe now takes pride in being a successful farmer with a dream to make it big in the future.

She recalled how, in the past, she would toil hard but get unsatisfactory yields.

She used to harvest as little as 12 to 15 sacks of rice per acre, but all that changed with the adoption of new paddy rice farming practices. “For all the 10 years that I grew paddy before joining Africa Connect, I never received an opportunity to get capital.

“Africa Connect entry was the turning point for me. Accessing agro-input loans and receiving the attention of agronomists has been life-changing for me. The three years under Yara have brought me new tidings. Productivity is dependent on the observance of sound agronomic practices,” Ms Kilombe said.

She has since expanded her farm to 3 acres, with each of them giving her an average of 25 bags per acre as opposed to 10 or below in the past. “From the raised income, I have managed to build a good house for my family and can afford to keep my children in school despite being widowed.

She has dreams of becoming a large-scale farmer, owning estates in Moshi District, and boasting of her skill sets extracted from Yara Tanzania’s coveted programme.

“My prayer is for more women like me to join the Yara programme so that many of us continue to be empowered to make positive contributions in our communities.”