Presentation during African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) Second Annual Review Meeting and Planning Workshop on 11 – 15 Dec. 2017 at Gold Crest Hotel, Mwanza, Tanzania.

1. www.iita.org I www.cgiar.org
The primary partners in Tanzania: Summary of
objectives, activities and requests towards ACAI
African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI)
Second Annual Review Meeting
and Planning Workshop
11 – 15 Dec. 2017
Gold Crest Hotel, Mwanza, Tanzania

2. The primary partners in Tanzania:
Summary of objectives, activities and
requests towards ACAI
MINJINGU, MEDA, CAVA, FCI & FJS
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org

3. Minjingu Mines & Fertilizer Ltd (MMFL).
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
WHO we are:
• One of the two major fertilizer companies in Tanzania
• Deals in fertilizer Extraction & Blending
• The Factory located in Minjingu village-Manyara region (Northern Tanzania) where the
deposit of organic rock phosphate is found.
• Headquartered in Arusha, and with branches across Tanzania
• Current production capacity 100,000 to 200,000MTs per year.
What we do:
• Working with Government and non government organizations providing product use
knowledge to farmers.
• Works with internal and international researchers improving fertiliser formulations.
• Collaboration with ACAI developing FR & FB decision support tools (DSTs).
• Blending our current formulations of NPKS+ and Top Dressing fertiliser with
N:27,P205:10 and Cao:15
Goals and strategy/How we operate:
• Collaborate with the ACAI project to recommend and blend appropriate fertilizers to
increase cassava productivity
• Promote the recommended and blended fertilizers within and outside the project target
areas through Extension agents dissemination networks.

4. Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)
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Goals and strategy
• Overall project objective: To enable the commercial cassava seed system in Tanzania, giving
farmers timely access to quality-declared, disease-resistant and disease-tolerant varieties in the
right quantities and affordably.
Current activities/interventions
• Increasing use of superior, disease-resistant cassava varieties preferred by smallholder farmers
and other commercial seed supply chain stakeholders
• Strengthening government-enabled quality assurance
• Strengthening commercial supply chain of cassava seed system
Outreach / dissemination network
• The project is building a sustainable Cassava seed system with over 430 cassava seed
entrepreneurs
• Working in 11 regions in three zones (Southern Zone, Lake Zone, and Eastern Zone
• Approximately 29,000 smallholder farmers, and indirectly benefits over 1m farmers and
households.
• Working with over 60 government extension agents to recruit, train and mentor CSEs.

5. Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA-II)
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Goals and strategy
To increase the incomes of smallholder farmers (SHFs) through participation in profitable
and sustainable value-added cassava chains in Tanzania to create demand for 188,362 tons
of fresh cassava roots.
Current activities/interventions
• Demonstration of high yield low cost production practices
• Promoting investment in cassava processing and utilization
• Providing technical support in cassava processing.
Outreach / dissemination network
• Operate in five regions,
• Sub offices in Mtwara and Mwanza Regions
• Collaborate with 92 EAs to provide support services to farmers and processors on
Agronomy, processing and market linkages across the Project area.
• Working with medium, small scale and group processors in building cassava roots
supply network.
.

6. Farm Concern International (FCI)
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Goals and strategy
Farm Concern International, FCI, an Africa-wide agri-market development agency
Specializing in;
i) Value Chain Analysis, ii) Profitable Smallholder Commercialization and iii) Market
Access.
Current activities
The programme is implemented in Unguja and Pemba islands
•Strengthening the capacity and efficiency of farmer organizations through the
commercial village Model
•Linking cassava smallholder farmers to markets through the Market Hub Model
•Enhancing value addition of cassava through village processing
Outreach / dissemination network
The Commercial Village Model is FCI’s implementation scale up approach; an innovative
mass marketing system designed for high impact among large numbers of smallholder
farming households through a multi-value chain focus, embedded with a real-time data
capture process for impact and evidence documentation.
The Commercial Village Trade Facilitators (CVTF)/EAs supervises dissemination and
training of farmers.

7. FJS African Starch Development Cy Ltd.
www.iita.org | www.cgiar.org | www.acai-project.org
Goals and strategy
• FJS African Starch Development Company Limited is an agro processing
Company in Tanzania, established in 2010. Initially, promoted by a Private US
Foundation, The Fredric & Jocelyn Scheer Foundation, the goal is to develop
cassava sub – sector by promoting cassava production, processing and
marketing.
• FJS has more than 300 out growers and 7 collection centers in the village
around the factory. Extension plans to cover growers in a radius of up to 60km
• FJS runs a 16 tpd Cassava flour plant at installed capacity
Current activities
High quality cassava flour production
- Farm development and management
- Extension Services
Outreach / dissemination network
• FJS has extension team of 4 staff specifically managing and supervising the
farms. Provide ad hoc consultation and training to other farmers.

8. Use cases request by development partner
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Use case Partner Request
Best Fertilizer Blends
(FB) Fertilizer recommendation
Fertilizer Blending
Site specific fertilizer use for
increased stem and tuber
Site-specific Fertilizer
Recommendations
(FR)
Best Planting
Practices (PP)
Yield enhancing low cost best
practices for producers.
Assurance of year around
fresh root supply for
processors.
Scheduled Planting
(SP)
Optimal Intercropping
with Cassava (IC)
Yield optimization under
mixed farming systems
High Starch Content
(HS)
Lower cost of production and
maximize yield.

9. Current collaboration with ACAI
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As ACAI and primary partners we have engaged together in…
• Trial site selection
• Establishment of trials,
• Conduct training
• Linkage to the extension agents
• Tool development
• Baseline study
• An update on the progress of tool development
• An understanding validation process plans
• Participate in the validation process
• A feel of how the tools work -Test the tools in the networks for validation before they are
released
• An understanding of the tool package requirements
• Sustainability plans
• Informed on timeline to accomplish

10. Benefit from Collaboration with ACAI
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1. Farmers who are participating in trials adopting some of the key GAP
methods e.g. seed selection, plant spacing, weeding time, harvesting
time, and application of fertilizer.
2. EAs are appreciating scientific process, use of rain gauge, different
planting time between the main crop and intercrop, the difference in
yield between improved and local varieties, etc.
3. Staff are getting new knowledge through participation in field
activities, planning meetings and conferences.
4. The organizations have widened partners and collaborators database
through engaging with several partners under ACAI. (MMFL company to
internal and international Development partners).
5.Raised company awareness of the possibility of blending fertilizer for
cassava.
6. Strengthened the relationship between Minjingu company and NARI.