“After working with the Inclu-cities project I see impact among members of the farmers' groups. Many farmers have now dug their own deep wells, and those who can afford it have installed solar pumps. All this because they saw the benefits on my farm,” said James Kapalata.   Seeking to complement his salary with a business he can manage, the industrial chemical engineer, at Tanga Cement, found land in Kange and started growing vegetables. Kapalata invested some money in a borehole, but endured high diesel costs to water his plants. Many vegetable growers around him fared worse, struggling with uncoordinated marketing, access to knowledge and farming input and weather hazards.

The Urban Challenge
Tanga, has arable land and is strategically placed near vegetable hungry markets—Dar es Salaam, Northern zone towns and neighboring Kenya. But, rain seasonality, lack of market data, high input costs, less coordinated linkages held off farmers from growing vegetable commercially.  Enabel Tanzania implements the INCLU-CITIES project (2024–2026) with funding from the European Union. The project aims to stimulate job creation and economic welfare by providing entrepreneurs with the tools needed to thrive in a modern economy.  

The Shift
In Tanzania, Enabel implements the INCLU-CITIES in collaboration with different partners. RIKOLTO, a Belgian organisation focusing on improving climate-smart agriculture and food security through profitable farm businesses. Under the Inclu-cities projects, RIKOLTO collaborated with Tanga City to implement the Tanga sustainable food programme.  

Starting in May 2024, the project rolled out the Agribusiness Cluster (ABC) model that connected farmers, agribusiness SMEs, service providers, financial institutions, government agencies, and other stakeholders to jointly improve productivity, market access, value addition, and competitiveness in a specific value chain.

James Kapalata was one five lead farmers empowered to facilitate farmers' access to business development services, input supply linkages, financial literacy, and market connections.   As farm Coach Kapalata got training and a solar-powered pump to fit on his borehole. In this role, he has organized nearly 60 farmers in two groups, linked them to agri-input companies such as ACSEN Agriscience, a sustainable farming company, and Rijk Zwaan, a fruit and vegetable breeding company, to mention some.

These companies recognized the informed demand for better inputs and brought improved seeds, pesticide technologies, and knowledge to grow vegetables.   Farmers in Kange ward's priority crops are tomato, watermelon, and pepper. Farmers’ collaboration in farming blocks created demand for agri-input suppliers on the one hand.

On the other part farmers were capable of augmenting their production capacity, attracting buyers and negotiating with leverage with vegetable buyers in Tanga and Dar es Salaam.  

Specifically, Kapalata facilitated:

• successfully negotiations with the sole pepper buyer in Tanga for better prices ·
• a sale contract with another pepper buyer from Bagamoyo, more than 200 kilometres from Tanga City
• access to finance for farmers in Kange ward  

Scaling for the Future
Apart from digging wells of their own, more farmers have entered in the block farming collaboration, seeing that it augments their productivity, their negotiating power and attracts big buyers.    

"With continued collaboration with our local extension officers, we are confident that agriculture will be sustainable. This is because extension officers understand the challenges faced by farmers in their areas."  
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