Progress in Tanzania on adoption of Private Sector led Farmer Service Centers: VBAA to FSC

Mr Julius Mwanibingo (52 years), is a standard seven graduate located in Inyala Village, some 10KM from the outskirts of Mbeya. He is a farmer and an entrepreneur who started his agro dealer kiosk in 2010. Currently in the village there are around 3 agro dealer outlets in the village, but when we talked to farmers, they said they prefer to buy inputs and sell their produce to Mr Mwanibingo, because they trust him, he provides them with farming advisory and mobile threshing services. Before they used to travel 15kms from Inyala to Mbeya to buy inputs, sell outputs and access mechanization services, but with a reliable, in village linkage like Mr. Mwanibingo, they are much happier and see their costs reducing.

Mr Mwanibingo was profiled and then recruited to become an SME led FSC in 2021, through the Mkulima Hub data digital platform he was able to register 300 farmers across 7 villages. He collected their input orders, and 50% cash up front, he then ordered the inputs on behalf of the farmers, he further provided extension services, threshing services during harvesting and eventually bought around 120MT of maize from farmers.

With FtMA support, Mr Mwanibingo was able to link with hub agro dealer (OBO Investments) where he acquired agro inputs at a discounted price, linked to Mr Hammerkop, a maize off taker, who offered him a premium price of TSH 500 per kg of maize. Due to this season’s successes, Mr. Mwanibingo thinks of scaling up his FSC coverage to reach the 2,000 farmers in the catchment area to better serve his community.