Local farmers in Tanzania are sent to benefit from a training centre opened in the country thanks to a collaborative effort by Yara Tanzania, Farm For the Future (FFF) and Seed Co. Limited to enhance the farmers’ proficiency and contribute to their sustainable farming practices.
The Yara Training Center in Iringa sprawls across a 350-hectare maize farm overseen by FFF in Ilula district. Its inauguration was presided over by Iringa Regional Commissioner Ms. Halima Dendego and the Norwegian Ambassador to Tanzania, Ms. Tone Tinnes.
According to, Osmund Ueland, the founder of FFF the addition of the training center to their farm will accelerate their vision of making the project a model center for community development in Tanzania.
“Our objective is to collaborate with aligned partners to strengthen the initiative aimed at lifting 2000 small-scale farmers out of poverty by 2030,” said Ueland urging the government to fulfill its commitment of delivering three boreholes per village in the 16 villages neighboring the project, which he anticipates will enhance irrigation farming.
In fact, the centre aims to serve as a catalyst for government efforts to improve access to agricultural education and extension services, particularly for small-scale farmers facing challenges in crop nutrition and other production methods.
Ms. Dendego praised the collaborative inauguration of the Center by the three partners, emphasising its significant role in bridging critical gaps that hinder farmers in the region from realizing their maximum production capacity.
She highlighted various challenges confronting farmers in the area, including limited agronomic knowledge and access to farm inputs such as fertilizer, insufficient infrastructure, unaffordable technologies, pest and disease infestations, inadequate water resources, market disturbances, financial constraints, and susceptibility to climatic changes.
“I am delighted that the creation of this knowledge center aims to tackle many of the hurdles our farmers encounter, particularly in offering extension services, researching crop nutrition solutions, and conducting practical field demonstrations,” she said.
Winstone Odhiambo, Yara Tanzania Managing Director said the facility will serve as a reliable ally, providing smallholder farmers with essential education, skills, and support through practical field demonstrations and tools, enabling them to adopt sustainable farming practices, enhance yields, and foster prosperous livelihoods.
“Partnering with FFF and Seed Co. to run the centre is a practical demonstration of our shared commitment to the agriculture transformation agenda being championed by Tanzanian government through bridging the gap in access to subsidised inputs such as fertiliser and extension service support to the most needy of our farmers,” said Odhiambo.
He added that Yara remains committed to championing initiatives on soil health to enhance growers’ resilience while contributing to sustainable agriculture for food security and farmers prosperity.
The Iringa centre is among seven knowledge centres in the country by Yara. Others are in Mbeya, Morogoro, Kilimanjaro, Tabora, Manyara and Zanzibar that also promote strategic partnership to drive growth beyond fertiliser, to include financial aid, Pesticides, off takers, soil testing and mechanisation.
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