Improvement of Food Systems Supply Service in Rural Tanzania in Adaptation to COVID-19 Project

About the Project

In Tanzania, a $2.5 million grant to Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima (MVIWATA) will increase household incomes, address nutritional challenges arising from COVID-19, and reduce post-harvest losses by developing food supply services around horticulture production areas.  

The project will revamp rural economies which have been adversely affected by COVID-19 by increasing production, marketing, and supply services on horticultural produce value chains, especially on fresh vegetables and spices, and the professionalization of MVIWATA Market Companies (MMC) and rural SMEs in and around existing rural bulk markets. The project will build on the existing initiatives and experiences of MVIWATA in rural markets and consequently contribute to improving diets for coping with COVID-19 nutritional demands, climate change mitigation strategies, and gender equality while attaining sustainable income generation. As a result, project activities will improve the local horticultural produce supply and unlock market failures, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-term climate change effects through the on-farm improvement of horticultural commodities, and market improvement in food supply services, and professionalization of the rural market companies and rural SMEs. 

Professionalization of smallholder producers’ rural SMEs and MVIWATA market companies will improve the business transactions capacity of smallholder producers to serve the sub-urban and urban consumers, bridge the food supply gap arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and enhance gender-equitable value chains while increasing institutional, national and global efforts on poverty reduction, climate resilience and building long-term solutions to food supply and security in both rural and urban areas.