In Tanzania, Youth Village-Based Agricultural Advisor Empowers Her Community
Siza Mkini, age 26, is a youth like none other from Kitowo village, Kilolo – Iringa, Tanzania. She became a VBAA (Village Based Agricultural Advisor) at age 21 when she joined agricultural training provided by the Feed the Future NAFAKA II Activity when it began phase two of its activities in 2016. Since then, she trained a total of 383 smallholder farmers at her village on good agriculture practices, including the harvesting and post-harvest handling of maize grain.
“NAFAKA II GAP (Good Agriculture Practice) training enabled us at the village to increase maize harvest from 3 to 15 bags per acre, attaining yield not only of high quantity but with respective quality.”
–siza mkini, vbaa, tanzania
As a result of her hard work, in 2017 she won a USAID NAFAKA II grant of a pesticide spraying equipment. Since then, she has extended her services as a pesticide sprayer. She is pictured here in front of the foundation of her future house.
Always aspiring for more, Siza attended additional training provided by NAFAKA II on inputs handling and sales. She later became a small agro dealer in her village, providing a much-needed link between large agro inputs companies and smallholder farmers at profit.
Her accomplishments speak for themselves:
In 2018, she sold 20.85 MT of fertilizers (US$ 4781.89), 1.82 MT of seeds (US$ 4,881.36), and 142 LTR of pesticides (US$ 1841.66).
In 2019, she sold 21.40 MT of fertilizers (12,413.92 US$), 1.3 MT of seeds (3,429.08 US$), and 200 LTR of pesticides (2,453.61 US$).
In 2020, while taking COVID-19 safety precautions, she managed to sell 5.6 MT of fertilizers (2,805.08 US$), 0.83 MT of seeds (2,412.13 US$), and 27 LTR of pesticides (417.48 US$).
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As a mother of one daughter, five-year-old Aisha, Siza further declares “As a youth, I highly appreciate what NAFAKA has done for me. Since 2016, my income has risen. Now I’m able to support myself and my child with food and clothing.”
In 2020, Siza won a mechanization grant for a maize thresher. As NAFAKA II is cementing its participants’ Journey(s) to Self-Reliance (J2SR) by seeking to help them stay safe from COVID-19 by being able to communicate and keep inventory, Siza received a tablet through another grant.
As alternative sources of income, Siza also cultivates vegetables, peas, and other commodities through a NAFAKA II linkage with the Fintrac Mboga na Matunda project.
She grows sunflowers, common beans, and rears poultry, currently keeping over 100 chickens.
“I usually wonder where I would be without NAFAKA. My intention moving forward is to continue to capacity build other youths in my community and nearby.”
