The lush green fields, which spread over a vast expanse of agriculture farms, looked colourful enough to draw the attention of the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID) to support the horticulture industry. As a result, the five-year Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Programme (TAPP) was established to support smallholder farmers to adopt modern farming tools.
TAPP, however, ended on the 26th August 2015, but with an untold success story. It was funded by USAID as part of the Feed the Future initiative. Thousands of farmers wept as they bid farewell to the TAPP in August 26, 2015.
"USAID was a saviour to us farmers,” says Mr Deogratius Masao from Dodoma. Mr Masao argues that apart from imparting farmers with modern skills, USAIDTAPP project also helped them with new technologies that boosted their yields. Mr Cuthbert Meena from Monduli, Arusha, says that he used to cultivate tomatoes and other horticultural crops on one acre farm due to lack of water, but now with USAID-TAPP support, his area has been increased to nine acres.