farip supports innovation in rural areas and targeted attempts to improve the income of farming families in Tanzania with new business ideas. Small farmers are increasingly focusing their business ideas on fair trade and their own transport chain – without intermediaries – from the collection points in the highlands to the points of sale, and on direct marketing in the city. farip plays the role of both a microcredit bank and a coach and advisor to help these proactive people move forward. This gives them the chance to show in an experimental phase that their ideas can work. Rural startups emerge and become attractive investments.
DONATE NOW
Smallholder farmers in Tanzania could produce much more, but they do not receive operating loans as banks demand land as collateral. However, losing the land to the bank in case of crop failure is not an option. Tanzanian farming families have now devised a new credit mechanism: Instead of offering the parcels, the farming families only offer the valuable trees on their parcels as collateral for loans.
With the proceeds from donations, farip can grant loans to small-scale producer families for the production of beans and potatoes. Since January 2024, the second production cycle with loans secured by growing trees has already been underway. Donate now..
LISTENING TO FARMERS
2024-10-02. Unexpectedly, TCRD has reached a milestone: the Ministry and universities are listening to farmers! After years of experimentation in Tanzania’s southern highlands, TCRD – Tree-secured Credits for Rural Development, a forest-backed credit mechanism, has gained public recognition. During its October journey through Tanzania—joined by Swiss students and a biodiversity start-up— farip gave talks on the potential of private forests. TCRD earned recognition from the Ministry of Natural Resources, represented by Dr. Siima Salome Bakengesa. “Native tree species must be promoted; they are an important part of future forest policy,” she emphasized. She aims to persuade local banks to recognize trees as collateral and hopes farip will continue sharing its expertise and training additional forest wardens (Watunza Misitu). Read more about TCRD..
FORESTS RICH IN BIODIVERSITY
Severina, Damian, and Ezekeli are discussing with farip in Bahat’s natural forest how they can benefit from a natural forest. Damian says, “We understand the value of the natural forest very well. But we also need to solve our ongoing financial struggles with it. How can we turn our own natural forests into real money? At the moment, we’re forced to produce charcoal from it.” The discussion centers on how they can generate a steady income from their forests, which are rich in biodiversity. Could international biodiversity payments be a possible solution?
SCOUTUNG
How does scouting work? What is the pathway from idea to experimentation? How can an interesting idea from rural Africa be transformed into a successful small business? It takes scouting! This is what farip specialises in: “scouting”. We pick up ideas brought to us by proactive people in rural Tanzania. farip then digs deeper and challenges these ideas, asking questions like: Who are the innovative potential entrepreneurs and their team members who want to bring this innovation to life? How do they organise themselves? Which technical tests can show whether the business idea is feasible? And where is the market for the products?
MAP
farip’s ventures are concentrated in the southern highlands around Makambako and Magunguli, as well as along the cargo service’s route to Dar es-Salaam, in Msowero and Morogoro. farip also supports ventures in Dar es-Salaam.
Updated: 2024-11-26