Tanzania: The transformation of Abdallah Vie
Abdallah Mohamed Ali, also known as Abdallah Vie, is a 64-year-old farmer from Mtakata village in Vitongoji Southern Pemba, Tanzania. He lives with his family of 18 members.
TAHA’s Pemba agronomist Ally Kamtande during a training session with Abdallah Vie and his farm helpers at his farm in Mtakata village in Vitongoji Southern Pemba.
Abdallah started farming a quarter of an acre in 2010 where he planted tomatoes. The source of water for his farm was a local village bore hole.
“Carrying water from the water source with a bucket was one of the most difficult tasks as a farmer.” remembered Abdallah Vie. Due to not having enough money to buy a pump, he spent many hours carrying water over the years.”
Abdallah was among the first farmers to join TAHA in 2015 though it took one year for him to adopt TAHA’s recommended technology.
“I was attending TAHA classes from 2015 but I adopted technology late, now when I sit back I wish I would have started early. I was not sure of the technology that TAHA was giving us and thus I was scared to change from what I had been doing for so many years.”- said Abdallah
TAHA’s agronomist started by giving him hybrid seeds for trial and wanted him to compare them with the local seeds he was using. As we end 2019, Abdallah has more than 10 acres of land where he farms a variety of crops from tomatoes, sweet pepper, bananas, water melon, passion fruit and papaya.
“I can’t really compare the profit I used to get when I was doing local seeds to what I am getting using hybrid seeds. I had never exceeded a profit of 2 million TZS when I was doing local farming. After the transformation I have made a profit of 100 million in my four seasons. I am grateful to TAHA and particularly the agronomists for their contributions in my success”- Abdallah says with a spark in his eyes.
“I use the money I get to fulfil the needs of my family such taking my kids to school, medical care and also to improve facilities in my farm. I have also employed 10 people who are helping me with farm activities and my plan is to provide employment to more people when I expand my farm”.
This project is supported by the KEO 30 program from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland