Poster: Scaling up improved legume technologies in Tanzania

The challenge
Improved technologies and practices for growing common beans, groundnuts (peanuts), soybeans, and other legumes represent one of the most cost-effective and affordable approaches to improving food and nutrition security and enhancing soil fertility. Despite the well-documented advantages of improved legume practices, such as intercropping, their use remains low in Tanzania. The main hurdles to their adoption are the lack of information available to farmers, failure to establish effective national extension services, and inaccessibility to high-quality seeds and fertilizers.

Key results
• A multimedia campaign to improve legume technology
• An interactive radio series to provide mentoring in legume production
• Siz radio series reached an estimated 508,000 farming family members
• An estimated 128,589 family members have begun using at least one improved practice (for example row spacing or fertilizer application)
• 11.8 tons of soybean seed and 8 tons of common bean seed produced
• 19.6% of farmers reached have adopted improved practices

Cover photo credit: IDRC / Bartay

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), www.idrc.ca, and with financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC), www.international.gc.ca