The climate and water risks facing small-and medium scale water users and smallholder farmers and their communities pose significant challenges to sustainable raw material production, and are a growing concern for progressive businesses like Serengeti Breweries. Through Maji SASA! a wide range of partners within Tanzania are seizing the opportunity to work in collaboration to better understand and address these risks to support business, community well-being, local livelihoods, and sustainable economic growth. As well as delivering direct benefits to communities, business and the environment in Tanzania, this work will fill an important gap in global water stewardship approaches, by developing a transferable methodology for efficiently prioritising and targeting effective responses to water and climate risks within dispersed supply chains or large groups of small-and medium scale water users.

The project team has met with over 50 farmers, community leaders, government and NGO staff in Siha (W.Kilimanjaro), Katesh/Basotu (Hanang) and Likamba (Arusha) to investigate problems and potential solutions, and found that:

• The current situation is not sustainable for the barley farmers or SBL. Severe climate and water related risks undermine production, and the viability of barley. Support for farmers is limited and new effort is needed.
• Water, agronomy, soil fertility, productivity, tenure and climate resilience are closely inter-related. Productivity can’t be improved without addressing water/climate risks and wider farm management.
• Support should be cost-effective and tailored. Problems facing farmers, their causes and solutions vary from place to place, and so support needs to be targeted accordingly.

The project team found that the main water/climate problems facing farmers and their communities are:

• Water availability and erratic rainfall: Late onset, low totals, coupled with limited groundwater availability, soil water availability and low potential for irrigation. Regular impact on yield, loss of seed crop and harvests.
• Agronomy: Need for improved farming techniques and seed to build climate resilience, productivity, and to protect soil and water. Improved use of fertilizers and pesticides.
• Resource degradation and conflict: Insecure tenure, lack of mechanisation, and overgrazing cause problems with organic matter and water retention, and erosion. Farmer/pastoralists conflict over water and land.
• Farm business planning and risk management: Planning of finance and land-use to spread rainfall risks and maximise resilience, production and profit. Improved financial advice, planning, services and contracting.
• Access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene: In some locations, a lack of access to drinking water and sanitation in the community and at field level leads to lost time fetching water, or due to ill health.
• Land tenure: insecure land use rights or short-term land leasing agreements limit investment in soil, land and water stewardship.

In addition to surveying stakeholders and developing the partnership, the project team is developing six modules covering conservation agronomy and financial training to benefit the local community.

Project Results

The overall partnership outcomes are direct improvements in the water security status and climate resilience of SBLs supply-chain farmers and their local communities, production of national and regional level training and guidance to scale water stewardship action within supply-chains. These will be achieved through conservation agriculture training and support, financial/business training and support, general agronomy training and support, access to weather indexed insurance, empowerment, rights and obligations, WASH and healthy communities and benefit approximately 20,000 people.

1. Improved water security
2. Scale up water stewardship action
3. Relevant, tested and well documented lessons