By Gerson Nyadzi, Team Leader

Mbola faces a unique set of development challenges that have informed our team’s strategy. The cluster has benefited from and has also been challenged by its reliance on tobacco farming. The focus on this cash crop resulted in a high gender imbalance, environmental degradation and a high deforestation rate. Most of the fertile lands which were closer to the communities had been used for tobacco, pushing food crop production to more unfertile distant lands. Where local farms were active, labor was scarce because many of the able-bodied youth of the area were drawn to greater opportunity on tobacco plantations, or to towns where they could serve as street vendors. To compound its challenges, Mbola is an isolated village with a lack of reliable road connection networks and, therefore, limited market access for food and alternative income opportunities.

After an initial assessment in which the community participated, strengthening local agriculture to feed the population became the major priority for the first two years of the project. Constructing and rehabilitating health clinics and classrooms and gaining access to clean water were among the other key priorities. Each of the fifteen communities had a primary school, but with limited qualified teachers, inadequate desks and text books and too few classrooms.

There was no functional health facility at Mbola village so that residents had to travel up to 30 km to obtain health services. All communities were relying on unprotected shallow wells and the water was limited in both quality and quantity. Women and children spent most of the day and night fetching water. Household energy use was largely restricted to the use of firewood, charcoal and crop residues. Due to economic hardship only few could afford to buy kerosene from Tabora town.

Going forward, the Mbola cluster management sees strengthened ties with the local and national government as a key priority. Such relationships are necessary in order to implement infrastructure projects such as roads, grid electricity, off-grid electricity, the construction of schools and health centers and the connection of residents with local markets. In addition, due to the heavy reliance on cash crops, the subsidization of staple crops has not proven as pertinent as in other clusters. Therefore, the project is placing greater emphasis on the introduction of sunflower as an additional cash crop. This new focus, complemented by the introduction of processing units in the cluster and in the nearby Tabora town, will hopefully serve as an additional source of income for producers as they connect with local, regional and international markets.