Improving livelihoods of smallholder paddy producers by strengthening their capacities in packaging and marketing”-: A case of Matufa village in Babati distric

A project with an objective of improving livelihoods of smallholder paddy producers by strengthening their capacities in packaging and marketing was implemented in Matufa village in Babati district from June 2013 to December 2013. The project was initiated following a participatory community needs assessment carried out in the village by the researcher, host CBO and Matufa village community. The needs assessment was guided by the following specific objectives; to obtain information which will help to improve livelihoods of small holder paddy farmers in Matufa village by increasing marketability of their farm products, to guide small holder paddy farmers in Matufa village in creating a good packaging system for their products in order to improve marketing, to develop participatory intervention strategies aimed at solving issues aroused during community needs assessment. The findings revealed among other things that, the Matufa village community was faced with an absence of village health centre, poor irrigation infrastructures, lack of reliable saving and credit services, poor market for produced crops, absence of a secondary school in the village and unavailability of agricultural implements. Among all the identified problems poor markets for produced crops was ranked as a major problem which required immediate intervention. Following the findings a participatory strategy for improving marketability of produced crops was developed and implemented by training farmers in marketing skills and packaging techniques. Farmers were also enabled to participate in various exhibitions to market their packed products