Huruma Mgaya, a smallholder in Tanzania, has been a member of Tanzania’s Njombe Agricultural Development Organization (NADO) since 2016. She is also the secretary of UMOJA ‘A’ group in Itunduma village in NJOMBE DC. Huruma has been farming potatoes for 5 years and through NADO has learned about sustainable farming. She has learned new skills by attending NADO’s training workshops in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Farm Business School (FBS) and Good Post-Harvest Handling (GPHH). After implementing what she learned in the training sessions, Huruma’s potato production has increased (from 4-6 MT/acre to 8-9.5 MT /acre) and so has her income.
Huruma built a small storage for her potatoes so that she can keep them up to 4 months without affecting their quality and taste. The storage also reduces her post-harvest losses. Due to price fluctuations, she used to leave matured potatoes in the field for a long time while waiting for prices to increase. This led to lower quality potatoes and waste as she had to throw some of the potatoes away. Now she can store her potatoes and decide when to sell the potatoes depending on the market price.
Huruma Mgaya built a potato warehouse so she can store the potatoes longer, sell them at a better price and reduce food waste.
