Sustaining Livelihoods through Organic Agriculture in Tanzania - UMB

In 2003, IFOAM commissioned an overview of the organic movement in Africa,
covering both certified and non-certified organic producers in 22 of Africa’s 54
countries where organic agriculture is most advanced. The IFOAM survey identifies
five different mechanisms through which organic agriculture is currently being
developed and promoted, namely:
1. commercially-driven, certified and export-led organic agriculture that exist
without any (significant) external funding, generally practised on large-scale
farms and usually for export;
2. export-oriented organic agriculture, assisted through development funding,
generally aimed at improving the cash incomes of impoverished smallholders
by giving them access to premium export markets;
3. non-market oriented organic agriculture, assisted by donor agencies to meet a
range of development objectives such as poverty relief particularly amongst
vulnerable groups such as women and female-headed households, combating
desertification and global warming, improving soil fertility, promoting the use
of local seed varieties and maintaining biodiversity;
4. local organic agriculture projects, developed by farmer groups and indigenous
development organisations as a means of addressing pressing social, economic
and environmental problems;
5. research carried out within local, national and supra-national institutes (Parrott
& van Elzakker, 2003).
The growing interest in organic agriculture in all the above sectors by actors with
vastly differing goals, motivations and attitudes is giving rise to the adoption of a
range of different farming practices with equally heterogeneous implications for the
livelihoods of producers.
2.4 Organic agriculture as a livelihood strategy
Organic agriculture is not to be seen as an end in itself, but rather as a means to
healthier soils, plants, animals and people, or a livelihood strategy used to achieve
desired livelihood outcomes such as poverty reduction, food security and
environmental conservation. The concept of livelihood ‘comprises the capabilities,
assets (including material and social resources) and activities required for a means of
living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses
and shocks, and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the
future, while not undermining the natural resource base’ (adapted from Scoones,
1998: 4).
Donor agencies and other development partners promote organic agriculture in order
to bring opportunities and welfare benefits to the people of rural Africa. The SIDAfunded
Export Promotion of Organic Products from Africa (EPOPA) claims that the
benefits of organic agriculture include increased productivity, safe food, varied diets,
increased income and return on labour, reduced costs of production and reduced risk
of crop failures (EPOPA, 2004). Informal indications show that organic producers are
more food secure and can sell excess produce, enabling them to educate and clothe
their children better than other farmers (Taylor, 2006).
Advocates of organic agriculture are being challenged to critically appraise the
contribution that organic agriculture is having to food security, a condition under
which ‘all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe
and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
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