A Sea of Entrepreneurial Opportunity: Tanzania

This note discusses the experiences of the USAID supported the Smallholder Empowerment and Economic Growth through Agribusiness and Association Development project (SEEGAAD) in Tanzania. The project intended to counter environmentally unsustainable practices and alleviate poverty within rural coastal communities in Tanzania. The note states that:

• SEEGAAD activities were carried out in four focus areas:
  • Extension support for select products;
  • Improving the enabling environment;
  • Business skills training;
  • Association building.
• SEEGAAD focused on promoting seaweed farming as it holds enormous potential to greatly increase incomes for the most smallholders;
• SEEGAAD assisted smallholders in establishing business-oriented associations that could serve as effective vehicles for driving rural agribusiness growth.

It concludes that USAID will continue to provide assistance to small farmers through a five-year program called Sustainable Environmental Management through Mariculture Activities project (SEMMA). The goal of SEMMA is to conserve biodiversity along the Tanzanian coastline through sustainable development of profitable mariculture enterprises.