Utete, TZ – VICOBA group purchases a modern farm spray pump – Jan 2023

The Vicoba volunteer families thank KCM and Better lives for supporting them with a loan for buying a modern powered agricultural spray pump. It is assisting farmers to improve and sustain crop growth for better harvest and income for their families.

The pump is helping Vicoba volunteer families to enhance agricultural production by hiring the pump themselves and also by providing a pump spraying service to other farmers’families. The Vicoba’s target is to pay 31,000 TZS per month for a loan repayment and savings for the Vicoba members’ shared benefit, and maintenance and repair of the pump. The Vicoba charges 300 TZS to spray a Cashew nuts tree, and 10,000 TZS to spray an acre of sesame and weeds. The first month ledger shows 60,000 TZS total collected from 7 families that hired the pump service.

Most of the families do not know how to use the modern spray pump, so KCM is training Vicoba members’ families how to use the pump through the user manual and knowledge provided from Vicoba officers. The Vicoba families are responsible for spraying the customers fields and get paid labor time. This way they can protect the pump and it will last longer.

The Vicoba is marketing with pump demonstrations to get more customers and earn income in nearby villages. This will help pay the pump loan on time and eventually own the pump asset, which will increase savings and loan capital that its members will use to improve homes and their children’s lives. The future plan is to start a farm inputs store to serve the community by sharing knowledge, selling seeds, seedlings, sprays and compost, and renting farming equipment like spray pump, wheelbarrow and shovels.