Improve the quality of available planting seed and seedcake, in collaboration with governmental agricultural extension services. Establish a commercial system to provide agricultural inputs and other agro-processing technologies to local farmers. Since the project's earliest sales activities in mid-1986, over 2,200 ram presses have been sold in Tanzania. Poor weather combined with a government ban on export of crops to neighboring countries further reduced the income of Tanzanian farmers in 1998. As a result of these two factors, fewer new presses were sold in the past calendar year.
Unfavorable weather affects seed supply.
In 1997 and 1998, El Ni o and La Ni a weather severely affected all of East and Central Africa. Meanwhile, the country's stock of planting seed hit its lowest point of the last 10 years. The project had previously contracted with eight lead farmers multiplication of sunflower seed using high-quality planting seed from the Msimba Foundation Seed Farm. Due to unfavorable weather, however, the lead farmers only produced 1,100 kg of planting seed for sale to the project. Field demonstrations are ongoing.