Joyce Noel is a member of Ufugaji Commercial Producer Group (CPG) in Manyire Village, Arusha region. She is married and has three children. Joyce cultivates maize, cucumber, okra, African eggplant on their two-acre piece of land. Joyce has managed to increase maize and vegetables yields through good agronomical practices (GAP). Currently, Joyce and her husband harvest between 18-20 bags of maize from an acre, earning Tsh 1,125,000 (USD 518.19) from 15 bags weighing 100kg. Apart from cereals’ farming, Joyce was able to increase cucumber yields from two bags to six bags per week earning a total income of TZS 1.2 million (USD 552.73) per season

She acquired various skills on how to plant maize especially following the recommended spacing (30 cm between the crops, by 90cm between the crop row), and fertilizer application. Joyce also decided to put into action what she learned from the seminar by using DAP (Double Ammonium Phosphate), a compound fertilizer and UREA fertilizer, a simple fertilizer applied three weeks after planting. Practice of these good agricultural practices enabled her to increase her maize production from one bag per acre to 18-20 bags. Apart from GAP on maize, Joyce also received training on how to plant cucumber, okra and African eggplant. The training focused on spacing and how to do proper transplanting of the vegetables from the nursery to the farm.

 In 2013, Joyce participated in one of the trainings facilitated by Farm Concern International (FCI) at Manyire village. The training focus was on good agronomical practices such as fertilizer application, selection of seed in response to geographical zone, spacing in maize, eggplant & okra, and crop rotation. After this training, Joyce decided to practice what she had learnt. As a result, she got the benefits  from the training as demonstrated in the table below.

The increase in yields led to an increase in income enabling Joyce and her husband to commence the construction of their new permanent house through purchasing of windows and doors worth Tsh 800,000 (USD 368.49), two lories of sand worth Tsh 260,000 (USD 119.76) and 20 bags of cements worth TSh 320,000 (USD 147.40). They were also able to buy a one acre piece of land which cost a total of Tsh 3 million (USD 1,381.84) in addition to other activities such as purchasing of livestock like cattle, 10 goats and sheep and paying school fees for their three children.

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