School garden Maize production,Tanzania

The Tanzania Project, a Norwegian non-profit led by psychologist Hanne Renland, is working to improve education in rural schools along Lake Malawi. In 2023, they launched the “School Garden Project” in seven secondary schools with over 5,000 students to help them grow their own food, addressing the issue of students not having access to healthy meals during the school day. With funding from BASAID via the Global Giving platform, the project focused on growing maize as part of school lunches. The first harvest, ending in June 2024, yielded over 200 bags of maize (around 100 kg each), additionally  two schools produced 4,500 kg of rice. However, challenges included excessive rain causing fertilizer loss, some crops rotting, theft, and unsuitable soil quality in certain fields. Despite these setbacks, the schools are motivated to continue improving their food production. BASAID is contributing 5,000 CHF for fertilizers and maize seeds, and Norwegian farming experts will visit in October to discuss ways to improve future harvests.