Sustainable Agriculture Projects in Mkuranga District

Mkuranga District, in Tanzania's Coastal Region, was chosen by TanzPro Greens Ltd for a specific reason: clean soils and a climate suited to organic cultivation, free of the pressures that intensive conventional farming often brings elsewhere. It is here that the company has built its two sister organic projects.

The first, the Mitaranda Organic Project, was established in 2016. The second, the Kisele Organic Project, followed in 2018 along Mtwara Road, and it is Kisele where TanzPro's organic vision truly began, the farm that set the direction for everything the company has built since.

The scale involved across the two projects is significant by regional standards. TanzPro now works with more than 50 contracted farmers across Mitaranda and Kisele, feeding into a total production base exceeding 200 tons of organic produce a year. That volume did not happen at either site alone; it is the combination of both farms, run under the same organic principles, that gives the company enough consistent supply to service five separate export markets.

Across both sites, production combines greenhouses with open fields, growing a range of vegetables, fruits and herbs suited to the district's coastal climate. The greenhouses allow more controlled growing conditions for certain crops, while open-field cultivation handles the bulk of seasonal vegetable and fruit production.

The crop list grown across Mitaranda and Kisele is broad by design. Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers and chillies, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots and onions make up much of the open-field vegetable programme, while avocado, pineapple and passion fruit, ginger, garlic, and herbs and spices add variety alongside moringa powder, roselle powder, organic honey and sunflower oil. Spreading production across this range reduces the district's dependence on any single crop's season or price.

The workforce behind this production is predominantly made up of rural women. More than 50 contracted farmers work with TanzPro, around 70% of them women, and each is trained in organic cultivation methods rather than simply hired for seasonal labour. That training gives them a genuine path toward commercial organic production, backed by guaranteed market access for what they grow.

Training here means more than a one-off orientation. Farmers contracted to Mitaranda and Kisele work with certified seed and are guided in organic cultivation methods over successive seasons, with guaranteed market access removing much of the price uncertainty that independent smallholders elsewhere in the region often face. That guarantee is part of what makes a 70%-women workforce a realistic long-term commitment rather than a seasonal arrangement.

The farming methods themselves follow organic principles throughout. Crop rotation and green manure keep soil fertility renewing itself season after season, biological pest control replaces synthetic chemical sprays, and composting turns farm waste back into soil nutrition rather than a disposal problem.

Composting at both sites turns farm waste, crop residue, and organic matter that would otherwise be discarded back into soil nutrition, closing a loop that reduces the projects' reliance on external chemical fertiliser almost entirely. Combined with crop rotation and green manure, this keeps the Mkuranga soils productive season after season rather than mining them for short-term yield.

Water is managed through a mix of drip irrigation and rain-fed cultivation, chosen according to crop and season, which keeps water use efficient without depending on heavy mechanised infrastructure. This is complemented by the wider farm standards TanzPro holds: the East African Organic Mark (Kilimohai), TOAM membership, and Fair Trade principles, with all produce grown 100% GMO-free.

The result of these methods is threefold: healthier food for buyers, a healthier local environment around Mkuranga, and a stronger local economy built on farmer training and guaranteed income rather than casual, unpredictable labour.

Guaranteed market access is the piece that turns organic training into a stable livelihood rather than a farming technique alone. Contracted farmers at Mitaranda and Kisele know in advance that produce grown to TanzPro's organic standards will be bought and moved into the export pipeline, removing much of the uncertainty that comes from selling into open, unpredictable local markets.

Certification gives that whole arrangement a way to be verified from outside the district. The East African Organic Mark, known locally as Kilimohai, together with TOAM membership and adherence to Fair Trade principles, signals to export buyers that what happens on the ground in Mkuranga, crop rotation, composting, biological pest control and GMO-free growing, meets a recognised regional standard rather than being a private claim.

The two projects also differ slightly in emphasis. Mitaranda, established first in 2016, laid the initial groundwork for organic methods on this land, while Kisele, established in 2018 along Mtwara Road, is where TanzPro's organic vision reached its fullest expression and became the model the company has since applied across both sites.

Sustainability at Mitaranda and Kisele also extends beyond the fields themselves. TanzPro runs a tree-planting programme tied directly to its export volumes, putting 50 trees in the ground for every tonne of produce shipped, and pairs its organic produce with compostable packaging at the export stage.

What the Mkuranga projects demonstrate is that sustainable agriculture does not have to be a trade-off against productivity or commercial viability. Organic methods, applied consistently across crop rotation, water use, pest control and workforce training, have instead built a durable production base capable of supplying export markets on a regular basis.

TanzPro Greens Ltd, founded in 2014 in Dar es Salaam, now exports more than 200 tons a year of produce grown under this model to five markets, including Seychelles, Dubai and the UAE, Oman, Russia and East Africa. Mitaranda and Kisele are the foundation that makes that scale of trade possible.

To learn more about the Mitaranda and Kisele Organic Projects, or to discuss sourcing from Mkuranga District, contact TanzPro Greens Ltd on +255 713 398 485 or by email at om@tanzpro.co.tz.