Good practice

Rent-to-Own Deep-Water Seaweed Farming — Aqua-Farms Organization's Tubular Net Financing for Women Farmers

Tanzania · Chake Chake, Pemba · See the Tanzania profile

On Zanzibar's Pemba Island, where 88% of seaweed farmers are women, the NGO Aqua-Farms Organization lets women's cooperatives rent-to-own deep-water tubular-net equipment at 0% interest, lifting average farmer income from US$30 to US$80 a month for around 300 women.

US$30 to US$80

Average monthly income per farmer

Rent-to-Own Deep-Water Seaweed Farming — Aqua-Farms Organization's Tubular Net Financing for Women Farmers

Details

Maturity: Pilot
Promoter: Aqua-Farms Organization (AFO)
Period: 2016–present (financing pilot 2022–2026)
Keywords: blue economy, aquaculture, women's cooperatives, microfinance, climate adaptation

Context

Zanzibar's seaweed sector employs more than 23,000 farmers, over 80% women, but shallow-water methods are vulnerable to warming seas and disease. Aqua-Farms Organization (AFO), a Tanzanian NGO founded in 2016, lets women's cooperatives on Pemba Island rent-to-own deep-water tubular-net equipment at 0% interest to move into cooler, more disease-resistant waters, with training in value-added products.

Results

Average monthly income per farmer has risen from US$30 to US$80, per consistent figures from the Global Center on Adaptation and Maliasili. AFO's expansion plan aims to grow from two pilot cooperatives to ten (about 150 farmers), from 8 to 23 hectares under cultivation, targeting average income of US$140/month by 2026.

Conclusions

A separate, larger UN Joint SDG Fund programme launched in August 2025 for the same sector (targeting 15,000 households) has not yet reported results, underlining that Zanzibar's climate-driven seaweed crisis remains only partially addressed by any single initiative to date.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-11
Aqua-Farms Organization (AFO) — accessed 2026-07-11
Global Center on Adaptation – The 'Seaweed Women' of Tanzania — accessed 2026-07-11
Maliasili – AFO partner profile — accessed 2026-07-11
ORRAA – Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge project page — accessed 2026-07-11

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 85/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 22% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

The rent-to-own tubular-net financing model has already been extended from its original Pemba pilot to a second cohort in Kilwa on mainland Tanzania, and AFO's own plan scales it from 2 to 10 cooperatives.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Average monthly farmer income more than doubled (US$30 to US$80) across roughly 300 women, per consistent Global Center on Adaptation and Maliasili figures.

Effectiveness1/1

The scheme is on track toward its own US$140/month 2026 target, having already moved incomes from US$30 to US$80.

Efficiency0/1

No independent cost-per-beneficiary or cost-effectiveness analysis was found in either source, only outcome figures.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Before/after income figures are reported consistently by two independent organisations (GCA and Maliasili), though not through a formal third-party evaluation.

Sustainability1/1

The rent-to-own (not grant) equipment model and cooperative structure with a stated 2026 expansion plan (2 to 10 cooperatives) are designed for continuity beyond one-off funding.

Achievement / evidence1/1

300 women reached with equipment worth up to US$15,000 per cooperative, and income gains verified across two sources, are concrete, attributable achievements.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Cooperatives are explicitly structured around women (roughly 80% of members, reflecting that 88% of Zanzibar's seaweed farmers are women).

Curator validation1/1

Figures were cross-checked against two independently published sources (Global Center on Adaptation and Maliasili) with matching numbers.

Cite this

Evidoria. Rent-to-Own Deep-Water Seaweed Farming — Aqua-Farms Organization's Tubular Net Financing for Women Farmers. Persistent ID: 21c6e8c3-7719-4b3c-ad83-5b7472cc3b7c.

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