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Good practice Imported

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

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 29% 85/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

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.

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

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