TZ Winter Amp Day 3
Day 3: Mon Jan 6
AITEC Dodoma, Wine Grapes, and Farming Villages
By: John A. Samura (JAS)
Habari, karibu katika siku ya 3 ya safari yetu nchini Tanzania.
We kicked off the day with a team breakfast meeting at the restaurant. The buffet had a tasty spread of chicken and sausage, fried sweet potato, mango juice, watermelon, and many more. If you wanted an omelet, they made it on request.
After breakfast, we all piled into a shiny black minivan and headed to our first stop: the AITEC Cultivaid Research and Development Center. It was set up in November 2020 and is just a few minutes from our hotel.
AITEC is actually the first agricultural research center of its kind in Tanzania, focusing on agricultural trials. They take inspiration from the Israeli farming methods from the '50s and '60s and tweak them to work with Tanzanian farming practices.
David's on the far right in both pics, giving a warm welcome to the team at the R&D center. The farm has four main components: First, there's the education side, where they teamed up with Don Bosco to boost their agricultural programs. They pick six top ag- students from Tanzania and Israel for a six-month internship. Then, there's the research and development part, which takes different farming methods from Israel and other parts of the world and modifies them to work better in Tanzania. Next up is the extension component, and finally, the commercial side. David gave us a tour of the farm, showing off everything from the irrigation system that pulls water from the borehole to the various veggies—like the super tasty carrots we all tried, plus onions, cabbage, and the hoop house where they grow seedlings to sell to the public.
The best part for me—and I think for the whole team—was definitely the grape section. We got to try all four types of grapes on the farm: black rose, French Colombard, Sirah, and for the white wine fans, the Chenin Blanc that was highly recommended by David. It was a blast!
On the next leg of our trip, we split into two vehicles: a Hilux and a black minivan, and headed to Mugu village. It was a bumpy two-and-a-half-hour ride from Dodoma to check out some farmers that Cultivaid supports. The road was pretty rough, but the views of the city and mountains were amazing! We got a glimpse of rural Tanzanian life, stopping here and there to let cows cross the road. I spotted more baobab trees than I’ve ever seen—definitely over twenty—as we cruised along in our Hilux pickup.
We finally made it to Mugu, a little village that Veronica, the extension manager, told us is the farthest one supported by the project. David introduced us to the farmers and filled us in on what they’ve been up to and how the project has helped them out. 
He was super proud to share that four of the farmers have established their own farms using Cultivaid's improved planting method just a year after the project started. We got to ask the farmers multiple questions about the project integrating the new practice into their traditional farming practice. Then we headed back to Dodoma, we wrapped up the trip with a fun group photo in front of one of the baobab trees, all of us linking arms!
We wrapped up our trip with dinner at this restaurant called the new Muambao restaurant in downtown Dodoma, which David took us to. Seriously, this place breaks all the records for the most number of plates ordered and the longest table I've ever seen—our whole team fit with extra chairs to spare! David, our go-to food guru from Tanzania, ordered a bunch of dishes for us, and we all dug in. We had white rice, egg-fried rice, eggplant soup, and a bunch of other local goodies. I'm happy to say we didn’t hold back; we tried to eat everything on the table!
We headed back to our hotel to catch some sleep and get ready for more adventurous trips.