Village Agricultural Officers provide a critical service to smallholder farmers in rural Tanzania. They serve as the major source of agricultural information for farmers and connect farmers to larger projects and organizations.

LandPKS training site in Malagosi

This week, the LandPKS team had the pleasure to spend a few days with the Agricultural Officer for Malagosi Village in Iringa Region, Tanzania. The Agricultural Officer is young, motivated, and cares about providing quality information to the farmers of Malagosi. After only a morning of training on how to use LandPKS, she was able to not only go through the LandInfo App on her own, but also helped train a few active youth in Malagosi on how to use LandPKS. She stated that she “could put the LandPKS results for each sub-village up on in village office, and if a farmer wants more information they can ask me to conduct LandPKS on their farm.”

The Agricultural Officer in Malagosi

The LandPKS team hopes that Village Agriculture Officers throughout Tanzania can play a role in increasing the adoption of LandPKS and thereby helping farmers make more sustainable agricultural choices based on their soils.

Malagosi Ag. Officer teaching locals how to use LandPKS