Mourine Mollel, a 26-year-old agripreneur in Iringa, has transformed her family’s abandoned farming dreams into a thriving agribusiness by leveraging support from AGRA’s Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AIDI) to scale up her horticultural enterprise, Worth Living Horticulture, significantly boosting production and income.
She began reviving her family’s farming legacy in 2021 with one acre of greenhouse farming and another under drip irrigation. But, her breakthrough came in 2024 when she secured AIDI grants, which provided her with TAPBDS’s vital training in marketing, business and financial management, along with TZS 5 million worth of essential farming equipment, enabling her to expand her operations.
With this boost, Mourine expanded her venture to two (2) greenhouses and two acres under drip irrigation, tripled her seedling production from 8,000 to 24,000 per season, and increased her revenue of 30 million per season, significantly improving her economic standing.
Beyond her personal success, Mourine has doubled her permanent workforce from 2 to 4 employees, indirectly supports four Motorcycle transporters (Bodaboda) and at least ten seasonal workers. Recognizing the potential of mechanization to increase farming efficiency, she is in the initial stages of adding equipment. Through the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) project, she has leveraged an opportunity to secure a small tractor and a row cutter from Mechanized Suppliers by aggregating equipment needs worth TZS 20 million.
With a vision for further expansion, Mourine is now working closely with TAPBDS, the business development service provider to secure financing from one of local banks through the YEFFA project, a move that will propel her agribusiness to greater heights. Contact TAPBDS to turn your project or business idea into reality.