SESEDO - Sustainable Energy Services, Environment Management and Development Organisation - was officially registered in 2006 under registration No. OONGO1775 as a non-governmental organisation based in Mwanza, Tanzania. SESEDO is a grass root, non-governmental organisation, which is striving to fulfil its objectives by promoting renewable energy and other environmental related initiatives. Our goal is to have a conserved environment for Sustainable Development by promoting renewable energy and other sustainable development activities.

SESEDO Organisation, which has 11 members and about 25 field facilitators, has experience and technical expertise covering the whole range of sustainable energy technologies including; photovoltaic, solar, wind, biomass, energy efficiency and hybrid systems.

CURRENT MAIN FOCUS
Since two years ago, the main focus of SESEDO organisation has been "The Application of Renewable Energy for Irrigation Farming", whereby among other things we are facilitating the designing and production of low cost renewable energy based water pumping systems for irrigation farming. In doing this, SESEDO is trying to tackle the serious situation concerning persistent drought and unsustainable farming systems in Tanzania. Our focus is the application of renewable energy such as small wind turbine based water pumping systems and solar water pumps for irrigation purposes to replace the current fuel water pumps so as to save water, fuel and CO2 emissions in conjunction with the introduction of efficient irrigation methods for increased farmers' production.

WHY ARE YOU CONCENTRATING IN AGRICULTURE?
It is because agriculture is the backbone of the economy of our country. About 80% of the population live in the rural areas and depend on subsistence agriculture, which accounts for roughly 40% of the GDP. But still, the agriculture sector in Tanzania needs to be developed as currently it is faced by underutilisation of arable land, whereby about 25% only of arable land is used for crop production. On the other hand, about 1% only of suitable land for irrigation farming is utilised for this purpose.

However, the development of reliable, affordable, environment-friendly small-scale technologies for sustainable development needs concerted efforts from north and south. We are therefore looking for partners from all over the world not only to share information, but also to work together in the implementation of projects in various areas such as climate change adaptation, environmental management, sustainable development, food security and energy services in general.

NB: The windmill water pumps and the treadle pumps above, which we are using in our ongoing irrigation project, are fabricated by SIDO (Mwanza office) in cooperation with SESEDO organisation. But, further research is needed to design and produce low-cost windmill pumps and other agricultural implements for rural development with minimum maintenance costs. Let us join hands!