Five. That’s the number of runners I’ve seen in Tanzania. Not the amount of people I’ve seen running, but runners. There’s a sharp distinction. It’s not exactly surprising seeing as Tanzania is one of the weaker East-African athletics nations (i.e. their 10,000m national records are 27:06 and 31:32 for men and women respectively – not slow clockings). But that’s okay. I think if I saw people training every day I would feel guilty that I’ve only run three times in the past three weeks. I’ve started working with the field team for my summer internship and things are getting busy.
It’s also not surprising that there are fewer runners in Tanzania than in other East African countries; it’s one of the poorest countries in the world. Some children attend school, and those who don’t are helping around the house or working in the fields. Kids as young as 5 or 6 herd dozens of cattle all by themselves. Farming is central to the livelihood of the Tanzanian population.
Agricultural production is growing rapidly, accounting for nearly a third of the country’s GDP, and employing up to 80 per cent of its labour force during peak season. Many of these labourers are smallholder farmers, operating about two acres of land per family. They produce cash crops such as tobacco, coffee, and cotton, as well as domestically consumed crops like maize, beans and potatoes. Smallholder farmers face three prominent and devastating barriers to sustained social and agricultural development.
The majority of smallholder farmers live below the poverty line of US$1.90 per day – or, an annual income of less than $300 per year – making them the most impoverished demographic in Tanzania. These families can’t afford to eat a nutritious diet, let alone maintain food security.
Given this financial barrier, it should come as little surprise that most smallholder farmers are unable to provide value added processes to their crops. This, in turn, restricts their overall productivity, market access, and ability to sell their products at a higher price.
But barriers to sustainable agriculture are not limited to financial realms. Cultural gender bias has played a role as well. Historically, the male leader of the household in Tanzania has owned and run the family’s land. This preconception is compounded by a lack of knowledge surrounding women’s rights to property. By law, women have equal rights as men to own land. Yet despite this -- and study after study showing that when women are given leadership roles they can be up to 30 per cent more productive than man -- the stigma remains.
There isn’t one solution to issues like these, but encouraging steps have been taken to begin to combat them.
The government of Tanzania released The Tanzanian Development Vision (TVD) 2025 in 1999, a plan to develop the economy, society and government processes. To aid TVD 2025, the government has implemented several five year plans, with the most recent edition placing agricultural sustainability as a primary issue.
Some NGOs, such as Seed Change Tanzania, have introduced higher yield seeds and value added practices which have increased household income. Seed Change as well as other actors have also analyzed the value chain of products sold domestically and regionally to find and address the gaps.
The PELUM Association of Tanzania has been successful implementing gender blind seminars and training programs. These programs have broken the stigma surrounding women in agriculture. Findings show that land rights education creates an important shift in, not only female, but also male views about women as landowners. Following these seminars, women have the opportunity to immediately apply for land parcels.
MVIWATA has addressed all of the above issues with their 2017-2021 strategic plan for smallholder farmers which focuses on ameliorating sustainable production systems, financial access, land security, and the organization’s institutional capacities.
The field team at the Manyara branch of MVIWATA has been traveling across the region to meet smallholder farmers and engage them in business, marketing, book keeping, and value addition training. They are also partnered with World University Services of Canada (WUSC) who have provided gender training. Having witnessed and aided many of these sessions now, I can honestly say that there is such a great sense of community and cooperation between farmers and people in general in Tanzania. The participants of the training sessions are active and enthusiastic about increasing their knowledge and capacity to better their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Despite knowing only a handful of words and phrases in Kiswahili (Tanzania’s official language) and the MVIWATA farming members knowing the same amount of English, we can still laugh and smile together as these training sessions unfold. English is fairly rare in the rural regions of the country.
That being said, my supervisor, Donald, speaks perfect English and is able to translate whenever needed. Donald is a field officer for MVIWATA Manyara and is my counterpart for the duration of my internship here in Babati. His area of expertise is community and economic development, exactly what I’m interested in. He’s the man.
Unfortunately there is a lack of youth membership in MVIWATA, and that’s where I come in. My role as a youth engagement officer for the Manyara branch is to devise a strategy to encourage the next generation to embark on a career of farming. Yes, I have a small amount of experience working with youth. Yes, I am over the moon about this opportunity. No, I have never created a youth engagement strategy. No, I’ve never facilitated a training session. And most importantly and frustratingly, no, I don’t speak Swahili.
I foresee many challenges, and I’m certain many more will pop up along this journey. The biggest issue thus far is that farming is a labour intensive and unstable form of income despite it being of great importance to the country. For this reason, youth are interested in jobs that are more secure and yield quicker incomes.
With over 80 per cent of the population relying on domestically produced food, smallholder farms are elemental to Tanzania and continuing to address extreme poverty, gender and age norms, and access barriers will be paramount to the country’s success. This success can only be achieved through collaboration between the Tanzanian government, NGOs, and community leaders.
The partnership between MVIWATA and Uniterra is the grassroots mobilization this issue needs.
This piece was originally written for another job application in Tanzania, but I’ve altered it as I get to experience farming and training sessions first hand with MVIWATA Manyara.
It’s quite surreal living and traveling around the Manyara region of Tanzania - the landscapes are astonishing, the people are beyond friendly, and the temperature is crisp in the morning and cool in the afternoons. If you’re interested in learning about more of MVIWATA’s work in Tanzania visit their Instagram page where they profiles successful farmers.
P.S. Shout out to my buddy Melika for being brave enough to lend me his camera for the summer! And happy Canada Day from TZ!
Thumbnail art by @j_sekhar