Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Farming in Tanzania
Farming in Tanzania
Tanzania
W
Heather Tomlinson
shares how organic
farming in Tanzania is
creating healthy food,
increasing incomes
and restoring damaged
ecosystems
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Overseas
We use manure to restore the soil.
We want to bring it back to Eden.
This land once had trees all over it.
We want to heal the land.
Rebecca is a formidable woman
who has made the most of the
opportunities from PWP. After joining
her VSLA group in 2008, she was
able to send her five children to
school using the loans. On her plot
there is now a range of trees: papaya,
avocado, tree tomato, fuel and fodder
species. She trialled the double dug
compost method for her vegetables
and found that she produced nearly
twice as much food as before, for her
family and to boost her income. She
says that being in the micro-credit
group also encourages her to work,
because every week she has to save
something. And the interest she has
earned from her savings has meant
that every year she has been able to
build one more wall of her new home
from local soils.
Another common use for the
loans is to buy livestock. The farmers
then receive milk for their family,
and an income from selling it. They
also get lots of natural fertilizer for
their crops, and if they breed then
they have a future income source.
Grace has four children to support.
From organic farming, it is easier to
sell produce and get more income,
she tells us. The various agricultural
methods, contouring, composting,
have increased production, so
increased selling. Life was difficult
before, but now at last we can
assemble like a human being.
Before, our houses had no roofs.
Life is better now than before.
Graces mum, Juliana, said:
We are able to depend on ourselves,
to be more self-reliant than before.
Its possible to develop culture of
saving now. Before we had to
consume everything. Now, we
consume a little, save a little.
This natural, gentle, systemic ap
proach manages to restore both the
environment and peoples lives
Heather Tomlinson is a freelance
journalist, who blogs about the
simple life and spirituality at www.
heathersmag.wordpress.com
Find out more about Plant With Purpose
at www.plantwithpurpose.org
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