Reducing Risk With Conservation Ag
Daudah’s husband scoffed at her when she wanted to try Conservation Agriculture practices on their farm. A year later, he asked her to train him.
Daudah is a member of a Village Savings and Lending Association. She says members help each other save money and share advice and experience with one another. The group has received training on rainwater harvesting and storage, vegetable gardening, and a number of Conservation Agriculture techniques like composting and mulching.
When Daudah asked her husband to let her try them out, he assured her it was a waste of time, but relented and gave her a piece of land far from home. She says, “My results were impressive. He could not believe it.”
He changed his mind about Conservation Agriculture, asking Daudah’s help to get him up to speed and expand the practice on their farm. Daudah says they are more united as a couple now that they are working together with the same techniques toward the same goal.
Local Partner One World Sustainable Livelihood provides a wide range of opportunities for local farm households like Daudah’s to build their capacity for food and water security. In this area of the country folks don’t have reliable sources of water and face many other challenges to growing sufficient food. These include unpredictable rains, poor soil health, long dry seasons, unsustainable farming practices, and lack of agriculture extension services. The most recent harvest season’s poor results due to drought have caused many to consider farmers to consider dead-end coping strategies like cutting trees to sell as firewood, buying seed at extortionate rates, or even selling the farm to pay off debts and face the perils of moving to the city for work.
One World may offer emergency food aid as the situation develops. It will also connect recipients with opportunities for loans and credit service providers to buy improved seeds, farm inputs, fertile land, and livestock. Access to affordable loans also permits families to pay for medical services, schools for their children, and the assistance of local water harvesting technicians.
Tanzania Hanang Program
Led by Mennonite Central Committee and Local Partner One World Sustainable Livelihood