Rebeca’s Story: The Way to Achieve Food Security
Crops Diversification: Bunda farmers grow groundnuts for household income and improving nutrition
In 2010, the villagers in Karukekere village, Bunda District, Tanzania were struggling to support their families on a yield of five bags of maize per acre of land. This was due to an ongoing drought that left many households unable to lift themselves out of poverty as well as unable to provide their families with adequately nutritious food. In Karukekere village farming is the main economic activity and source of nutrition for many residents. This drought had devastated the land and the livelihoods of many in Bunda.
Chipuka (Sprout) Farmer Field School was established with 34 members (23 Female/11 Male) when villagers realized that maize, which had been a major crop for both food and earning income was not doing well. Together, with CPAR’s support, they decided to grow groundnuts as an alternate crop that would not only provide income but would also be a stable source of protein for their households.
Rebeca Selemani, demonstrating groundnuts harvest
During the baseline study, an exercise where farmers identify their needs and set priorities, farmers asked for sustainable, long-term solutions to help improve their incomes and nutrition, including getting support in cash crops. Responding to these needs, CPAR Tanzania facilitated training and provided inputs such as groundnut seeds. To promote agricultural self-sufficiency, CPAR Tanzania worked with farmers to ensure that improvements are sustained locally and replicated to other farmers. One farmer shares some of the knowledge that she gained “Groundnuts are a good cover crop, they also provide nitrogen fixation into the soil to reduce the need for using expensive industrial fertilizers. It is also a tap root plant so it helps to break the hard pan in the soil and allows water to go deep in the soil.”
Through this program, Rebeca Selemani, a mother of six children joined Chipuka Farmer Field School to learn advanced farming techniques for planting and harvesting groundnuts as an alternative crop. With bulk sales of the harvest, Rebeca is earning nearly double what she would have earned under the traditional cultivating system. Her success, just after her first year of growing groundnuts has encouraged her to buy more seeds for next year’s cropping season and to encourage others in her community to do the same.
Rebeca’s improved harvest is echoing throughout her community and benefiting future generations in Karukekere village. By farming groundnuts as an alternative crop, Chipuka Farmer Field School farmers are able to make nutrient-rich foods for their families from their crops. “It is really interesting, groundnuts help improve my income but also provide protein to my family, I make peanuts and use it in every meal for my children, they all look so health” says Rebeca.
With her improved income, Rebeca is realizing her long-standing dream of putting an iron roof on her home and paying the tuition fees for her eldest daughter, Ester, to complete secondary school without borrowing money. Living debt-free for the first time in years, Rebeca is now also able to pay for her youngest daughter, Felista, to go to secondary school.
Buzz it!