In Ilalasimba village, located in Tanzania’s Iringa Region, women primarily engage in agricultural activities. A recent visit by the project team to the village working with The Restoration Initiative highlighted the story of Amina Mtuya, a 54-year-old housewife and livestock farmer. Read her story below.
“For many years, I have been living on subsistence farming. Because of low yields, I highly depended on forest resources for collecting firewood for household use and selling. We have used a small number of cattle to graze freely in the forest reserve. We noticed the trend of a declining landscape but cared more about our own wellbeing and our livestock. As a farmer, I have been faced with many challenges – inadequate rains, poor farming practices, deteriorating soils and pests and diseases. All these resulted in very low yields. Our cattle did not increase in numbers as anticipated due to limited access to nutritious fodder and inadequate extension services. I could hardly get a litre of milk per cow per day. The combined income from crop and milk sales couldn’t help meet family needs.” Said Amina.
A community meeting about environmental protection and sustainable livelihood practices introduced Amina to TRI.
Amina added, “I heard about the TRI at a community meeting organised to sensitise villagers on environmental protection and sustainable livelihood practices. The Community Development Officer called for community participation in this project to help address land degradation and improve our livelihood. I was glad to learn that the project will support environmentally friendly income-generating activities to reduce dependence on natural resources. I mobilised my colleagues to be ready to participate in this opportunity”.
Amina continued, “Through TRI, fellow members of our women group and I were supported with 3 improved local breeds of cattle and received training on raising improved local cattle breeds. We were trained to grow fodder for livestock and apply climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices and technologies. We received further support for post-harvest management and marketing of milk.
With TRI support, milk yield has increased more than fivefold from 1-2 litres to 10 litres per cow per day. In terms of revenues, based on an average price of TZS 950 (USD 0.41) per litre, this represents an increment in revenues from TZS 1,900 (USD 0.8) to TZS 9,500 (USD 4.1) per cow per day”.
She spoke on how her community has also been impacted or changed because of being a part of The Restoration Initiative. “We are excited to get this much milk and income from fewer cattle. In this early stage of the TRI Project, I would say my life is under transformation”. she added.
Amina continued, “We are just at the beginning. Rearing improved local cattle is a new thing to us in this community. We are seeing the value of this project, and so are many community members, particularly women and youth. They are contacting us and the district officials to join this initiative. More agro-pastoralists are eager to convert to sustainable livestock management practices to reduce encroachment and degradation of the forest reserves and water sources”.
She further provided insights into her plans – “We are now operating as a group, which is a farmer field school in our community. Our plan, however, is for each group member to have their own cattle. We are keen to intervene along the milk value chain and explore a bigger market for our milk products. We are opening a fodder farm to meet the pasture needs of our cattle and sell the remaining to other villagers. While doing this, CSA will be the way to go in agriculture while also participating actively in the protection of our forest resources and water sources”, added Amina.
She concluded, “TRI is a miracle. We are so proud of what they have done already and are planning to do in the future. Our lives are forever changed. Our livelihoods are saved. Our environment is undergoing restoration”. The TRI Tanzania project has strengthened governance mechanisms and capacities for sustainable land management, with over 3,826 community members (2,038 men and 1,788 women) already directly benefitting from capacity-building opportunities on climate-smart agriculture (crop, livestock, fisheries), sustainable forest management and sustainable livelihoods initiatives.
TRI’s project in the United Republic of Tanzania is designed to strengthen integrated natural resource management and restoration of degraded landscapes for resilient socioecological systems in the United Republic of Tanzania.
