Farming In

Tanzania
W

Heather Tomlinson
shares how organic
farming in Tanzania is
creating healthy food,
increasing incomes
and restoring damaged
ecosystems

photos Boyte Creative for Plant with Purpose

www.permaculture.co.uk

hen I first learned about

permaculture, I was
struck by how the ideas
and techniques might be used in aid
and development work. Its this
interest that brought me, with my
pen and notebook, to Tanzania, to
observe how the environmentallyminded development charity Plant
With Purpose (PWP) works with
rural farmers to help them get more
from their land.
In the West, permaculturists are
often motivated towards our future,
when the resources run out. In the
developing world, resources are
already scarce for the majority of the
population. In Tanzania, most people
live off the land on 0.4-1.2 hectare
(1-3 acre) smallholdings. These
plots are getting smaller through
the generations, as they are inherited
and split between many children.
So efficient use of the land is all the
more necessary.
The people of Tanzania have
much to teach us about living an
efficient and low impact lifestyle
that is in harmony with the land. I
was struck by their lack of waste,
their simplicity of life and their
strong community.
But it can also be a brutal and
cruel existence, without choice and
without hope. A typical rural
farmer is living below the poverty
line, says Richard Mhina, the
director of PWP in Tanzania. It
will be sometimes difficult to afford
three meals a day, it is difficult to
send their kids to school, and have
a shelter to lay their head.

The interaction between the state

of the environment and poverty is
glaringly obvious in this beautiful
country that relies so much on
smallholder farming. The areas
where Tanzanias trees have been
protected and planted into a rich,
springy, brown soil, contrast starkly
with the hard, burnt orange soil of
monoculture and other eroded
areas where the trees have been cut.
The latter brings infertility, and so
no crops can grow, and people go
hungry.
For Tanzanians, if there is no
wood, they cant cook food, says
Albert Samson, the head of environ
mental restoration at PWP. 80% of
people depend on firewood, so we
need lots of trees. The fertility of
the soil is vital. The majority of
people depend on farming. If no
soil, no crops, no life ... Water is
very important so if there is no
restoration of the environment, all
the springs will dry. Birds will
disappear, animals will die, even
people will die. Agriculture and
environment its difficult to
separate these two things. They all
depend on each other.
PWPs strategy is to encourage
farming in a way that will restore
and preserve the environment
while increasing yield and therefore
income. They teach how to make
compost, use natural pesticides,
and to grow and plant a wider
variety of trees. They teach that the
recent uptake in artificial pesticides
and fertilisers may have long term
negative consequences as well as
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being much more expensive than

other more natural methods.
At Youzes smallholding in a field
in the mountains, his lush green
polycultural fields, natural lemon
grass terracing and sustainable
techniques make him stand out from
his neighbours. After practising
organic farming, I realised my land
is becoming more sustainable, so Im
buying less fertiliser and chemicals,
he told us. Before his plot had no
trees, and now
there are 176,
including food
producing trees
and those for
fuel.
One of the measures PWP uses
to assess progress is the number of
different crops that families are
growing. We work with many
people who used to just do mono
culture, says Corbyn Small, a
regional representative. We can
see an increase in the number of
crops after we work with them,
and this helps farmers to diversify
and invest in different crops that
can produce perennially, without
pouring all their income into one
crop. In Tanzania this was a lesson
hard learned after the recent crash
in the price of coffee, a former
cash crop.

Keeping Money In The Community

Alongside regenerative agriculture,
people are shown how to set up
micro-credit groups. Rural farmers
have no access to banks, and no safe
way to save. By setting up a community
Village Savings and Loan Association
(VSLA) group, the farmers are able
to save money and to lend to one
another when necessary.
This encourages saving but also
gives people the opportunity to buy

the sense of community within the

microcredit groups. Before each
weekly meeting, the group chants
a list of values, including caring
for one another and the land. The
group focuses on strengthening their
community not making profit.
Their micro-credit passbooks say:
Keep the environment because the
environment is life.
Because of the micro-credit
loans, Youze has been able to send
his children to
college, and hire
a van to take his
vegetables to
market.

We want to bring it back to Eden

... We want to heal the land.

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No. 86

livestock, send their children to school

and build larger homes, a chance
that they did not have before. It also
encourages people to take part in the
environmental work and to plant more
trees. People wont care about the
environment unless they have the
ability to put food on the table, says
Corbyn. Desperation trumps
education every time. Its not that
people dont know there will be an
environmental impact, but its
difficult if they have to survive for
the day.
Another way the Village Savings
and Loan Associations and the envi
ronmental work interact is through

Healing The Land

On a hill in Malindi, the rock-hard
burnt orange soil has been abandoned
by farmers and given up for a school,
because it wouldnt grow crops. But
PWP is using this as an opportunity
to show how soil can be regenerated
making compost, and using it to
restore the land, grow vegetables
and plant trees. Our vision is to
conserve the environment, and
make sure the whole area is being
covered by trees to prevent excessive
loss of soil fertility and make sure
of the restoration of water, says
the Bwambo-Kigango schools
geography teacher, Amos Akimo.
www.permaculture.co.uk

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
www.permaculture.co.uk

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