Posted on February, 22, 2022 at 07:18 am
When former President Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete talks about agriculture, normally something special comes to my mind, the Kilimo Kwanza, adage became a common vocabulary in Tanzania during his tenure.
As President, Kikwete was passionate about banishing hunger from Tanzania, and true, even after he left power, over six years ago or so, Tanzania has continued to be food secure.
So it is good to see him championing Agriculture in Tanzania and Africa, as a board member of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
Last year, Dr Kikwete visited a factory in Bagamoyo, called Joydon, which is owned by two sisters. The company’s Managing Director, Joyce Kimaro, narrated how she started the business in a mabati makeshift handcrafted mill.
Somehow along the way, she has managed to grow the business into over a billion-value factory, which is rising fast to become one of the biggest maize processors in the country.
Again, the former president is reported to have visited an agro input dealer in Iringa, Mrs Magreth Aidan Sanga, CEO of Iwawa General Supplies serving over 10,000 farmers directly every season across Iringa and Njombe in the Southern Highlands. She started in a small shop, but the business has grown dramatically over the years.
The former president also visited Ms. Rita Sekilovele, the biggest fortified maize processor in Southern Highlands, who started by selling the illegal drink called gongo. When she decided enough was enough, she started hawking off maize flour, and the business has grown to support thousands of small-scale farmers despite the good lady being illiterate. She is only able to write her name and signature!
The president also visited the famous Hadija Jabiri, the woman entrepreneur who is involved in producing hybrid seeds (tomato) exported to Europe. One familiar story about all the above women, they started small, became resilient, innovative and consistent and have been able to fight their way to make a mark in the agriculture sector in Tanzania.
The millions of smallholder farmers, especially crop farming, the majority are said to be women and youth. In our village when I was growing up, it was women who were doing most of the farm works, but when it came to sell the farm produce, mostly it was men who would take the cash, and so they were the decision makers, who decide on how to use that money.
Some researchers indicate that women produce about 70 percent of food in Africa but own only 20 percent of the land. Almost across the continent about 80 percent of the agricultural production is produced by smallholder farmers of whom female labour force is the highest. So where is the money?
There is a need for more and more women in Tanzania and across Africa to become vocal and own huge agriculture enterprises. The ladies visited by Dr Jakaya Kikwete, have shown us the way. That one can start small and grow big. Yes, there is need of support by policy environment and diverse agricultural stakeholders. But so long as more women dares to grow their small enterprises into huge national outfits, Tanzania and Africa will be better off.
In majority of Africa’s setting, women are the backbone of farming enterprises. Back in 2011, a United Nation’s report indicated that “women in rural areas have the potential to raise agricultural production to levels that would feed up to 150 million more of the world’s hungry people if they had equal access to the means of production, including land, financial services, education and technology.” Just a decade later, can we talk of women in Tanzania and Africa having equal access to means of production…..it remains a dream, and women must fight and work harder to make this a reality.
Source: The Citizen