Dressed in a bright red hijab around her head, Aziza Mohamed Nyuha, standing within the farm at Munyu village in Ikungi, Singida region, sings a traditional song of hope as she harvests ripe tomatoes. Ms Nyuha, is among 29 women who mobilized themselves in groups in Ikungi to cultivate horticulture, courtesy of UN-Women in collaboration with TAHA and financial support from Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The project called “Realizing Gender Equality through Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls project” is specific to encourage women to engage in horticulture farming in Singida and Shinyanga to fight poverty. “We were the first women to mobilize ourselves to grab the opportunity. And truly, the project started with training on good-agriculture practices, offers techniques and climate smart technologies as well as market and finance access” Ms Nyuha explains. The Munyu women have slowly, but surely embarked on shifting from conventionally subsistence farming to commercial and diversified production of horticulture to fight poverty. Now, the women and girls are smiling all the way to the bank, reaping the rewards of their labor, as tomatoes are blooming, attracting lucrative prices. As you read this piece, the women have successfully managed to put six acres under tomatoes and in the current season they expect to harvest a total of 42 metric tones on average. Going by the current price of Sh 700 per kilogram, we are going to earn Sh 29.4 million by the end of season, a very significant amount indeed by any standard” Ms Nyuha says.
