Land O’ Lakes Tanzania Dairy Farming Initiative Preps Women for Business

By Makula Dunbar

 

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Old tradition and gender roles in Tanzania have long prevented women in farming from transitioning into leadership and farm-related business roles.

In 1999 — about a decade after women in the country’s northern region began to demand equal treatment, Shoreview, Minnesota-based dairy company Land O’ Lakes’ international division created a partnership where women in dairy farming would gain tools and resources to aid them in taking charge of land, livestock and production.

MinnPost recently reported on the program’s evolution, which in connection with the U.S. Agency for International Development and USAID, has linked female dairy farmers to “processors, commercial buyers and consumers,” the article said.

“Women are strategic because by and large they manage money well and they support one another, which is important in an African context. They are industrious, innovative — and, they deserve an equal opportunity to succeed,” Jon Halverson, Land O’ Lakes international development division head told Minnpost.

While political and tribal power held by familymen keeps women shut out of selling privileges, the report noted that additional income earned by women is an important catalyst of change.

Women are more likely to earn respect from their husbands and avoid abuse once they solidify new or increased incomes streams.  Still, the cultural restriction that prevents men from speaking to other women who aren’t family also limits the agricultural and technical know-how that women carry.

And although women work extensively on sub-Saharan farms — fulfilling more than 50 percent of labor duties — the likelihood of women owning land is five times less than men, according to MinnPost.

“The women have no access to credit to buy anything that could make their jobs easier, no collateral,” Rose Rita Kingamkono, Land O’ Lakes chief of party, said in the report. “Men own the land and the harvest. And when the husband dies, the property goes back to the man’s relatives. The woman is chased away.”

Establishing women-led farming groups, making new technology and improved seeds available, tackling legal loopholes, land ownership and farming development techniques are all focal areas of Land O’ Lakes’ current initiative in Tanzania.

In Mulala village, where Anna Pallangyo processes milk and makes cheese and honey, a more beneficial and fair transformation is possible, Halverson said.

“It takes a lot of sensitivity,” he admitted. “You are not going to do that overnight.”