[et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” background_image=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/tanzania-beans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/musa1edit.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_header admin_label=”Fullwidth Header” title=”Female farmers: Breadwinners” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” header_fullscreen=”off” header_scroll_down=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” content_orientation=”center” image_orientation=”center” title_font=”Lato||||” title_font_size=”54px” title_text_color=”#ffffff” custom_button_one=”off” button_one_letter_spacing=”0″ button_one_use_icon=”default” button_one_icon_placement=”right” button_one_on_hover=”on” button_one_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ custom_button_two=”off” button_two_letter_spacing=”0″ button_two_use_icon=”default” button_two_icon_placement=”right” button_two_on_hover=”on” button_two_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ custom_css_main_element=”height: 100vh;” custom_css_header_container=”top: 400px;”]<\/p>\n
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Esther Ramadan cannot afford to slow down, even for a few minutes. It\u2019s late morning on a Wednesday in June, and as the primary income-earner for her family, she must tend to the crops on her small farm.<\/p>\n
Behind a solitary single-floor building, occupied only by a barber shop, on the side of a busy highway, on the other side of a shoddy barbed-wire fence, down a narrow dirt path past several plots of land, Ramadan works in her portion of the field.<\/p>\n
She is never called Esther. She took on her husband\u2019s name until she gave birth to their first son, whom they called Musa. He\u2019s 14, and not since his birth has Esther been called anything but Mama Musa. Her identity is in being a mother, and for her children she works seven long days a week.<\/p>\n
Her three-acre plot of land used to take a week just to weed, but it takes her double that now that her husband has taken over the barber shop at the side of the road, so she doesn\u2019t have any help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will sell some, and some is for food,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/tanzania-beans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/musa2edit.jpg” alt=”Mama Musa works all day weeding her fields. ” title_text=”Mama Musa works all day weeding her fields.” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
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She has two cows to pull the plow, which is also hers. She has loyal local customers who know her and visit her to purchase her beans, but mostly her business consists of anything she can sell from a stall on the side of the road in front of the barber shop. She doesn\u2019t have any method of transportation to take her and her beans to a market.<\/p>\n
Mama Musa\u2019s story is a typical one for rural smallholders in Tanzania, where it is mostly women who work in the fields and sell the crops to support the family.<\/p>\n
According to the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), \u201cin sub-Saharan Africa, it is the women who put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
PABRA, which receives Canadian government funding to research climate-smart and disease-resistant bean varieties, places a particular emphasis on female farmers.<\/p>\n
Women are typically the ones who do both the cooking and the farming, but do not own land, and transfer of land ownership is very difficult. Most land is owned by men and is then passed on to male heirs or other relatives when the man dies. Purchasing new land is an arduous process. Therefore, despite the fact that women are doing most of the work, they often only gain ownership of land if and when their husband dies or their sons are not old enough to take over, and even then it is typically in a caretaker capacity.<\/p>\n
In northern Tanzania, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 67 per cent of the landowners are men, and only 33 per cent are women. In addition, much like Mama Musa\u2019s property, 93 per cent of plots are smaller than five acres, and of plots larger than that, only 11 per cent are owned by women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are less likely than men to own land or livestock, adopt new technologies, use credit or other financial services, or receive education or extension advice,\u201d states a 2014 FAO report. \u201cIn some cases, women do not even control the use of their own time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In agriculture, the mean wages of women are about three times lower than those of men, according to the FAO, so women are typically hired more often as labourers, taking their time and energy away from their own farms.<\/p>\n
Although Mama Musa\u2019s land is owned by her husband, she is the one harvesting the crops for both food and income.<\/p>\n
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