Before going to university, Janet Maro had already learned everything from her mother, in rural Tanzania. And after getting her degree in agriculture she decided to set up SAT - Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania , an association that supports women who sustainably farm lands threatened by deforestation. With a smiling face framed by thick braids, she spoke during "The Other Half of the Planet" , the Women's Week of Expo Milano 2015. Here Maro explains how helping an African woman means helping an entire family and the community that surrounds it. After her speech, she was interviewed by Exponet, the official magazine of the Universal Exposition.

 

The female element is the key to change

In Africa it is mainly women who produce food, they cultivate the land and tend to the animals. So how do they have time to fetch water and firewood, cook all meals and go to the market  to buy and sell?  Any path to food security should put women at the center. "If we teach African women how to better cultivate the land, we will have taught the whole family and the whole community”, explains Janet Maro, “achieving both economic and environmental benefits."

 

Sustainable farming thanks to women

Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania operates in the mountains around Morogoro, a fragile territory threatened by soil erosion. Here subsistence farming is still practiced using traditional methods with a strong environmental impact because they are based on deforestation. To overcome this situation and at the same time promote rural development, Janet Maro and her team created the project "Bustani ya Tushikamane - The Garden of Solidarity:" By working with women who cultivate the land, we explain how to apply sustainable production methods”, says Maro. “This way they can increase their yields without having to enlarge the fields by cutting down trees in the forest.”