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Home » 10.000 Orti in Africa » Ngurdoto Community Garden

Ngurdoto Community Garden

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Tanzania

Arusha

Ngurdoto is a village that sits in a rural area of the northern region of Arusha, on the foothills of Mount Meru. Established in 2006, the village’s community garden is about 2,000 m2; a group of 15 women take care of it under the umbrella group locally known as “Umoja Wa Maehdeleo Ngurdoto” (“Community for the development of Ngurdoto”). This association, founded in 1994, has the goal of ensuring the economic independence of women, through the use of resources available on hand. In fact, the women are involved in several projects, beyond the gardening activities, like: the production of honey (they have both modern beehives and traditional skeps), the cultivation of fruit trees, the processing of yams and some fruits (like mangoes which are used to make preserves) in jams, the drying of moringa leaves for culinary use, and the production of soap from jatropha bushes. Each woman who wants to join the association pays an initial fee of 3,000 Tanzanian shillings (slightly more than one euro) and each associate has a well-defined role within the organization (accounting, coordination of processing, fruit-sales coordinator, etc.). Some of the crops grown in the garden are amaranth, nightshade, “niebé” (which is typically grown near beans), pumpkins, sweet potatoes, yams and cassava. There are also some fruit trees in the garden, like mango, guava, avocado and pawpaw, along with medicinal plants and herbs, including: neem, hot peppers, wild sunflowers, moringa, lemon grass and jatropha.
The women also raise a few animals (five cows, eight goats and 35 chickens). The president and founder of the Association, Rose Machage, won the national prize for creative women leaders in 2003, and in 2015, upon returning from Terra Madre Indigeni, she took part in a agricultural fair where the association was further rewarded.

Area
Ngurdoto,Arumeru district, Arusha region

Coordinator
Anna Joseph Shirima

Products

  • Chinese spinach (A. dubius)
  • Cowpea
  • Sweet potato
  • Yam
  • Cassava
  • Mango
  • Guava
  • Avocado
  • Papaya
  • Chilies
  • Neem
  • Moringa stenopetala
  • Lemongrass
  • Jatropha
  • Sunflower
  • Black nightshade leaves
  • Pumpkin (C. maxima)

Slow Food in Tanzania

Slow Food has been developing activities in Tanzania since 2004, when over 20 delegates from the country participated in the first Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy. Now local Slow Food groups are promoting good, clean and fair food across the country, primarily in the north (Kilimanjaro, Meru and Arusha), along the coast (Dar es Salaam region) and in the central-east (Morogoro, Dodoma and Singida). The largest country along Africa’s eastern coast, Tanzania experimented with “Ujamaa” socialism under President Julius Nyerere, one of Africa’s most enlightened 20th-century politicians, who led the country after independence in 1961. Much was invested into education and literary programs, community development and the agricultural sector. Positive effects, such as a lively and pervasive entrepreneurial spirit, can still be seen in this relatively stable country, despite the devastating spread of HIV, which has laid waste to multiple generations and left thousands of orphans, profoundly changing family and social structures. Women, particularly those who are now elderly, are confident and educated, and can act as agents of important change at a socio-political level and as the driving force behind local economies. The initiatives carried out by the Slow Food network to create awareness, achieve food sovereignty and improve everyday nutrition include the safeguarding of traditional beekeeping, the rediscovery of wild vegetables and herbs, the mapping of local banana varieties, the integration of food-growing into school programs, the spread of agroecological practices to improve farmers’ resilience and autonomy and the valuing of the role of young people in training and awareness-raising activities. The major challenges to be addressed are linked to the lack of availability of native seeds and organic inputs, thanks to government policies that favor industrial agriculture and allow foreign investors to indiscriminately take over arable land. In January 2017, the Tanzanian government passed a law that gives Western agribusiness investors faster and better access to agricultural land and strong protection of intellectual property rights, in exchange for development aid. Under this new law Tanzanian farmers are subject to a minimum jail term of 12 years and a fine of over €200 if they sell seeds that are not certified.

Garden Informations

Type:Community Garden
Surface in m2:2000
People involved:15
Slow Food Convivium:Lishe Convivium
Coordinator:Helen Tibandebage Nguya
Sibling with:Slow Food Russian River Convivium, USA

Photos

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