Outsmarting malnutrition: Suzana’s story

It’s easy to assume that farming families have ready access to fresh, nutritious food, but for farmers like Suzana from the Dodoma region in Tanzania, the reality is more complex.

After repeated droughts, her area faces acute water scarcity. On her farm, a two-hour walk from her village, she’s limited to growing grains that can survive the low rainfall. In her village, where households share a single well on rotation, there’s little water available to grow fresh produce.

“You have to wait six or seven days for your turn to go, then carry it back,” explains Suzana. In the heat, with no refrigeration, storing fresh produce is also difficult.

Smallholder farmer Suzana Chiwanga standing in her kitchen garden. Photo credit: Farm Africa/ Bertha Lutome.

Until recently, fresh fruits and vegetables have been in short supply: “We didn’t eat vegetables that often, so I used to get sick, dizziness, cracking of the lips and skin,” she recalls. Vegetables were sometimes dried for preservation, but using a cooking method that depleted their nutritional value.

Over the past two years, through SNV and Farm Africa’s NOURISH programme funded by Norad, Farm Africa has been working with communities like Suzana’s to find climate-smart solutions to these challenges. For Suzana, that support is making a practical difference across her farm, her village and at home.

In the field

The climate-smart farming techniques Suzana has learnt from Farm Africa are strengthening productivity. The family owns five acres and rents ten more, growing sorghum – a nutritious, drought-resilient grain – as well as sunflowers and groundnuts. They also keep poultry, pigs and cows.

Suzana with a bucket full of freshly harvested grains. Photo credit: Farm Africa/ Bertha Lutome.

Suzana explains, “Before NOURISH, we were just scattering grain from last year’s harvest, not planting in lines, and not waiting for the rain. When we were planting using scattering, we were using up to six kilograms an acre.”

These changes are leading to bigger harvests of healthier, more profitable crops. Suzana shares, “Before, the most profitable part of my farming was livestock keeping, but now my crops generate more income than the livestock.”

In the village

At home, with guidance from her project advisor, Suzana has established a kitchen garden packed with highly nutritious yet drought resilient plants. That’s crucial since she’s watering by hand from her weekly supply.

Suzana says, “Through my kitchen garden, I’ve managed to have vegetables throughout the year. I also sell the extra vegetables and use the money to buy food for the piggeries.”

Suzana with her son and granddaughter. Photo credit: Farm Africa/ Bertha Lutome.

To reduce waste and extend shelf life, she preserves the vegetables using a solar dryer provided by the project. Suzana explains, “I use it frequently, especially when I don’t have enough buyers for my fresh vegetables. People can buy them dry. It has been beneficial because we can consume vegetables that have retained the nutrients.”

Healthier meals

Suzana isn’t just earning more, her family is eating better too.

Discover more climate-smart success stories from Tanzania in the Seeds of change report: