Revisiting Teresia 15 years later

As Farm Africa celebrates 40 years of impact, throughout 2025 we’ll be sharing the stories of some of the people we have worked with since Farm Africa was founded in 1985. Teresia is one of them, joining Farm Africa’s sesame marketing project in Tanzania in 2010. The project helped farmers increase their incomes by learning how to produce and sell high-quality sesame.

Working with Farm Africa had a transformational impact on not just Teresia’s life, but her children’s lives too, as she recounts.

“Before I joined the Farm Africa sesame project, I was a farmer, but I just grew food for my family, subsistence farming. My life was very tough. I had four young children, and it was very tough to pay for them all to go to school. I had problems paying school fees and paying for everyday essentials for my family.

“I joined the Farm Africa sesame project in 2010. First, I joined together with some other farmers to form a group. Then Farm Africa gave us training in good agricultural practices, particularly about sesame production.

“As I continued with the training, I started planting sesame to sell with my group. Later, I was selected to learn how to multiply high-quality seeds. Ten farmers took part in the training, and I was one of them. After the training I continued to plant sesame, and I also started producing seeds that I then sold to members of my farmers’ group.

Teresia standing in front of her home in Tanzania in 2024.

“During that time we were living in a small house with a grass roof. My goal was to build a better house for my family. After two or three years, I managed to build that house. It was bigger and made of bricks.

“Since then, I have built another house, and I bought a milling machine. I haven’t stopped cultivating sesame. I also grow pigeon peas and sunflowers. My main income is still from farming. I still do farming most of the time. When I joined the project I only had two acres of land, but now I have ten acres.

Teresia working in her flour milling shop.

“My children all finished school. They are grown up and have their own lives now. Three of them still live nearby, but one has moved to the city. They all grow sesame and one of them is a member of our farmers’ group. When they were growing up they saw me doing my sesame farming and they thought ‘this is a good way to earn a living!’. Sesame prices are high, so they could see it could be profitable. I think I inspired them. They are very proud of me.

“Now I would really like to buy some machinery for my farm, so that my work will be easier. A tractor or a power tiller would make my life much easier. That’s my ambition. Ten acres is a lot, so if I can have some machines it will help me to continue farming. I would like to become a large-scale farmer. I want to expand my farm to 50 acres and grow sesame and other crops that are profitable. I also want to keep poultry and some cows for milking.

“I plan to use some of the money I earn from my farm to build another house so I can rent it out to people. I am getting older, so I need to find ways I can continue to earn money, like a pension.”