Oxfam: Supporting farmers to gain ground

Farming is vital to poor, rural communities – both as a source of food and income. But to farm, you need land, and two years ago – when we first started working on a special land project in Tanzania – just half of the women we worked with owned land or co-owned a plot with a husband or relative.

Our goal was to increase ownership, giving women the power and freedom to earn their own money and beat poverty for good.

Since then, with the help of Irish Aid, we have supported more than 550 women – or 100 percent of the women we work with in Tanzania – to become landowners. Among those who benefited is Felista Nterevu, who grows beans and maize on the farm she inherited from her parents.

Although she had been farming the land, Felista’s name was not on the title deed. And without her name on the title, her land could have been taken off her without her consent.

But during female empowerment meetings run by Oxfam, the 50-year-old farmer learned about customary land ownership. Customary land is land owned by indigenous communities and administered in accordance with their customs.

Better still, she discovered that her plot was 39 acres even though she had previously thought it was a 20-acre farm. Felista has since divided the land with some of her relatives, with each having secured certificates of customary rights of occupancy (CCRO).

She has also become a land ambassador to educate other women on becoming sole or joint owners of land.

Felista wants her children to inherit her land and feels reassured knowing that nobody can now take her land from her: