Dairy Goats Bring a Brighter Future for Tanzanian Farmers
Scolastica Kastuli is a 48-year-old widow and mother of four children in Kambi ya Simba village in Karatu. Her two older boys got their primary school education but were unable to continue with secondary education due to Scolastica’s low level of income. Her younger children are still in primary school and Scolastika is working hard to make sure that they get an opportunity to go to secondary school.
Scolastika is a member of Azimio (Declaration) Farmer Field School (FFS) and is learning how to improve crop production for both home consumption and improved income through selling the surplus of her crops. She joined her FFS group immediately after hearing about CPAR’s program during a community meeting.
CPAR Tanzania conducted a series of meetings with village leaders to identify vulnerable and female-headed households who would be trained and provided with dairy goats under the “pay it forward” system. Scolastica was the first person to step forward and she assisted in identifying other vulnerable households.
CPAR Tanzania conducted farmer training and the participants were required to build simple goat sheds before receiving their dairy goats. The training included topics such as control of diseases and parasites, construction of goat sheds using locally available materials, heat and gestation period and feeding of adult goats and kid goats. After receiving their dairy goats, the women were required to participate in the “pay it forward” system so that more women can benefit from rearing dairy goats.
Before receiving her dairy goat, Skolastika had no access to milk for her children and manure for her farm field. She now gets 2.5 liters of milk every day from one dairy goat and is able to prepare a nutritious breakfast for her children before sending them off to school. As a member of the Azimio FFS, Scolastica uses goat manure for improving the soil fertility of her plot where she grows maize and vegetables.
Now that Skolastika has passed on a kid goat to another woman, she is concentrating on building up her own goat herd. She can sell one kid goat for about $50 and an adult goat for $100. Skolastika has already purchased a cell phone and has taken steps to improve her house by installing iron roofing sheets in place of the thatched roof. She plans to send her two youngest children to secondary school, and she wants to eventually construct a modern house built of burned bricks.
“I like the way CPAR works in our village. Widows and other women from low-income households have an opportunity to participate and make the best use of opportunities to change the situations in our homes.”