The miracle woman of Uhambule village

Business Farmer of the quarter: Shukuru Abdallah

In 1997, Shukuru Abdallah and her husband began growing rice to feed their young family in Uhambule village, Mbarali, southern Tanzania. Her husband was originally a maize farmer, but Shukuru convinced him to borrow two acres of land to grow rice and beans to vary their diet and sell the surplus for a profit.

Today, Shukuru’s rice farming operation sits on 30 acres of farmland, employs 11 young women and men and includes modern equipment: two power tillers, a thresher, a tipper truck, and a combine harvester. With profits from her rice business, she constructed a warehouse capable of holding up to 500 bags of rice.

“My journey has been long and winding - but we’re finally getting somewhere. My business focus today isn’t just to feed my family. My rice feeds my village, it feeds cities far away from here. And I have enough left over to turn a profit and grow the business year on year.”

Now 43 years old, Shukuru is a mother and grandmother - but the role she says she relishes the most is that of a business leader. Her growth into one of the wealthiest farmers in her village has earned her an elevated voice in local affairs. Village government leaders seek her advice during council meetings, and her fellow villagers go to her for business guidance, technical support and even microloans. Shukuru says: “Learning to show other people a vision and lead them there has been rewarding but trust me it has been tough! I often feel it has been doubly difficult because I am a woman. It took a tremendous amount of personal grit, persistence and many helping hands.”

A Business Woman

In 2018, with support from Norges Vel, farmers in Mbarali established the Mbarali and Neighbors Rice Farmers Trading Company (MTC). As the culmination of Norges Vel’s COMRICE project, farmers were encouraged to form a shareholding company. While Norges Vel funded the company’s registration, farmers themselves bought shares in the company to provide its initial capital. The formation of MTC followed a series of training sessions on agribusiness and intensive agriculture. Farmers were trained on climate-smart farming, post-harvest handling, collective storage, loans, and establishing savings and lending associations. The training also focused on enabling women to gain increased ownership and control over their own businesses. As one of the most active members of her village rice irrigation scheme, Shukuru was selected for this training. Subsequently, she became one of the earliest shareholders of MTC, the farmer-owned company.

By this point, Shukuru had grown her farming operation from two acres of borrowed land to seven acres of their own that she purchased with her husband. For 21 years, they had lived meagerly and reinvested their profits into the farm. Shukuru and her husband say the training she received accelerated their savings, increased their productivity and showed them the importance of investing in agricultural equipment for intensive agriculture. It also introduced them to modern financing - they started budgeting, saving more of their money at the local bank, and even took out an equipment loan. These factors, coupled with the dramatic increase in productivity grew their farming into a commercial-scale business. Between 2018 and today, they purchased the two power tillers, a thresher, a tipper truck for their construction projects, and the game changer - a combine harvester that they use themselves and loan out to other farmers during harvesting season. They also purchased additional land. They now fully own 15 acres, and grow their rice on a total of 30 acres.

Shukuru Abdallah in front of the tresher she have invested in

Women in the agriculture sector

Women rice farmers in Mbarali are often entirely financially dependent on the male authority figures in their lives: their fathers from birth, and their husbands from marriage. This obstructs their access to finance and hampers their ability to make decisions, own property and fulfil their potential. These patriarchal cultural dynamics disregard the importance of women’s financial contributions in the home - often to the detriment of the society’s progress. Shukuru says:

“I am blessed to have a husband who understands and supports my strengths. I was married young, but I did not take that decision lightly - I remember telling myself I would wait for the kind of man who will support me. Unlike many men from the village, once he discovered that I have great business skills - he encouraged me to take the lead in our farming business. And everything I have learned from the Norges Vel trainings, he asks me to teach him and encourages me to implement it.”

Shukuru oversees the primary responsibilities of the business she runs with her husband. After witnessing Shukuru’s efforts yield significant progress in their family’s life, he has adapted a more modern and egalitarian family dynamic. Their mutual support has strengthened their bond as a couple and provided their family and community with a relationship model worthy of emulating. 

Shukuru Abdallah with one of her employees in Mbarali Mbeya

The importance of improved seeds

Before commercial modern farming, one of the main issues she faced included cultivating using unimproved seeds. This would often lead to low yields, little profit and sometimes significant losses. As part of her business she buys paddy and mills it in order to sell rice. This year,  business has been slow because customers were not many and the lenders had not yet paid. Many borders are closed due to COVID 19. With her own warehouse, and along with the rice she trades, Shukuru reserves some for sale during times where supply is limited. This means she can make more massive profits than fellow farmers. When prices are favorable she can buy at 7000 to 8000 shillings and sell at 12,000 to 15,000 shillings. She also owns a stone and sand tipper for construction along with a power tiller which  is used in her rice fields as well as other people’s farms. In a day, she can make approximately forty to fifty thousand shillings minimum from the use of one of her machines.

“Training has opened up a lot for me. Whatever I learn, I work on it.” I have come to regard agriculture as my job, therefore I have to improve myself. If I play with my farming, I am playing with my life. Farming has educated my children.”

Shukuru is keen on serving as a role model herself for the women in her community. She has personal insight on what and how the circumstances around them limit them. She tries to provide useful input but she also knows that they would need the support of the male figures in their lives along with empowering themselves. Having support minimizes the amount of resistance they may face on their journeys to scale up their businesses to increase their incomes and subsequent financial independence.

“I try to teach and persuade other women but many of their husbands are quarrelsome and tyrannical. They are not business oriented. My younger sister is more teachable and takes my advice. She has bought a milling machine and continues to develop herself.”