Nambiro Fatuma is a single mother of 4 kids that fully depend on her. She, on the other hand, depends on her income that comes from a family farm owned by her father. “I produce bananas, maize, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, mangoes and avocados…” she says. “I once thought about starting a poultry enterprise but due to lack of skills and knowledge and also lack of initial capital, I was withdrawn from this and remained active only in agriculture.”

Female and male farming cannot be the same because -in many cases- IT IS NOT the same. “Well, that is true…” agrees Fatuma and continues explaining the reasons. “In some communities, married women are allowed to grow food only for home consumption, whereas men can also grow food for business. But even if -at some cases- a woman happens to harvest her produce and takes the surplus to sell it, men monopolize the market and it is up to their decision whether she can actually sell it and what price she will get. But this is not the only problem we are facing. In addition to all of the above, in most of the cases, men decide where the women can seed for any incoming season.” Fatuma, doesn’t have her own land to cultivate. You see, women -on the contrary to men- are denied the opportunity to own a family property and they are not even allowed to inherit their family’s belongings (farms included). Given the circumstances, women empowerment seems utopian since there are women who cannot even own things that legitimately should be theirs.