N is for ngitili
Date: 2 October 2014
Ngitili is a word for ‘enclosed fodder reserve’ in Sukuma, a regional language of Tanzania. It refers to an enclosed area, closed to livestock during the wet season to allow the vegetation to regenerate, then opened again during the peak of the dry season. It provides fodder, firewood, timber and medicinal plants throughout the year. The ngitili system has had an impact on multiple fronts. There has been an increase in biodiversity, through the restoration of woodlands as the number of plant and animal species have increased.
Of the 51 species of mammal which had disappeared from Meatu District, in the Simiyu Region of Tanzania, 21 species including the aardvark, eland, black-backed jackal, and African civet have now returned, although the return of major carnivores has caused other problems. Households earn about half of their income from ngitili, equivalent to an additional $1000 per family per year, and over 64% of households get significant benefits from having ngitili. The development of ngitili areas has also resulted in women spending less of their time searching for firewood and fodder, which frees them to spend more time on other tasks.
Photo: With Ngitili, Aardvarks are encouraged to have a mutualistic relationship with vegetation. Photo credit: Valerie
The A-Z of Food Sovereignty in Africa shows the positive alternatives to corporate-led agriculture. A new letter was posted each day in the lead up to World Food Day arrived on 16 October 2014.
Africa’s small-scale food producers already know how to produce enough food sustainably to feed themselves but the political and economic rules which govern the food system are set against them. These rules are written by and for multinational companies and political elites, in support of a global food system that benefits them rather than the millions of smallholders and family farmers who produce the food and get little in return.
