---
title: "In Tanzania, an On-the-Ground View of Farming Struggles, Ambitions"
date: 2025-01-31T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/in-tanzania-an-on-the-ground-view-of-farming-struggles-ambitions"
section: Articles
---
# In Tanzania, an On-the-Ground View of Farming Struggles, Ambitions

*January 31, 2025* — by [Fid Thompson](/author/fid-thompson)


> Graduate Students Collaborate With Locals on Food, Water, Energy Innovations

*TZ 202531 250105 1920x1080 — John Samura, a UMD master’s student in agricultural and extension education, checks out an innovative irrigation system at Cultivaid’s demo farm in Dodoma, Tanzania. Samura traveled with five other Global STEWARDS Fellows to the country over winter break to learn from and share knowledge with partners about the food-energy-water nexus.*

In a small village in the lush blue-green hills of Tanzania’s southern highlands, one of the biggest challenges to farmers is small: snails and other pests that eat their maize from the inside out.

“But also—and especially—the water has become toxic, contaminated from further up the river,” says one woman wearing traditional kanga and bopping a baby on her lap, at a community meeting of farmers organized by a local university.

University of Maryland epidemiology doctoral student Gerry Andhikaputra listens intently to their problems—this one caused by chemical runoff from farms—and considers the parallels with his home country of Indonesia, which also struggles to find the resources to create solutions. What is obvious to him is how public health issues are entwined with environmental and community issues.

“I now want to take a more interdisciplinary approach to my own research and see how I can collaborate with experts in other fields, like agriculture, for example. And I want to better integrate local knowledge into my work,” he said.


*crowd listens to speaker in field — David Zukerman and Baraka Mwamkinga of Cultivaid explain Tanzania's burgeoning grape industry at a farm in Dodoma region.*


*group holds Maryland flag — UMD group with Mbeya University of Science and Technology acting Vice Chancellor Godliving Mtui, lecturer and researcher Eliezer Mwakalapa, and lecturer John P. John.*


*students show beet and pineapple wine — Aishwarya Rao with Mbeya University of Science and Technology students showing their beet and pineapple wine.*



**Sidebar note:**

Read about the group’s Tanzania experience [in their own words](https://globalfewture.umd.edu/about/projects/experiential-education/umd-global-stewards-graduate-program/winter-amp-tanzania).





**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Agriculture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/agriculture), [Food Safety and Security](https://today.umd.edu/topic/food-safety-and-security), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [School of Public Health](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-public-health)