Fixing Farming

There are many small ways to achieve sustainability for Tanzania’s smallholder farmers, as agripreneur Johanna Omere is proving in the green locales of Tanzania.

- By Inaara Gangji

Growing up in Austria, Johanna Omere’s life revolved around making things from scratch. Her family carefully baked their own bread, molded their own chocolate, and held the earth close to their hearts at their organic farm. It was a lifestyle inspired by food science and a passion for doing good for their bodies and the world.

Having spent 14 years in Tanzania, Omere has brought this natural zeal straight to the doorsteps of Tanzanians with her social enterprise, I Am Organic.

Omere and her business partner, Jacqueline Namfua, now run an organic restaurant and shop with its own local supply chain, creating an ecosystem that comes with its own unique challenges, but also a renewed sense of hope.

“Local value addition is one of my big passions… to fix systems that are not working the way I envision they should be working… [but] in the beginning, there were hardly any organic products available in Tanzania,” rues Omere.

She was about to open a bakery and, in the process, found her local partner and thereby opened the Wild Flour Café selling organic products made in-house.

“We want to provide excellent services to the community with local job creation and not to export all the high-quality products or resources. We really are passionate about creating and making things here locally.”

However, the local Tanzanian organic market is still in its infancy, she adds.

Consumer and farmer sensitization is low, and there are challenges in transportation, and supply chains have to be built from scratch.