Rooted in Power: How Land Ownership is Changing Women’s Lives in Zanzibar

By Deydra Baptiste, Posted on August 14, 2025

“Nursery business is a men’s activity”, says Ms. Mwanali Khatib. But despite this, the social studies teacher from Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar, has broken tradition and started a thriving nursery business, which will enable her to have a guaranteed income even after retirement.

“I love this job; it’s part of my life. Every time I see an area with trees and plants, I have to go and learn something,” says Ms. Mwanali Khatib. This passion for agriculture made her start vegetable farming in 2015 after buying her land. While still continuing her teaching career, she grew vegetables and even established a women’s cooperative in her area. However, in 2018 she was forced to abandon the activity because vegetable farming had fueled a loss of fertility in the soil, making it difficult to obtain profitable crops. Still motivated to farm, she looked for an alternative way to use her land effectively.

Getting inspiration from a seedling farmer in her area, Ms. Mwanaali learned everything she could about nursery management before starting her nursery in 2018. Today, her nursery has a variety of trees, spices, and plants, as well as ducks and chickens— a sustainable farming system that provides her with natural fertilizers for her crops. Many of the trees she planted in her first year still stand strong, reflecting her commitment to sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation.

Without her knowing, Ms. Mwanaali was already using agroforestry— the forest agriculture system method of land management that connects trees, bushes, and the cultivation of crops and livestock to increase agricultural productivity while preserving the environment. In an area that is facing deforestation and climate change, agroforestry provides a sustainable agricultural solution while protecting the land. It’s important that farming be sustainable and climate resilient, a challenge, but not impossible. Without this approach, large segments of land become more unusable with each harvest, giving the soil a finite lifespan for fertility. In contrast, sustainable farming practices can regenerate and maintain land indefinitely. Indigenous peoples across the West—and ancestral communities throughout the Global South—have long understood how to farm in balance with the earth. Today, we are not inventing something new, but returning to the wisdom that sustained generations. Years later, this knowledge gave her and her community great benefits.

Having not received official training in agroforestry, Mrs. Mwanaali was always looking for a chance to learn. In 2023, a former student informed her about ZanzAdapt, a project implemented by Community Forests Pemba (CFP) in collaboration with Community Forests International (CFI) with the support of Global Affairs Canada. The ZanzAdapt project aims to empower women to become leaders in environmental solutions by using sustainable farming methods, with agroforestry being one of the main methods. To help farmers use this system, this project provides technical training, infrastructure, equipment, and seedlings to increase the availability of quality seeds for local farmers.

Ms. Mwanaali was chosen to participate in the ZanzAdapt project due to her cooperation with the community, her zeal for agriculture, and most importantly, the ownership of her own land. With the help of the project, her nursery now has the capacity to produce 25,000 seedlings at a time and distribute them to neighboring villages. Another aspect of agroforestry is the ripple effect it has on communities. Progressive methods must always benefit communities as a whole in order to carry every initiative forward.

Through ZanzAdapt, Mrs. Mwanaali has acquired farming equipment, water infrastructure, seeds, polythene sheets (to make the seedling bags as well as modern infrastructure. However, for Ms. Mwanaali, the biggest asset she obtained is the technological skills of raising seedlings, marketing methods, and business management.

In addition to economic benefits, Ms. Mwanaali has a strong desire to contribute to efforts to fight climate change. “The trees I sell, if planted and cared for, will make a difference. Only ten trees per person can clean the air, restore rain, and restore fertility. ”

Ms. Mwanaali is one of the many women in Zanzibar who benefit from ZanzAdapt, a project that has helped hundreds of farmers use agricultural methods that are resistant to climate change. Through her journey, he makes sure not only that he earns his own income but also paves the way for other women in Zanzibar to become part of sustainable agriculture.

Mrs. Mwanaali plans to retire in 2025. With the success she achieved through her nursery business and the small shop she owns, she is sure that her future is secure. And in doing so, she’s not only shaped her own future, but helped secure the future of many in her community—proving the truth behind the saying: when women thrive, entire communities thrive with them. With a quiet retirement, she gives advice to her fellow women about future preparations: “Many people wait until the last minute to plan about retirement, and the result is being forced into businesses they don’t know or have experience with.” Land ownership and this business have been a solid foundation for her financial security.

Her post-retirement plan is to pass along this land and business to her children, while bequeathing one main thing to them: “Land is an unfinished resource.”