Hellen Odira Mwita remembers the moment the women of Moheto, an area in Migori County, Kenya, decided to take control of their futures.
“As women, we never had any source of income to support our families,” she says. “We realized if we don’t form a group, it will be hard for our children to get education.”
66%
Percent of employed women in sub-Saharan Africa who work in farming and agricultural systems.
To get through hard economic times, the women formed a collective, pooling their resources and labor to farm orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes, a root vegetable that thrives despite climate threats in the region they call home.
The women call their group Moheto Muungano—Moheto Together. “I am the chairlady of the group,” Hellen says.
They grow the sweetpotatoes to consume and sell, but their most robust source of income is from multiplying and selling the sweetpotato vines. Fellow farmers and companies purchase the vines so that they might farm the root themselves.
“We have really developed because of the vines,” Hellen says. “Some [of us] have built houses. Some have educated their children.”
The collective also gives the women a platform through which to lend each other money. Lending helps members to invest further in their businesses and their families, repaying the collective over time.
For Hellen, the group’s success lies not only in crops planted and profits made, but also in the newfound power the members have to make decisions over their own lives. “We realized that there is great strength in a united group. We uplift each other,” she says. “Every woman here has shown progress. We are not the way we started.”
Millions of people around the world rely on small farms as their primary source of income. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds the development of agricultural innovations like the orange-fleshed sweetpotato to connect smallholder farmers with more resilient, profitable, and nutritious crops.
Hellen’s goal for the future is one of growth and expansion. “In five years to come, God willing, we can expand as a group.”
She envisions more children educated through their collective profits—and many more sweetpotatoes. “We want the whole of Moheto to be full of potatoes,” she says.
