Sandra spreads a colourful bed sheet on the floor of her home before arranging plates, utensils, and pots. Her husband, Jean Aimé, and children, Andoniaina, 10, and Mirindra, 5, sit on the bed sheet as well, patiently awaiting their turn…
Some days, Randriamitantsoa wonders when the rain is coming. Other days, it rains heavily — but that too can be a problem. “The next day, the soil will be very dry. We don’t know why,” says the fourth-generation rice farmer…
In a groundbreaking initiative, Malagasy farmers had their cows artificially inseminated with the semen of a highly-productive Swiss cattle breed – or implanted with its embryo. The project, implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) through its local branch Organisation…
Fazul Rabi lives with his wife, their children, and the children of his wife’s late brother in the Chahar-Dara district of northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province. Economic opportunities here are sparse and there is typically one sole breadwinner in each family,…
In 2018, Yalda and her family left Afghanistan. They drove for 18 hours before reaching the city of Vahdat in western Tajikistan. At the time, Yalda was in her first year of university and like many young Afghan refugees, left…
Zahra remembers what it was like to have predictable agricultural yields. The mother of six, who lives in Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, farms barley, potato and wheat alongside her husband in the country’s highlands. For years, the couple’s harvest was sufficient…
When Teresia Muni Gichobi began experiencing health problems, the last thing she suspected was that the chemicals she used on her farm were to blame. Teresia, 60, who never struggled with her health, would experience shortness of breath so severe…
Shafiqa* lives in a remote village in Afghanistan’s Takhar province. As a widow, she shoulders the weight of providing for her household of ten. In the past, Shafiqa’s family relied on livestock rearing, but when her husband passed away she…
Sitting 3,270 meters above sea level, Tajikistan’s Murghab district grapples with an unforgiving climate. The arid and mountainous landscape along with winter temperatures as low as -24°C make vegetable cultivation almost impossible. The mainstay of the population in one of…
Harvesting olive oil wasn’t always so difficult for Munzer Zidan (pictured above). The farmer and retired teacher from Khirais village in Syria owns 175 olive trees. Previously, he was able to produce 12 tanks of olive oil annually, which became…