Bahati Muriga, a 40-year-old widow and mother of three, grows sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cassava and maize on her farm in Tanzania, not far from where Lake Victoria laps at the shoreline of Ukerewe, the largest island in Africa’s largest lake.
Muriga has lived on Ukerewe her entire life, and she’s cultivated crops there since she first began helping her mother as a child. Now, things are changing.
“When I was a child, we experienced a lot of rainfall, but now we have a scarcity of rainfall,” Muriga said through a translator. “The season has changed now.”
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
