Karin Lindsjö is a human geographer in the AgriFoSe2030 programme and has just returned from a field trip to Tanzania. Now, Karin will write a report on intergenerational challenges in rural livelihoods in Tanzania. Read an interview with her here.
“Everybody knows every child should be educated” – The Strive Towards Universal Primary Education in Tanzania”. That is the title of Karin Lindsjös doctoral thesis that she defended in November 2017 at the Department of Human Geography at Lund University. It explores Tanzania’s strive towards universal primary education after introducing the free obligatory primary education in 2001. Karin Lindsjö is a human geographer and has just returned back from a field trip to Tanzania as part of the AgriFoSe2030 programme.
– I spent the whole month of February at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro and the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) at the University of Dar es Salaam. I met researchers working on rural livelihoods. My main task is to write a report on intergenerational challenges in rural livelihoods in Tanzania, and I have been searching for statistics related to the topic as well as looking for local publications related to the topic, says Karin.
Rural livelihood are facing many future challenges in Tanzania. Photo: Karin Lindsjö.
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Women carrying firewood in rural Tanzania. Photo: Karin Lindsjö.
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– I find the program important because agriculture will dominate rural livelihoods for a long time to come and more research is needed as rural livelihood are facing many future challenges. A challenge related to the rural elderly are for example the loss of the middle generation due to diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The elderly are hence left to take care of their grandchildren while traditionally children serve as social security. Many elderly are managing farming and it is their livelihood, but of course with age many people start facing various health problems and tiredness.
– Challenges for the rural youth relate to youth’s aspiration of leaving the traditional farming context for a modern urban life, and the lack of access to land in the cases where young people actually do want to stay and continue in the foot steps of their farmer parents or grand parents.
– I also think the program has an important role to play in translating research into policy and thus reach a larger range of users, says Karin.
– Even though livelihoods relate to education, food security and sustainable agriculture are two new topics to me so at this stage, I am trying to take in scope of the theme. At this point, my main interests relate to generational aspects of agriculture and food security, concludes Karin.
Interview by Anneli Sundin, AgriFoSe2030 Communication and Engagement.
This field trip was a part of the AgriFoSe2030 Theme 1 - Social and economic dimensions of smallholder based agriculture and food security. The theme is interdisciplinary and covers all cross-cutting issues of the AgriFoSe2030 programme; sustainable intensification of agriculture, the central role of women and young people in agriculture and access to markets and value chains.
Magnus Jirström, ProfessorChallenge leader of Challenge 4
Department of Human Geography, Lund University
Telephone: +46 46 222 97 97
E-mail: magnus.jirstrom@keg.lu.se