Zan va Zamin advocates for the land rights of landless and women farmers and promotes agrobiodiversity through the reintroduction and teaching of traditional eco-agriculture methods.

Nature-based Intervention:

Zan va Zamin, or Women and Earth, is an advocacy organisation that works primarily to provide land tenure to landless farmers and landless women in particular who have historically been excluded from holding land tenure. Simultaneously, the group works alongside farmers to increase local agrobiodiversity through diversified farming methods and more responsible resource management. The state of agrobiodiversity in Tajikistan has suffered as a result of state-planned industrialised agriculture that favored mono-cropping, particularly of cotton. Zan va Zamin continues to report successful reductions in the total area under industrial cotton production and increases in the cultivation of orchards of traditional fruit varieties such as apple, pear, grape, apricot, and peach. In communication with holders of traditional knowledge, eco-agriculture practices have been reintroduced and passed on, mainly through the work of twelve field schools established by Zan va Zamin.

Overview of context and outcomes:

The change from production of a non-edible, mainly exported crop to an edible one aims to increase food security and incomes in the region. The work is consistently underpinned by a commitment to bring forth and preserve the traditional agricultural knowledge that had evolved over generations to respond to the extreme climate of the region.