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Vital Signs Food and Farming

Vital Signs is a monitoring system for agriculture, nature and human well-being. We have made images of small-holder and subsistence farmers in all five countries where Vital Signs is currently operating: Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Visit the archive for more country-specific images.

Avian sells dried beans and corn in a market near Iringa, Tanzania.
Avian sells dried beans and corn in a market near Iringa, Tanzania. Feeding the growing world population will require a 70 to 100 percent increase in food production through agricultural intensification.
A butcher in market near Iringa, Tanzania.
With the help of Vital Signs, Rose Herman installed climate micro-sensors in her fields in Tamba Lang'ombe, Tanzania.
Thirsty corn in Tamba Lang'ombe, Tanzania.
Rose Herman perpares lunch in her kitchen, Tamba Lang'ombe, Tanzania.
Adija Saidi harvests vegetables for market in Mwaya, Tanzania, just outside of Udzungwa Mountains National Park. Vital Signs tracks agricultural production, including which seeds go into the land, what fertilizer is used and what crop yields they deliver.
Fatuma Mgogoro weeds a small farm plot near Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Vital Signs is working to quantify the value of natural ecosystems to farmers like Fatuma.
Farmer Fatuma Mgogoro holds eggplant ready for market near Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania.
Men process rice, an important cash crop, outside of Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania. The data Vital Signs collects will help determine where agriculture can be intensified to maximize yields while sustaining nearby ecosystems.
Diko Diko traps fish in a small stream behind his house near Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania.
A family gathers outside their home in Mwaya, Tanzania after meeting with Vital Signs field technicians. Vital Signs collects and integrates data on agriculture, ecosystems and human well-being across several African nations.
Atuherie Shallon and Tomusherure Kofudance cook potatoes at the family's farm along the stark boundary of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. There is an urgent need for better data and risk management tools to guide sustainable agricultural development.
Nimatu prepares saabu – a porridge made from maize – for the morning meal in Nabogu, Ghana.
Issahaku and Fatawu compete with a calf during the morning milking in the town of Nabogu in northern Ghana. Cattle provide meat, milk, manure, hides and a store of wealth and security that can be drawn upon when needed.
Fatawu pulls a calf out of the way during the morning milking, Nabogu, Ghana.
Janet and her mother prepare the evening meal in Tampie-Kukuo near Tamale in northern Ghana.
Cacao farmer Wadieh Nipah checks on his crop in central Ghana. He planted these trees 24 years ago.
In Amanman, Ghana, women process cassava into gari.
Charity Tetteh pumps water as the sun goes down in Okwabena, Ghana.
Comfort Dankwa weeds her cassava crop at first light in Okwabena, southern Ghana.
Asani Kwabena reaches up to train vines in his yam field in Okwabena, Ghana.
Peppers in a market in Nsawam, Ghana.
Laurence picks tea along the edges of Nyungwe National Park in Ghana.
Tea and vegetables share terraces in the village of Uwinka, Rwanda.
Bean trellises frame terraced fields in the village of Uwinka, Rwanda. Rwandan farmers terrace their hillsides to maximize their food output.
Beatrice Mukamoheri harvests young bean leaves with Aloys Seburikoko in Uwinka, Rwanda.
Children collect water in Uwinka, Rwanda. They must carry it from the valley bottom back to their ridge-top homes.
Nyirabazungu Leonile mixes in eucalyptus leaves and manure before planting sweet potatoes in her heavily terraced fields in the Rwanda highlands. To achieve food security in Africa, farmers like Nyirabazungu need to increase productivity while sustaining the ecosystems that provide them with healthy soils, clean water and other benefits.
Nyirabazungu Anonciate holds her cow while her son mucks out the pen in the village of Uwinka, Rwanda.
Mayira Boniface cleans out his cow's pen in Uwinka, Rwanda. By keeping their cows enclosed, farmers like Mayira can generate compost to use on his family's heavily terraced fields .
Mukamugambi Clementine peels potatoes with her daughter in the village of Uwinka, Rwanda.
Mukamugambi Clementine cooks potatoes and beans for her family, Uwinka, Rwanda.
Nyirahabimana Appauline farms rice in the Rwasave plantation near Cyayove, Rwanda.
Leonard Mwiti picks tea, an important cash crop, along the edge of a protected area in the Aberdare Mountains near Nyeri, Kenya. Vital Signs data can help determine which regions will support agricultural intensification in a changing climate.
Denis Ouma and Benson Ohiambo fish with a gillnet in Lake Kanya Boli in the Yala Swamp, Kenya. Fish provide a critical nutritional staple to many communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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