Exports raise foreign exchange money in US dollars, German marks, English pounds, Japanese yen and French francs to pay interest on Tanzania's huge debt to foreign banks. Cotton, used in the production of textiles, is a cash export crop Tanzania can sell. Unfortunately, cotton also happens to be one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides. Yet agricultural policy discriminates against women. Men often own the land, tools, and resources.
Men have greater access to training in agricultural techniques, aid, and payment for export corps.
As export crop production expands, women are losing access to land to grow food for their families. Women are forced to work for cash to feed their families. They work as vendors, cooks, maids and making home brews. Some have turned to prostitution to survive. Women say opening agriculture to the world market is destroying their livelihoods, ruining the environment, and worsening the food crisis in Tanzania and other developing countries.