DEVELOPMENT

Think of the Women Farmers

This could present a major challenge to Kanayo F. Nwanze who was chosen IFA president at a meeting in !ome of
representati"es of the #$% mem&er countries of the 'N organisation for financing agricultural de"elopment. Nwanze(
a Nigerian national( was elected Thursday for a four)year term( ahead of fi"e other candidates from *akistan(
+ermany( Israel( Niger and India.
IFA has made the issue of women farmers a key challenge( together with price rise and climate change.
IFA e,perts say that the past decade has seen women-s participation in agricultural la&our grow &y a third( and in
the off)farm la&our market &y #. percent. While there is no official figure for the num&er of women farmers
worldwide( around /. percent of African smallholder farms are headed &y women.
The work of women farmers is often not recognised. 0Worldwide in de"eloping countries women do most of the
farming work although their work and their role remain in"isi&le( unrecognised and undocumented in statistics(0 says
Annina 1u&&ock from the IFA gender)technical ad"isory di"ision. 0And yet in Africa( for e,ample( they-re
producing &etween $. and 2. percent of the whole food.0
1u&&ock says women li"e with all of the constraints that affect all smallholder farmers ) difficulty in access to credit(
to ser"ices( lack of money for inputs( poor infrastructure and poor markets. 3ut &eyond these
are constraints that specifically affect women.
0They ha"e a huge workload that comes from ha"ing to com&ine their producti"e work with
their domestic work and caring for their families(0 said 1u&&ock. 0They don-t ha"e access to
property( they don-t get access to e,tension ser"ices.0 These ser"ices offer information such
as patterns in crop prices( new seed "arieties( and training in the use of new technologies.
4ne reason that women-s "oices are not heard is their weak representation in farmers and
producers organisations( said 1u&&ock. 0They-re heard down at the grassroots &ut not at the
higher le"els.0
5ome groups are working to change that. 0What our national mem&ers do to make women-s
"oices heard and articulated is gi"e -affirmati"e action- to them(0 says 6strella *enunia(
secretary)general of the Asian Farmers Association for 5ustaina&le !ural e"elopment.
0This means at least gi"ing /. percent of seats in the training( &oard and go"ernance
structure organisation to women.0
The association( &ased in the *hilippines( includes nine farmers- organisations in eight Asian countries( representing
around ten million farmers.
In the *hilippines and in Korea women ha"e their own independent organisations working in parallel with other
farmers organisations( *enunia told I*5. 0They do a lot of work in terms of making go"ernments respond to their
need for credit( for capital( for access to resources( and working hand in hand with male mem&ers of farmers
organisations in lo&&ying go"ernments.0
In the *hilippines % percent of local and national go"ernment &udgets are set aside for gender related de"elopment
issues. 03ut this is something that needed to &e fought for(0 *enunia told I*5. 0If we hadn-t fought for that( money
would ha"e gone to dance rooms and parties or whate"er in the name of gender and de"elopment. 3ut women
farmers are there to tell the go"ernment( put this in agriculture( put this in training...they are organised to lo&&y( to
dialogue and to negotiate with their go"ernments on policies.0
A similar struggle was launched for land rights in the *hilippines. 0When the go"ernment gi"es certificates of land
Women farmers in
India.
7redit8IFA
property there is only men-s name in the title9 women farmers- organisations asked to put the name of &oth man and
woman in there( and in the end it worked.0
India is supporting women-s participation in policy dialogues. 0The decentralised go"ernment system is strengthening
local go"ernments that now can take decisions o"er resources( and the :uota system will make women participate in
the decentralised decision making &odies(0 6ija *ehu from the agriculture and rural de"elopment department at the
World 3ank told I*5.
*ehu said that a recent ;.. million dollar World 3ank programme to support smallholder agriculture in the state of
Andhra *radesh in India started initially without any differentiation for women farmers.
03ut then the state leadership realised that there were a lot of self)help groups run &y women( pooled together to run
community)&ased procurement centres for agricultural products like grains( "egeta&les and fruit.0 The World 3ank
conse:uently &egan to address women-s issues specifically.
The picture appears less positi"e on the African continent( where gender)related &arriers still pre"ent many women
from accessing land( resources and technology( according to a ;..2 study &y the '.5. &ased International 7entre for
!esearch on Women <I7!W=. In 'ganda( most agricultural la&ourers are women( yet they own only a fraction of the
land. In +am&ia less than # percent of women were found to own a seeder or other culti"ation instruments.
In 3urkina Faso( the study found that women ha"e less access to e,tension ser"ices &ecause they ha"e smaller
portions of land and less political "oice to demand these ser"ices. <6N=