Projects that Caught Our Eye
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) work on Gender ‘Empowering Rural Women, Powering Agriculture’, the gender gap between men and women creates elevated costs to the agriculture industry, society, economy as well as women themselves. The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)’s Gender in Agriculture Partnership (GAP) calls for action to promote gender equity and empower women in agriculture.
Here at New AG International we are supportive of women and as we wish to shine a light on Women in Agriculture, below list some projects and initiatives that caught our attention!
1. The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture hosts a training facility to help educate women within India. As quoted from a recent social media post from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture ‘‘In India, our Foundation operates a skill training centre exclusively for women in India who are seeking careers in agriculture – the first of its kind in the country. The program is helping to close the gender gap to help feed the world and help women launch and lead successful farming businesses in their rural villages.’’
2. In Senegal, Women represent a high percentage of the rural workforce, yet many women in this region are limited compared to men when it comes to access to land, educational training and inputs. A joint project (AgriFeD) between UN Women and BNP Paribas has opened up a pathway to allow women farmers to work towards sustainable and self-sufficient farming practises, to help give more equality to women within Senegal. Click here for more information about this exciting project.
3. The European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) invest in women in agriculture through the project REWARD, which raises women’s employability levels as well as promotes rural development through entrepreneurship activities. Co-founded by the EU Erasmus+ Programme, REWARD relies on analysing the happenings of European rural women. The project empowers and supplies women with all the required tools and equipment they need to partake in diverse activities related to agriculture and rural cultural heritage.
4. In order to tackle gender inequality within agriculture and achieve better food security and nutrition provision, PepsiCo and the humanitarian organization CARE came together to provide an investment of 18.2 million USD to the ‘She Feeds the World’ partnership project. This grant will allow 5 million women in farming and their families around the globe to increase their yields, incomes and access to local nutrition. She Feeds the World aims to help female farmers better access to education and resources such as land rights, economic support, and agricultural inputs. The project envisions women in agriculture to become better equipped to run sustainable farms and have their products reach new markets. Egypt, Guatemala, India, Nigeria, Peru and Uganda are countries with significant food production being supported by the project. Moreover, PepsiCo and CARE have also launched ‘Closing the Crop Gap’ campaign which gives women a voice and platform to share their stories and challenges in agriculture.
5. The ‘Enabling women to benefit more equally from agrifood value chains’ project, part of FAO Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM), gives women support in policy and access to new local, national and global markets. The project focuses on three main actions: 1) to strengthen women’s competencies and participation in agrifood value chains; 2) to support and encourage gender-sensitive value chains; and 3) to promote learning and advocacy for product and tool development. For more information about this project, click here.
