Empowering Women Farmers in Agricultural Value Chains, has been launched by ethical trade organisation Twin and the Fairtrade Foundation, at a joint food industry event hosted.
Around 70% of agricultural work is by women, according to FAO figures. The report analyses the results of interviews with 14 producer groupings in Ghana, India, Malawi, Nicaragua, Peru and Rwanda. However women continue to face a glass ceiling when it comes to transporting crops to market and completing the sale.
Not only are women on the whole as engaged as men in planting and harvesting, they also tend to take the lead in processing adding to value and product quality.
For instance women are largely responsible for shelling and grading nuts, fermenting and drying coffee and fermenting cocoa. Women carry out this critical work on top of household labour.
Women also face additional barriers to men regarding land ownership, which affects access to credit and can disqualify them from joining producer organisations. As a result, women are underrepresented in the membership of such organisations and at all levels of their governance.
Nicolas Mounard, managing director of Twin, said: “We see on the ground the benefits of investing in women and giving them leadership opportunities results in smarter, better use of money – both in producer organisations and in the home.”
Michael Gidney, the chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “Fairtrade is working with businesses to invest in gender focused policies, training and income generating initiatives targeted at women to provide greater impact on women farmers’ lives.”
The findings also reveal that investing in programmes targeted at women smallholders – among the most marginalised actors in the value chain – could have a greater impact on education, health and food security.
The report presents best practice examples which demonstrate that significant strides can be achieved in relatively short time periods. Fairtrade Women’s Coffee initiatives are engaging consumers about the role of women in coffee production and providing additional premiums that fund projects targeted at women, such as the schemes implemented by UNICAFEC in Peru and Soppexcca in Nicaragua.
Women’s committees are providing a platform for women to receive training, access funding, engage in development of micro-enterprises and have a greater say within producer organisations, such as the CODEMU women’s committee in Pangoa in Peru, which is integrated to the co-operative’s management structure. Quotas for women are also rapidly increasing women’s representation on co-operative boards, as seen in Prodecoop in Nicaragua.
“It was the organisation and the Fairtrade principles that tell us that women are important. We have received some training in relation to gender issues and women have started to join. Before we were just labourers, but now our situation has improved and our daughters are now learning about farming.” said Soppexcca cooperative member Ana Maria Gonzales Narvaez.
Source: Twin
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