Locally rooted: Ideas and initiatives from the field

By
22 December 2015

Faced with many challenges, women find creative find solutions to improve their lives through agroecology. The experiences here highlight initiatives in which women have successfully organised themselves to strengthen their food systems, their livelihoods and their autonomy.

Increasing food sovereignty and farmers’ income

Photo: Dharma Raj Bagale
Photo: Dharma Raj Bagale

Women from Suklagandaki municipality in Tanahun, Nepal, used to buy vegetables from distant markets. Since the foundation of the Shree Khairenitar Women Development and Multipurpose Cooperative in 2003, many women have started to grow their own food. Having met first at festivals and cultural meetings, 50 women initiated this organisation that currently brings together 1550 female farmers. They use agroecological practices such as Integrated Pest Management. Mrs. Mangali Rana, president of the cooperative says: “These new agricultural practices result in stronger plants and a healthier soil. Furthermore, they lower production costs and increase our profit.” The cooperative engages in a diverse set of activities such as a reforestation program with tree plantations for fodder and the growing of bamboo for soil conservation. They learn and experiment with agrobiodiversity conservation, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation. Furthermore, the cooperative produces maize seeds on six hectares of land, making the district self sufficient in maize seed. Improving livelihoods and supporting environmental conservation has not only an economic, technical and environmental side, but also an indispensable social side. Mrs. Rana says that: “learning with neighbours, food and seed exchange between farmers, and working ‘all for all’ are the most important principles in our work that also influence others”.

Contact: Binod Ghimire (binodghim@gmail.com) and Sujeeta Sharma (sujitasharma2013@gmail.com)


Female-friendly beekeeping

Photo: Farm Africa
Photo: Farm Africa

In Bermi village on the edge of Nou Forest in Tanzania, beekeeping was regarded as a man’s job. Traditionally, beehives were placed high up in the forest canopy and it was considered unacceptable for women to climb the trees to gather honey. Farm Africa recognised the specific needs of women in their communities and introduced beehives that can be kept on the ground. This enabled women to develop beekeeping businesses that were both female-friendly and forest-friendly. Since then, beekeeping has become an important source of income for women in the village. By identifying cultural and practical barriers that exclude women from accessing certain resources and creating alternative arrangements to overcome them, space previously exclusively occupied by men was opened for women through innovative approaches.

Contact: Stephanie Schafrath (stephs@farmafrica.org) and Claire Allan. www.farmafrica.org


Looking after life

Photo: Virgina Vallejo-Rojas
Photo: Virgina Vallejo-Rojas

The Agroecological Network of Loja in the Andean region of Ecuador (RAL) is novel institutional arrangement between farmers’ organisations, created in 2006. RAL brings together 17 producer organisations primarily comprised of women farmers. RAL uses a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) as a tool of social control of the activities of the agri-food system.  Participating farmers collectively discussed, approved and validated the rules of their PGS. The compliance with PGS is an obligation for producers who participate in the weekly agro-ecological fairs of Loja. These markets have helped women achieve economic independence as they receive fair prices for their products, which are recognised by their customers as healthier and tastier than conventional products. For the women from RAL,  the sale of agroecological food and the direct interaction with the customers  improves their quality of life. One woman remarked: “They do more than give me cents and I do more than give them a vegetable”. The women feel empowered and have improved self esteem as reflected in this comment by another farmer: “Agroecological production means to build a new way of looking after life”.

Contact: Virginia Vallejo-Rojas (virginia.beatriz.vallejo@upc.edu), Federica Ravera (federica.ravera@uam.es) and Marta G. Rivera-Ferre (martaguadalupe.rivera@uvic.cat)


Valuing women’s role in cacao production

Originals Beans
Originals Beans

Originals BeansFemmes de Virunga 55%, is an organic, dark milk chocolate bar produced and sold  to support the empowerment of women producers in Congo and help preserve the rainforest. In Virunga National Park, Congo, women producers run nurseries where they have already trained over a hundred other women in cacao growing, sharing knowledge on cultivation and processing.  This process valorises women’s role in the broader cocoa community, increases their self esteem and creates sustainable livelihoods. This is particularly relevant as women are marginalised in Eastern Congo: ownership of land is rare among women, girls are the first to drop out of school and women are the first victims of political unrest. The trainings are supported by the Original Beans company, who also buys their produce and plants a tree for each chocolate bar sold.

Contact: Lena Unbehauen (lena@originalbeans.com)www.originalbeans.com