Many innovations led by women are based on agroecological principles such as increasing diversity, using fewer pesticides, or building new relationships with consumers. Through small experiments women learn, get organised and strengthen their autonomy. They gain increasing recognition and visibility in their communities and increase their self-esteem. This positive spiral can culminate into much larger processes of emancipation at the regional, national or even international level.

This issue of Farming Matters, dedicated to women farmers and agricultural workers, shows a variety of experiences, each of them inspiring in their own way. Women’s struggles are about much more than maximising the yield of rice, maize or beans- they are about creativity, dignity and autonomy, and the well-being of their communities.

A brief historical perspective

Long before the term ‘agroecology’ became popular, and much longer before the term ‘climate smart agriculture’ was coined, women and men farmers around the world were practicing agroecological principles. Women were not only doing most of the work in family farming, they were also highly knowledgeable and skilful in their work. Whereas men tended to have the broad overview of their farm, women kept expert knowledge about the selection and storage of seeds; multi-cropping systems of grains, tubers, beans and vegetables; the food and medicinal value of wild plants; and the raising of small animals.

Since the 1970s, scientists, development agencies, NGOs and policymakers have been paying increasing attention to the roles of women in agriculture. But globally, female farmers still receive only 5% of all extension services while they do 75% of the work in agriculture and produce 75% of the world’s food. Rural women’s major stumbling block continues to be their lack of access to and control over land as we learn from an interview with four powerful women’s rights activists from Asia and Africa (page 22). According to IFAD, women only own around 2% of all titled land world wide. Increasingly, farmer access to seeds is also endangered, which is especially problematic for women. If the world is serious about addressing gender inequality, it is important that we continue to address such deeper political and cultural issues.

One family, different paths

A general assumption is that if only women knew more about new crops and technologies their productivity would increase up to 20–30 percent (FAO). The risk of this thinking is that it suggests that women only have to catch up with men to produce more. Several authors in this issue of Farming Matters present a different, more complex picture where women do not automatically strive to follow men’s strategies, but choose their own pathway in agriculture and in life.

While men tend to invest most of their time and energy in crops for sale, women differentiate risk by mixing food crops that have different growth periods and purposes. The case of women farmers in Kenya (see box) illustrates this well. There are a continuous choices made in each farm family. We often see men strive for higher yields, more income and integration into regional or global markets, promoted by agricultural policies and regulations, education and extension. At the same time, women work towards maintaining a buffer against all sorts of risk, providing nutritious food, securing a home base for the family, a healthy family labour force and maintaining biodiversity. Many families strive to reconcile these different needs, but this does not always happen without tension and conflict.

So, rather than asking ourselves how can women be integrated into industrial agriculture and global value chains, we should ask women farmers what type of agriculture they want, and why.

Why women choose an agroecological path

From the articles in this issue, various reasons emerge that explain why women choose agroecology and become drivers of change.

Women’s agro-eco-logic: Agroecological practices are normally inexpensive, simple and effective; there is a minimal dependence on external inputs. The yields may be higher but can also be lower than those in conventional agriculture. What counts more for women is the total benefit they derive: enough diverse and healthy food to feed the family, a decent net income, fodder to feed the animals, and improved soil health. This becomes clear from the work of peasant women in Mozambique (page 36).
Creativity and innovation: Beyond just being a common sense approach to agriculture, agroecology is a more rewarding way of farming. Women emphasise that agroecological practices open space for creative change in the production system, while fostering solidarity and increasing productivity. This can be seen in the story from Malaysia (page 27). Similarly, experiences in the Himalayas (page 38) show that in harsh circumstances of climate stress and male outmigration, women use their creative skills to drive positive change through agroecological innovation.
Gender logic and a body logic: The System of Rice Intensification, a set of practices rooted in agroecological principles, benefits women (page 26) It has led to a significant reduction in drudgery and improvement in the wellbeing of women rice farmers who earlier used to stand for long hours in dirty muddy water to transplant the rice. Such benefits are rarely reported; yet, they are likely to be crucial factors explaining the spreading of SRI so far and for further spread in future. This challenges the assumption that agroecology generally increases women’s workload, and that women are not interested in agroecology as a result.
Living in harmony with nature: For women, choosing the agroecological path is ultimately a choice for autonomy. Women explicitly choose to follow a pathway with nature, not against it. In Spain, women farmers point at ‘life’ as the central aspect of their feminist approaches to agroecology that have transformed the food system of the city (page 14). Women’s proximity to nature is neither romantic nor ideological, it just is.
From communities to movements: Women fight for their autonomy, yet, at the same time they are committed to living and working in harmony with their family and the community. Agroecology brings these worlds together. Experiences in Brazil (page 10) and Colombia (page 32) show how women become drivers of peaceful agroecological change in situations of conflict.

Cash crop models disregard women’s knowledge

Traditionally, in the Kenyan drylands, women were engaged in food cropping and men devoted their time to pastoralism. From the 80s onward, however, the introduction of cash cropping enticed men into agriculture. So while the men grow crops for sale, women choose to work with agroecological practices. They cultivate a range of food crops to ensure that basic food needs are covered. Women plant food crops with different growing lengths together in the same plot to protect against risks of climate variability. Women nurture soil fertility by integrating excess organic matter into the soil after weeding and harvesting, and they conserve biodiversity through careful selection and conservation of seeds. Without this, the shift of men to cash cropping would not have been possible. Land fertility would be depleted by the mono-cropping required for cash crops. In the case of too little or too much rain, monocultures will not survive.

This example shows that commercialisation models disregard the knowledge about agricultural sustainability and resilience that is intrinsic in women´s agricultural practices. By not taking their knowledge seriously, these models disregard women farmers themselves and their crucial importance for family farming and food security.

The text for this box was provided by Martina Angela Caretta (martina.angela.caretta@humangeo.su.se) based on work from her recent PhD thesis (Caretta, M.A. 2015. East African Hydropatriarchies: An analysis of changing waterscapes in smallholder irrigation farming. Stockholm University).

New opportunities

Policies at all levels can support women in reinforcing their agroecological strategies. Sabrina Nafisa Masinjila (page 41) indentifies three key areas which we wholeheartedly support: Ensuring that women farmers remain at the centre of localised seed production systems; supporting farmer-led extensions networks; and ensuring access to land.

At the global level there are various opportunities to ensure the adoption of such policies. To name a few: the 2014 International Year of Family Farming has put the role of women in family farming firmly on the political agenda and an IYFF+10 process must ensure this translates into concrete commitments to support rural women.

The International Declaration on Agroecology drafted by global social movements recognised that women provide a principal social base of agroecology. This was presented at three regional seminars on agroecology organised by FAO in 2015 and needs to be followed up by governments in 2016.

Finally, the Sustainable Development Goals, recently launched by the United Nations, explicitly state the need to transform our food systems and to invest in critical agents of change, including rural women. Now is the time to utilise these and other policy arenas to implement grassroots policy proposals based on a wealth of practical experiences with women-led agroecology.

Women keep the farm and family going in times or crisis. Women hold the future – and agroecology can help them get there.

Edith van Walsum
Edith van Walsum is the director of ILEIA, the Centre for Learning on Sustainable Agriculture in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

The post Editorial: Women showing the way with agroecology appeared first on Ileia.

“Agroecology is a way to produce food that is culturally acceptable”

Esther Malya, farmer and livestock keeper in Tanzania

“I am a farmer, a leader, a trainer, and a mother. I have a piece of land of about 2,5 acres where I grow food and raise animals.

I am part of the board of MVIWATA, a national umbrella organisation that unites smallholder farmers across Tanzania. Within MVITWATA, women come together to discuss problems related to our patriarchal society, women empowerment, health, family, and farming. We also promote agroecology as a way to use available resources in our environment to produce food that is culturally acceptable. Agroecology prevents us from becoming dependent on big companies that sell poisonous fertilizers and chemicals. We have savings and lending mechanisms that are a huge support for women farmers as this enables us to send our daughters to school.The biggest challenge we face now is the limited awareness of ecological practices and lack of land for smallholders. We are very much against the current push for hybrids and GMOs and the dependence that comes with them. Thus we call upon our government to declare Tanzania free of such technologies and we encourage farmers to use indigenous seeds and farmers’ landraces that are readily available, reliable and affordable. As we are so well organised, the government is now listening to us more than ever before.”

Interview: Sarah Hobson

“Many young mothers are looking for an alternative”

Ann Doherty, urban farmer in the Netherlands

“I grow vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers in the city. I am also a beekeeper, a worm composter and a seed saver. I work within a collective of mostly women based in Amsterdam and Berlin. We teach a variety of different techniques promoting urban biodiversity, wild plants, and companion planting to school children and others in different city gardens. We also try to build the movement by connecting various urban food initiatives in Amsterdam, for example by offering ‘urban farming bike tours’.Women form the majority in all of the community gardens we work in. They sustain the gardens, organise the work days, and do the fundraising and reporting. Young women are at the forefront of these activities. I have observed that many young mothers are looking for an alternative to the corporate-driven agriculture model that produces unhealthy food. I myself also started getting more interested in food sovereignty when I first became pregnant.

Agroecology offers that alternative, and it is a great system for urban agriculture due to its flexibility, the focus on observation of natural cycles, the use of polyculture, and the promotion of biodiversity. What is key is that agroecology helps us women to grow healthy and delicious food to nourish ourselves and our families.”

Interview: Janneke Bruil

“Agroecology helps me realise my dream”

Allu Narayanamma, rice and vegetable producer in Andhra Pradesh, India

“My family owns 3 acres which we use for rain-fed cultivation of rice and vegetables. Half of this was formerly abandoned wasteland. I decided to develop this wasteland into cultivable land by improving the health of the soil through agroecological practices I learnt at the farmers’ association in our village, Yugandhar. This land now provides pulses and other food grains for my family, and we are also able to sell some of our harvest at the market. I also started to practice roof top gardening which provides vegetables for my family. Before we used to eat only the brinjal and beans that were available in the village, but now we consume 10 types of vegetables.I got elected as a member of the executive committee of the farmer association in our village, and I took up the lead role in sensitising and influencing fellow women farmers about the use of agroecological practices such as applying neem extract, pond silt and farmyard manure. These practices enhance the health of our soils and help keep diseases away. My paddy nursery now even survives dry spells.

As we use less chemical pesticides and fertilizers, we reduce the costs of all our farming activities. As a result, our income has increased twenty times in two yearsfrom about eight hundred rupees in 2013 to about sixteen thousand rupees in 2015. My family members and I were able to leave our jobs as wage labourers and dedicate ourselves entirely to farming on our own land. Agroecology helps me realise my dream of supporting my family and my community and providing quality education to my daughters.”

Interview: Siva Krishna Babu and Ranchitha Kumaran

“Agroecological fairs make us more independent”

Lilian Rocío Quingaluisa, mountain farmer in Ecuador

“When I was 22, I formed a group of 46 women in Unalagua. We joined groups in other communities and formed the women’s organisation now called FEMICAN, which operates across the Cotopaxi province.We struggle to have water and good seeds, and to obtain a good price for our crops. So we are working together to diversify our crops, which not only increases our income but help us to maintain the fertility of our soil. Now, we produce zucchini, lettuce, puerro onion, and traditional crops such as white carrots, quinoa and chaucha potato. We practice crop rotation, companion cropping and seed selection. Agroecology for us is about producing with Mother Earth, with the knowledge of our ancestors, and with as few chemicals as possible.

Together with others we created agroecological fairs to promote direct encounters between producers and consumers, enhance local economies and support the consumption of local healthy food. Engaging directly with urban citizens is great for us as women farmers. It means we have a better income, we do not have to work on other people’s land, we are more independent and we can spend more time with our families and animals. In our community 80% of the leadership positions are now occupied by women.”

Interview: Guadalupe Padilla and Sonia Zambrano

“With Ankole cows I can produce what is suitable for me”

Elizabeth Katushabe, cattle breeder in Uganda

“I breed traditional Ankole Longhorns, a strong cow that is adapted to my country’s harsh environment and resistant to tropical diseases without antibiotics, unlike the Holstein Frisian cows that are popular here. Traditionally Bahima women did not own cattle or land but today, some women do. Men milk the cows, graze and water them. Women collect the milk and decide how much each family member can drink. We churn the milk to make ghee. We know the names of all milking cows, we can tell an unhealthy cow apart, we take care of the calves, clean their sheds, and cut grass for the newborn.My approach to cattle breeding with Ankole Longhorns is a form of agroecology, it allows me to rear my cattle in the savanna grasslands of Uganda with all its biodiversity. My cattle live in a herd as a family, they mate naturally, and my calves suckle their mothers. As a woman, this is a good life. I can manage my livestock easily because of the calm temperament of Ankole. With Ankole cows I do not have to specialise in either milk or meat but I can produce what is most suitable for me and my community. And I hope others will respect my livestock keepers’ rights and appreciate my role and contribution to the economy and food security.”

Interview: Janneke Bruil

“We are the solution”

Mariama Sonko, farmer in Senegal

“As women farmers, we reject agriculture that pollutes with chemicals, pesticides, and GMOs. This is a difficult struggle because we have few resources to fight against multinational corporations. We Are the Solution is a campaign led by rural women like myself from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana and Guinea. Our vision is to promote ancestral knowledge and put pressure on our government to take seriously the preservation of our peasant agriculture. Agroecology protects all living things and treats nature as sacred. Women are the ones who save the seeds – the soul of the peasant population. Our seeds are ancient, and each is tied to a certain place. The traditional practice of seed selection preserves the environment and sustains biodiversity, while using our resources which are affordable and accessible. To achieve this we also are campaigning for women to have land ownership and we talk to men about why this is important.

In Senegal, We Are the Solution has established a platform of 100 grassroots associations. We now have a model farm field and a store where we sell our family farm products. The women in our movement are promoting agroecology and food sovereignty as the only viable system for healthy lives and a protected environment.”

Interview: Simone Adler and Beverly Bell

“Eco-friendly and grown by women”

Esther Villca, vegetable farmer in Bolivia

“I live in a rural community called Santa Rosa. I participate in the initiative ECOMUJER (Ecowoman). Established by the Women’s Farmers’ Organisation of Cochabamba, ECOMUJER is a label we give to our organic products to tell customers that our products are eco-friendly and grown by women. I migrated from another part of Bolivia and I did not know how to produce. I started cultivating vegetables to feed my family and I sold the surpluses and I learnt about vegetable production, seed management, and organic fertilizers. Currently 30% is for our family consumption, and I commercialise the remaining 70% through Ecomujer. Besides the economic benefits, I value this type of agriculture because it is good for our health. I am persuading my neighbours to produce in the same way and I am also pressuring the authorities of our municipality so that they will provide us with support.”

Interview: Alexandra Flores

The post The faces at the frontline appeared first on Ileia.

I always have to think about the etymology of the terms ‘economy’ and ‘ecology’ when I see a home garden. The home garden is a highly diversified environment within a farm where crops used in the kitchen are grown in association with others. Soils of the home gardens are often more fertile than the surrounding fields of the farm, and its structure, biological diversity, organic matter and nutrient contents have often been ‘upgraded’ through years of care and proper management, even in areas where soils are inherently poor. Home gardens are often the only green spot on the farm in dry years.

In most cultures, the home gardens are women’s territory. They contribute enormously to food security and nutrition through the diversification of diets, producing food even outside of the growing season, and producing ‘forgotten’ traditional crops. Home gardens are also crucial to secure food and livelihoods for older women. In both monogamous and polygamous families of East Africa every wife owns a home garden. It is often the only thing she will inherit once her husband dies and her children move away or take over the farm. From this perspective, there is no doubt that the investment in building up soil fertility pays off in the long term.

A study done in two ethnically different villages in western Kenya by one of my former students shows how local vegetables that are often regarded as ‘weeds’ in agronomy are a source of vitamins and minerals for the farming families (Figueroa-Gomez, 2008). The study also revealed that women knew a lot more edible species than men. These local vegetables, some of them known exclusively by women, constitute an essential resource in times of scarcity. Through hosting a wide diversity of plant species and cultivars, home gardens are also crucial for the conservation of agrobiodiversity.

Home gardens are organised by the rules of the kitchen in order to have fresh and diverse food all year round. And here is where economy (the management of the household) and ecology (the knowledge of the household) converge. This is how female farmers from all over the world are contributing to safeguard the most important inheritance we may receive, one that is essential for agroecology, for future food and for nutritional security: cultural and biological diversity. Thanks mama!

Pablo Tittonell

Pablo Tittonell (www.pablotittonell.net) is coordinator of the National Program on Natural Resources and Environment of INTA in Argentina and Professor of the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands. He is a board member of the African Conservation Tillage network and member of the Latin American Scientific Society on Agroecology (SOCLA).

This was the last column of Pablo Tittonell in 2015. We thank Pablo for his insightful and thoughtprovoking contributions throughout 2015 and we will continue to work together with Pablo in strengthening agroecology.

The post Opinion: Safeguarding diversity in home gardens appeared first on Ileia.

I am not a slave, nor an object – I have no owner, I am not a piece of property – I want freedom to be a woman…”. These were the chants of over 5000 women smallholder farmers from the Borborema Pole farmers’ union and from other regions in the state of Paraíba in Brazil as they marched through the city of Lagoa Seca in early 2015. Their songs became the marching call in the struggle for autonomy, for an end to all forms of oppression and violence against women, and in support of agroecology. Dressed in white or in lilac, with flags in hand and hats on their heads, the women took to the streets as part of the 6th March for the Lives of Women and Agroecology. They shared experiences and discussed different forms of violence that they experience. The march was organised by a strong network of female farmer-innovators who have been driving change in the lives of hundreds of women, and creating a development plan for the region based on agroecology.

A network of female farmer-innovators

The Borborema Pole is a forum of rural workers’ unions and family farming organisations covering 14 municipalities and more than 5000 families in the semi-arid Borborema region. From the early 2000s onwards, the Borborema Pole and AS-PTA, an NGO active in the region that is also a part of the AgriCultures Network, began to devise collective, local development plans based on strengthening family farming and the promotion of agroecology. Methodological principles of building on local knowledge and collective learning among farmers lie at the heart of our work. Through these principles we have supported family farmers in developing numerous agroecological innovations to overcome technical, economic and socio-organisational barriers over the past 15 years. Despite successes, however, a patriarchal culture remained dominant both within the family and in organisations in the region. This made women’s knowledge, their practices, and their importance for the farm household invisible. Their capacities were not fully being put to use. The inequality between men and women was a barrier to the full implementation of agroecology across the region.

In 2002, the gender issue came to the fore. A group of women began reflecting on what they were doing on their farms and in their daily lives. Through this participatory appraisal the group began to work towards a collective understanding of their role in the family farm. An important realisation was that most of their activities were concentrated within the house and its immediate surroundings.

Arredor de Casa

This space was coined Arredor de Casa, which literally translated means ‘around the house’ and refers to the yard, the outdoor space around and pertaining to the house. The women identified the different components of their yards, the multiple functions they have and the significance of their own knowledge and practices in relation to that space. They found that it is an important space where the women are involved in many activities: water is effectively re-used, medicinal plants preserved, and new seed varieties tested. The crops and small livestock produced there, moreover, form an important contribution to the household economy.

The women also started to identify the main challenges they faced and how they could overcome them. A major challenge was land. The area of the Arredor de Casa was under pressure. Borborema is an area with a high concentration of family farms and subject to land fragmentation due to inheritance. With smaller areas available, the fertile and humid land surrounding the houses was largely being replaced by fields in which men would plant beans and maize. Conflicts of interest over these areas of land resulted in an increase in the economic and social vulnerability of the women, leading to extreme situations of subordination, dependence and increased poverty.

To make the work of women more visible and valued, the Regional Seminar on Arredor de Casa was held. Over 150 women participated, and successful Arredor de Casa practices were shared. They also presented their experiences at a meeting of the Borborema Pole and this led to the establishment of the Borborema Pole Committee for Food and Health. The committee went on to organise, implement and monitor a training programme for women farmers. A movement to revitalise and reorder these spaces was taking shape.

Unearthing the knowledge of women

The committee acted as a catalyst for farmer-to-farmer exchanges, based on the methodological principles of collective learning that are deeply engrained in the work of the Borborema Pole. This gave rise to a network of over 1300 women farmer-innovators. The women addressed specific technical problems with their own solutions based on principles of agroecology, and visited other farmers both from within and outside their municipalities. The Committee for Food and Health supports women in adapting and implementing the solutions they indentify for their own farms.

Making this visible and explicit motivated many women to experiment more.

The women also carried out specific studies on medicinal plants, small livestock, native fruits, poverty alleviation and economic monitoring of home farms. This was key in unearthing and organising the wealth of knowledge of agroecology held collectively by women – often diffuse, fragmented and undervalued, even by the women themselves. Making this visible and explicit motivated many women to experiment more.

The exchanges were also vital in overcoming the isolation that many women experienced. They could now meet and get to know each other, allowing for the gradual removal of cultural barriers which had ‘tied them to the kitchen.’ Through these meetings a collective identity was being forged, that of women farmer-innovators.

As a farmer in Remigio put it:  “Today I am a different woman. Before when I saw people I never felt like talking, being open. I just listened to them speak. Today no! Today I speak with the whole world. I became stronger, as a women, as a mother. I am part of many of the changes in the community because I began to participate and share my experiences with friends, neighbours. I am proud of that. When I and other women started participating, something men were already doing, many things changed in my community. Especially for me. I feel fulfilled and will continue to participate!”

Two major perceptual shifts were fundamental for the consolidation of this process. The first was the recognition of the backyard as an important subsystem within a family establishment for its potential to generate wealth, food security and sovereignty and wellbeing for the family. The second was that women gained more both public and private spheres as theyreclaimed control of the backyard areas and were successful with their agricultural and economic undertakings.

Rotating Solidarity Funds – a tool to self-organise

The Committee for Food and Health established Community Rotating Solidarity Funds (RSFs) to support women in applying their learning and ideas from the exchanges at home. The RSFs are based on the principles of reciprocal exchange and mutual support that have long existed in the practices of rural communities in the region. Now, a growing number of women farmers from over 90 communities are part of Solidarity Funds.

When women would leave  the house and return with a concrete way of improving the wellbeing of the family their relationship  with the other members of the household changed. Suddenly women  could overcome their financial limitations and implement change. Furthermore, they learned to self-organise to overcome inequality and oppression. At times, their journey led them into conflict within the family , revealing the oppression and subordination of women of the patriarchal culture in which they live .

This gave rise to further analysis of gender inequality by the women themselves. It became clear that progress towards a political strategy for women to reclaim territory could not be achieved without understanding and challenging the inequality between men and women.

Overcoming oppression and gender inequality

At the end of 2007, AS-PTA and the Borborema Pole began to look for ways to make these changes in the lives of women permanent. Three women farmers who had taken on leading roles in the promotion of agroecology shared their personal stories in the network of women farmer-innovators.These stories opened the doors for other women to express the lack of recognition for their work, and the inequalities with respect to the use of space, time and money that they experienced, many for the first time.

Through this sharing, the group of women were filled with courage to overcome subordination. Pathways to new forms of leadership emerged.

From this point forward, gender equality was mainstreamed across all aspects of the work of the Borborema Pole and AS-PTA. The stories catalysed action, not only the within the Pole, but countrywide when they were shared by the Brazilian National Articulation of Agroecology (ANA). When ANA began to promote this work, it was an important tipping point for selforganisation of women.

The struggle continues

With the annual March for the Lives of Women and Agroecology, the women’s movement is now more visible than ever. Participation grew from 700 women in 2010, to 1800 in 2011 and 5000 in 2015. In the beginning the majority of the women joining the March were farmer-innovators. Now participation is much broader. Events focused on how to combat the cultural barriers that uphold the inequality between the sexes precede each march.

It is clear that the success of the women’s movement lies in creating a direct link between agricultural experimentation and reflections on inequalities. This generated new, accessible, and functional concepts of roles that helped both genders in family farming to flourish. One result of this work is that women now play important roles in the management of the Borborema Pole at the municipal, state and even national level, contributing decisively to the Pole’s political project.

The leaders of the Pole say that “now is not the time to pack away our flags, the struggle continues every day.” With the aim of resolving conflicts, relationships between men and women are gradually evolving. It is fair to say that there is still a long way to go. Nevertheless, what matters is that these women are leaving their mark on the historical struggle for social change, in the struggle for the lives of women and agroecology.

Adriana Galvão Freire

Adriana Galvão Freire (adriana@aspta.org.br) is the Technical Advisor of AS-PTA, a Brazilian organisation that supports family farming and agroecology and a member of the AgriCultures Network.

The post Building autonomy with agroecology appeared first on Ileia.

All over the world women play a unique and vital role in fixing our broken food system. The prevailing view on agriculture and food in Europe and in European institutions is limited to economics and trade. In these places (old) men in suits discuss amongst themselves and take decisions. In social movements working for the environment, development, health, agroecology and food sovereignty, women of all ages are active in various roles in equal in numbers to men, or even as a majority. Women work in urban gardens, sell at farmers’ markets, do catering, process food, they are active in debates and are often leaders in these social movements.

These women make change on a daily basis. They need to be heard and taken seriously. Food is not about short term economics and power plays. Food is about health, environment, fair development, about daily life and future generations.

European agricultural policies are now designed for big industrial farms. Women hardly benefit from this because they often have smaller and multifunctional farms. Policies should not be about the production of single crops per hectare. Current European hygiene rules make it impossible for women to sell processed food, because this regulation is designed for big industrial food processing and catering. Farmers have developed and used production and processing techniques and have been doing their own plant breeding for generations. Policies and research should support further development and use of this knowledge and include female food producers in policy making. For example, public institutions could procure products locally for example schools, hospitals, municipality offices. This would give local women involved in food production a major boost.

There is a strong need in Europe to strengthen women farmers in their work, through education and training and through more supportive policies. Women farmers need access to markets, and access to land, and they need to be able to exchange seeds freely so they can have equal chances and their own, independent role in society. This way they can reclaim their historical space in food production and play a major role in ensuring adequate and nutritious food for everyone, while taking care of our future.

Hanny van Geel

Hanny van Geel (Hanny@eurovia.org) represents the Dutch Arable Farmers’ Union (NAV) and is also a board member of the European Coordination of La Via Campesina.

The post Opinion: Women farmers in Europe appeared first on Ileia.

Increasing food sovereignty and farmers’ income

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

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

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 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

The post Locally rooted: Ideas and initiatives from the field appeared first on Ileia.

In the past 50 years, around 5,2 million Colombian farmers have been displaced from their lands, and about 8 million hectares of farmland were taken from their owners due to Colombia’s internal armed conflict. The war and neoliberal policies caused suffering, especially for women farmers. In order to overcome this situation, many women started to participate in agroecological processes, improving their agroecosystems, and at the same time fighting for social and environmental justice. A good example is the experience of AMOY, the Association of Organised Women from the town of Yolombó in the Antioquia department. These women show that agroecology can contribute to the transformation of power relations that were formerly used to subordinate them.The members of AMOY gathered for the first time in 1994, some years before the escalation of the armed conflict. They discussed problems such as scarcity of water, deforestation, soil degradation and decreasing diversity of food crops. One women said: “We are worried, because we cannot feed our families. We should work together to improve our lives and to take care of the environment so that our resources will not disappear”. They wondered why they had so little access to credit, why they did not own land, why they did not have access to technology, why they had so few livestock and crops. Likewise, they wanted to increase their income and invest in the items they needed: education, health, and better housing. Women had to spend a lot of time taking care of their families because, for example, they had to walk far for water and firewood.

They felt distressed because they did not have dignified future perspectives for themselves and for their children. No one, including the women themselves, valued their hard work, and as a consequence they had very low self-esteem. During reflections at AMOY meetings, they realised that a major cause of these problems was their lack of autonomy, including a lack of decision making power and poor access to productive means. AMOY followed an agroecological and ecofeminist approach that focuses on the empowerment of the women, on meeting livelihood needs, and on the recuperation of local space, with local knowledge, local biodiversity and a strong relationship with nature.

Agroecological practices for greater autonomy

Through AMOY, the women started to systematically apply organic fertilizers and soil conservation practices, their dependence on external agrochemical inputs, and strengthening their autonomy. Today, 87 % of the farms produce with self-made organic fertilizers, and 62% of the animals are fed with products and residues from the farm. The introduction of appropriate technologies such as bio-composting, solar driers and fuel efficient stoves helped to save energy and time spent on fuel collection. Through encouraging agrobiodiversity several local crop species were rescued from disappearance and local cultural food practices were revived. According to a recent inventory, in total the women currently grow 82 crops for food, medicines and animal fodder. Also, 7 kinds of domestic animals are reared, including 13 local breeds of chickens. Subsequently, the increased production, a credit system, as well as a revolving fund of livestock and materials (for example for building stables or making biopreparations) helped to build capital.

To improve livelihoods, the women of AMOY opted to prioritise production for self-consumption and the diversification of farms, thereby laying the basis for a viable and stable economy instead of depending on the unpredictable ebbs and flows of the market. Currently, the farms produce more than half of the food for their families, while the other half of the food is obtained from exchange and gifts, or bought at the market.

The women increased their autonomy step by step by developing strategies to improve access to resources. They shared their animals and tools according to their needs, and they got small loans from rotation funds and micro-credits. Thanks to these mechanisms, the women have achieved ownership of livestock, and, in some cases, of the houses where they live and the land they cultivate. In their fight

The approach of AMOY

The transitional agroecological approach of AMOY places women’s autonomy in the center and relates it to socio-political, ecological and economic dimensions. The socio-political dimension includes the social movements that seek social and ecological justice. The ecological dimension aims at recovering the sustainability of agricultural systems and ecosystems. The economic dimension focuses on livelihood, accumulated knowledge, potentialities, resilience capacity, innovation and mutual support. AMOY addresses the three dimensions interlinking autonomy, with livelihood and sustainability.

for autonomy, the women also achieved transformations within the family, becoming less subordinated and acting against domestic violence. One woman said: “While we were achieving new income and production resources, our position in our homes changed.” Now, they receive more respect for their knowledge and labour, and their husbands are getting more involved in farming. The improved self-esteem and better access to resources have reaffirmed women in their role as food producers and contributed to the construction of an identity based on their own strengths and capacities.

Escalation of the conflict

AMOY’s approach proved to be powerful in day-to-day practices, but was also important in crisis situations related to the country’s armed conflict. A few years after AMOY´s foundation, the situation in Colombia severely worsened. At the end of the 1990s the armed conflict escalated, and their lives were continuously at risk. AMOY participated in ‘Women’s Pacifist Route’, a movement against the war that calls for political negotiation as a way out of the armed conflict. Being part of this movement empowered AMOY to publicly speak out for truth, justice and reparation. During these violent times about 50 people were killed in the town of Yolombó and about 700 people fled the area. Many people, especially women, lost their property as paramilitary groups occupied their land. Moreover, in this period community meetings were explicitly prohibited by the paramilitary groups, so that it was also difficult for women to discuss and develop long-term strategies based on agroecology. The emphasis on day-to-day survival and self-sufficiency was the priority at this time, when it was very difficult to buy food from the market. Worst of all, there were periods in which the parties in conflict forced the farmers to give them their animals and crops. Because of this, the women decided to raise fewer animals which caused a setback in the agroecological transition process.

In 2000, when the ban on meetings was lifted after two years, the women groups re-activated themselves and the women that returned to Yolombó received help from AMOY in the form of seeds and breeding animals. AMOY prioritised projects for the reconstruction of farming systems. Apart from the agroecological activities, during this period the organisation also helped its members cope with the cruelty of war. It was a space to express fear and sadness, to find refuge, and to develop strategies to protect themselves from armed groups. AMOY organised symbolic, ritual events to commemorate the beloved victims, and to help cure the wounds of the community. Rituals for example consisted of naming the dead and naming their souls, while collectively planting forage crops on places where massacres occurred.Since 2005, many people, especially young men, have left the farms. This has been in part because of the conflict, but also because of the lack of policies that promote small-scale agriculture, and steady deterioration of natural resources because of deforestation, erosion and mining. In this context AMOY continues to re-invent itself, improving agroecological practices that ensure food security and income sources from local markets, based on women empowerment and solidarity.

Towards a future of peace

After the violent decade there are still many borders to cross. There continues to be a lot of outmigration of men, and agroecology remains mostly a women’s strategy. A major bottleneck is the absence of a long-term peace agreement. In this sense, the current peace talks in Havana between the guerrilla and the government provide hope for a period of stability and improved conditions for a further advancement of the agroecological transition in Yolombó.

The journey of AMOY represents a collective path of permanent reflection and learning and shows that agroecological transition cannot be seen as separated from other aspects of life, especially in a context of violent conflict. Particularly, AMOY’s approach of linking livelihood, sustainability and autonomy proved to be very effective for its members, especially where practical farming strategies were linked with organisational strengthening. It shows that in critical circumstances such as the armed conflict, agroecology helps build resilience and adaptation to changing situations. The process of AMOY not only has been directed towards the restoration of ecological principles, but also towards the capacity of women to decide on their present, and to influence their future by exercising citizenship and building confidence in their own capacities.

Sonia Irene Cárdenas Solís
Sonia Irene Cárdenas Solís is from Colombia and doing a PhD on natural resources and sustainability at Córdoba University in Spain. She is also a gender consultant with the World Wildlife Fund in Colombia.
Email: cardosysoles@yahoo.es

The post Constructing autonomy, territory and peace appeared first on Ileia.

Agroecological methods of farming have always been a part of the social and cultural life in Mozambican rural communities. To strengthen these practices in the face of corporate agriculture, the Mozambican Farmer’s Union, UNAC, has promoted the practices of agroecology, such as the conservation of native seeds and local systems of food production, for a number of years. Women play a key role in many of UNAC’s initiatives.

Widows creating a healthy system

The village of Namaacha is located in the Maputo Province, bordering Swaziland. In this area most of the food is imported from Swaziland and South Africa. As a result, Namaacha used to be flooded by foreign food products grown with a lot of chemicals.

This changed when women started to organise themselves in local producer organisations. One of these is the Association of Strawberry Producers of Namaacha (APMONA), consisting mostly of widows and their families. When a man dies he leaves behind a great responsibility to his wife to take care of the family, feed the kids, keep the house, send children to school and produce food on the land. The widows of the Association are farming as their main (and in many cases only) economic activity to support the family. They resolved to grow their food in a way that is consistent with agroecological principles.

Their production is based on a model that divides the land into individual and community plots.  From the community plot, a portion of the produce goes to each member and her family, and the rest is channelled to the local market in Namaacha. The benefit of having a collective machamaba (field) is that peasants share knowledge with each other – it’s a space for learning.
With some support from UNAC, the women introduced crop diversification to the region, and started to grow onion, tomato, cabbage, lettuce and carrots. Previously, the women had only been producing strawberries to sell in Maputo. Now, they are producing many different crops using organic fertilizers, composts and biodiversity-based techniques. The main fertilizer is manure from cows and the mulch is hay which is spread to avoid weeds and maintain soil moisture.  Rosa Jorge Obete, co-founder of APMONA, asserts that since she has switched to agroecology, she has saved more money in production, especially since she avoids the costs of chemicals. “It has allowed me to put my children in school and helped me with daily costs. We are now able to manage our expenses. We live well, not like before,” says Obete.

Defending land and livelihood

The initiative of APMONA emerged in a context of struggle and resistance. Over the past few years, Mozambique has become a major stage for land grabbing for forest production, tourism development, or agribusiness, the latter being the new trend in Mozambique. The agribusiness model of agriculture produces crops that are usually alien to the local community, such as soy, maize and sugar cane, which are aimed at world markets and other countries’ demands for food, cattle feed and biofuel rather than at the food needs of the local population.  As land in Mozambique is legally owned by the state, concessions are given to foreign companies for 50 years and are renewable for another 50. In Mozambique, agriculture could soon become a corporate-driven sector, with local peasants being dispossessed and displaced, losing their means of livelihood as well as their ancient cultural connection to the land.
UNAC is resisting these trends, finding alternatives to the prevailing system. UNAC women gather regularly in assembly to discuss the challenges they face and strategise for actions to fight back and defend their land and livelihood. Through the Rural Women Assembly, women peasants have been challenging the government and organised protests and marches across Southern Africa demanding accountability from politicians. The Rural Woman Assembly has also been active in collecting, improving and conserving native seeds. These actions have to be seen as resistance to the hegemony of the ‘development discourse’, promoted by initiatives such as the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security.
With models such as agroecology based on community supported methods of production, peasant agriculture is ultimately more inclusive, sustainable, equitable and stable than any other farming method. This model empowers rural women, guarantees the livelihoods of future generations and ensures food sovereignty at the community and national level. It would, finally, set Mozambique on a path, over the long-run, toward sustainable development, while supporting women producers, defending native seeds, protecting the environment and supporting local, organic food production.

Until mid 2015, Boaventura Monjane was a communications officer of La Vía Campesina, based at the UNAC office in Maputo. He is currently pursuing a PhD. Email: boa.monjane@gmail.com.

The post Peasant women power in Mozambique appeared first on Ileia.

Young men from even the remotest places in the Himalayan mountains are leaving their homes in search of income opportunities elsewhere. This trend of out-migration has been driven by increased mobility and access to information, in combination with the effects of climate change, including both increased flooding and drought. Drought and erratic rain hamper rain-fed farming in the region. Floods destroy cultivated fields by sand-casting, sweeping away seed and food stocks and killing livestock. Families do not see agricultural investments as viable anymore and for farmers who mostly have agricultural skills the best option seems to migrate. When men leave, they abandon the farms and lose interest in agriculture while their families stay behind. Women are therefore faced with challenges to produce food without the labour of their husbands. This case illustrates the innovative capacity of women, not only to adapt to changing circumstances, but also to drive positive social change through agroecology.

Traditionally both women and men shaped the way farming was done in the Himalayas. The male household heads would choose the cash crops, the livestock  and also decide on innovations. Women would make decisions about farming for household consumption such as the home gardens and small livestock. Women are not allowed to plough but do other work such as planting, weeding or firewood and fodder collection.

Navigating environmental stress

Out-migration of men challenges women to get tasks done that are traditionally for men, such as ploughing. Remittances are often not enough to enable the women to hire labourers and compensate the lack of labour on the farm. Many engage in share-cropping arrangements, while others abandon the land and try to find alternative jobs so that they can buy their staple foods. In very rare cases in Nepal, women who trespassed cultural boundaries, have learnt how to plough and were seen on their fields behind their two oxen.

In addition to the increased workload for women in the absence of men, women have to deal with climate change related disasters for which they are often unprepared. This is harder for them since women do not have the same access as men do to markets, extension services or alternative livelihood options that could help them respond to climate stress. Their access is restricted by  limited mobility and other cultural constraints. Recent field research produced interesting examples from the region that showed how under environmental stress women who live in villages that suffer from male outmigration develop new farming practices, push alternative economies and create niche markets. Here are three examples from India, Nepal and China.

Sharing resources in Assam, Northeast India

In the district Tinsukia, at the river bank of the Brahmaputra River in India, annual floods regularly damage agricultural crops. The farmers managed to adapt to the floods with diversification in crops and livestock as well as sharecropping arrangements. However, in 2012 a big flood caused colossal damage to infrastructure, livestock and crop and  agricultural land. Many of the households that reported sand casting on their farmland assessed that they would not be able to cultivate the affected land for the next two to five years.

Women’s response to the flood was a system called bhagi, which included sharing of small livestock, handicraft skills and land by engaging in sharecropping.  For example, one family borrowed a pair of chicken from their neighbours and took the responsibility of their daily care on the condition that when young chicks were born, they would be divided equally between the lending and borrowing families. Women also initiated other forms of bartering such as exchanging their weaving skills in exchange for material. Women pushed their families to engage in share-cropping arrangements, where the land owning family invests in all external inputs including tractor, seed, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation while the working family puts in labour. The harvest is then shared equally between the two families.

In this way women relieved themselves of some additional responsibility and workload that came with the floods and still ensured good care of their families. In migrant households, where remittances are not enough to compensate for the lack of labour on the farm, such arrangements became extremely important.

Switching to fruit trees in Central Nepal

In Kavre District in Nepal where outmigration of men is high and rain patterns are erratic, farmers founded cooperatives to facilitate organic vegetable production and rain water harvesting. This was supported by the Appropriate Agriculture Alternatives training centre. The produce was bought at fixed rates and sold in Kathmandu markets.

However, because of an increased number of households without a male household head , the training centre extended its activities to promoting fruit and nut trees such as almond or macademia which need less water than vegetables. It was accompanied by trainings in biointensive farming, extension work with local communities and research with regard to new varieties that could suit the Nepali context.

Several women were interested in growing fruit trees to increase their income and secure their livelihoods because of fluctuating remittances from their husbands or sons. However, there were two major obstacles. First, the initial investment into trees is high and it takes several years before income can be achieved. Second, some elderly in the area believe that trees should not be transplanted from one place to another. This is a cultural and social barrier to innovation.  However, a couple of the families managed to convince their elders and are now trying out the tree varieties as a new income source that helps them to ensure their food security in an unfavourable climate.

Growing herbs in Yunnan Province, China

Towards the other side of the Himalayas, in the Yunnan Province of China, drought is a major problem for the farmers. In the small village of Weng Mu, a few hours North of Kunming, which is dominated by the Yi, one of the many ethnic minorities of the province, drought hampered the rain-fed crop production of wheat, maize and potato. Several elderly women, encouraged by an emerging small-scale processing industry of medicinal herbs, began planting of maka (Lepidium meyenii) as a new livelihood source. It is used for culinary and medicinal purposes enhancing energy, stamina and fertility.

They have been cultivating maka for 2-3 years now and in some cases up to half of their land is occupied with the medicinal plant, which not only gets them a good market price, but needs little care and is more resistant to water stress.  The women  use seed from small scale seed saving and exchange initiatives in the area. Despite the higher dependency on markets, they are proud that they triggered the changes in farming and are able to support their families.

Women as innate innovators

These examples show successful experiences of women coping with climate stress and outmigration of men, at the same time improving their autonomy, ensuring their food security and reducing hard labour. They do not only show that women are able to develop successful coping strategies but it also becomes clear that women are innate innovators. Gender roles are changing as part of the social transformation in the region. Women start experimenting and try out new ways of farming when pushed to the wall in the context of environmental stress and migration. These innovations sometimes require breaking though cultural barriers as in the case from Nepal.

For the most part, however, women have not gained much with respect to power relations. Decisions on farm management, field and cash crops or livestock are still mostly taken by men (be it from a distance or by male relatives). These decisions are often based on economic considerations only, while women tend to take into account social, cultural, nutritional and other factors in their decisions. However it appears that the more gender roles change, the more can women utilise new spaces and opportunities, become innovators and overcome challenges step by step.

Sarah Marie Nischalke
Sarah Marie Nischalke is Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research, Bonn, Germany. The research on which this article is based was conducted as part of her former position in the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Program at the International Center of Integrated Mountain Development (snischal@uni-bonn.de).

The post Women drive alternative economies in the Himalayas appeared first on Ileia.

V. Ramprasad, 2015.  Green Foundation and Third World Network, India, 109 pages.

The predominance of commercially-marketed crop varieties and associated, enabling policies are displacing indigenous varieties cultivated over many generations. This loss of agricultural biodiversity puts both food security and the livelihoods of farmers at risk.  These farmers now find themselves tied to a corporate-controlled supply chain. To counter this threat to sustainable food production, there is a need to turn to the enduring custodians of agricultural biodiversity – small farmers, in particular women farmers, who are the repositories of traditional knowledge of seed conservation and the providers of food for their households and communities. Drawing on more than  20 years of the author’s work with Indian women farmers in on-farm conservation, Living on the Edge makes it clear that efforts to safeguard agricultural biodiversity must go hand in hand with the protection and promotion of farmers’ rights everywhere.

Our Stories, one journey: empowering rural women in Asia on food sovereignty

M. Busto, N. G. P. Mercado,  S. V. Rengam, D. Zita, M. Castillo, K. Acosta, T. K. Lopez, and L. Covero, 2015. Penang, Malaysia, 58 pages.

Every day, rural women in Asia face mounting challenges caused by an increasingly broken system of food and agriculture. High food prices, low income, land grabbing, climate change and decreasing control over seeds mark the experiences of women farmers who grow much of the region’s food. This book is a travelling journal and presents the experiences of eight rural women in the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Vietnam. The women describe their struggles against, for instance, land grabs from palm oil companies, but also hopeful initiatives in ecological agriculture. Expressions are not limited descriptive texts but also in drawing, poetry and songs. Their message is simple: help transform agriculture into a more equitable, fair and sustainable system!

Women redefining the experience of food insecurity: Life off the edge of the table

J. Page-Reeves (ed.), 2014. Lexington Books, 346 pages.

This book is about understanding the relationship between food insecurity and women’s agency. The contributors explore both the structural constraints that limit what and how much people eat, and the myriad of ways that women creatively and strategically re-structure their own fields of action in relation to food, demonstrating that the nature of food insecurity is multi-dimensional. The chapters portray how women develop strategies to make it possible to have food in the cupboard and on the table to be able to feed their families. Exploring these themes, this book offers a lens for thinking about a food system that incorporates women as agentive actors and links women’s everyday food-related activities with ideas about food justice, food sovereignty, and food citizenship. Taken together, the chapters provide a unique perspective on how we can think broadly about the issue of food insecurity in relation to gender, culture, inequality, poverty, and health disparity.

Women and food sovereignty: voices of rural women of the south

L. Silva and K. Nansen (eds.), 2011, Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 40 pages.

 This document presents testimonies that reflect the situation of rural women in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The inequality faced by women is evident with respect to denial of basic rights, gender-based violence, economic discrimination and the negative impacts of agribusiness and extractive industries which disproportionally impact women. The testimonies also show alternative approaches to the agribusiness model. Many of the actions taken by women to fight for their rights are in fact traditional practices that they have recovered and sustained. The first thematic area includes an overview of the main issues facing women. The second includes testimonies that focus on the values and worldviews of rural women on agriculture, biodiversity and work. The third section highlights the struggles and resistance of women and the alternatives they implement to secure a more just world.

Promises, power and poverty: Corporate land deals and rural women in Africa

N. Tandon and M. Wegerif, 2013, OXFAM International, Oxford, UK, 26 pages.

 The rush to invest in farmland in Africa is having an immediate impact on women’s land-use options,  their livelihoods, on food availability and the cost of living, and, ultimately, on women’s access to land for food production. These are only the economic impacts. Women’s knowledge, socio-cultural relationship with the land, and stewardship of nature are also under threat. Too often ignored, rural women’s voices and perspectives need to be heeded urgently if a robust rural economy and food for all are to be guaranteed.

The post Mind! New books on women and agroecology appeared first on Ileia.