Economic Empowerment
Achieving gender equality in most of the agricultural work in Africa, Asia and Latin America is still a major challenge, according to a new report by a Dutch based organisation.
The 367 page report based on a research conducted in the three continents since 2008, was launched last week in Kigali, by Agri-Hub, a sister company of Agri-ProFocus, which conducted the research.
The research was commissioned by the Royal Tropical Institute (RTI).
The document titled, “A woman’s Business: Gender equity in agricultural value chains” points out that poverty remains concentrated in rural areas and conditions in agriculture are especially hard for women.
“Women are at least half of the workforce in agriculture; often their work is not visible, or is simply not valued, and often excluded from more profitable aspects of agri-enterprises,” reads part of the findings.
Speaking to The New Times after the launch, Rhiannon Pyburn, the Senior Advisor at RTI, said women do unpaid domestic chores, face high levels of illiteracy and lack bargaining power in the three surveyed continents.
“During our research, we found out that women had limited access to resources, such as land, credit and other services in rural communities,” she said.
Pyburn stated that considering gender dimensions without looking at livelihoods, income generation and quality issues was not enough.
“Governments should consider the work done by women because they are the ones who do most of the agricultural work. Despite the fact that Rwanda is ahead in addressing gender inequality in Africa, respecting gender value chains in agricultural work is still a challenge,” she explained.
She called for improvement in gender equity within the value chain of agriculture development in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The report recommends specific interventions to support female entrepreneurs to bring economic prosperity, reduce poverty and improve the economic and societal position of women and their activities in the chain.
According to Patrice Mugenzi, a lecturer in the department of rural development and agri-business at the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (ISAE) Busogo, most of the women’s work is attributed to their husbands in rural communities.
“Improving women’s position within different value chains of agriculture is what we are currently advocating for in our institution,” he noted.
“Women constitute the majority of the agricultural workforce yet often their contribution is not visible and recognised at all; we must break this perception.”
Mugenzi called on women to enrol for agri-business courses so that they become role models for women in rural communities.
In Africa, the research was conducted in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda.
A woman in a banana plantation.Respecting gender equality in most of the agricultural work in Africa is still a major challenge. The New Times / File.