How organic farming empowers women
It’s a woman’s month. As women let us continue to raise our voices for one another.
Most women especially in my Community believe that burning grass or burning the soil is the most effective way to get rich soils for fast or high yields.Many forget to look at the sustainable part of it .For how long will that soil yield,? How much more Harvest can we get from the soil in subsequent years?
let’s talk organic farming
Because of the desire for much yield,most women have decided to use more of synthetic fertilizers on crops than organic Manure .This has been accompanied by the many diseases and complications that people have gotten from eating chemical infested food.
That not withstanding,
Organic farming is on the rise in some areas and women play a vital role in that. Gender inequality has made it look like women are the only set of people who should work in the farms but no. Elsewhere it may be true but it’s an incorrect assumptions that the farmer must be female. Gender bias should not get in the way of farming innovation.
Indeed, agriculture remains an unapologetically male-focused institution in the west but the contrary in most of Africa espercially Cameroon.Many Women are farm operators but they do not generate a greater percentage of the Agricultural sales as they lack proper management skills.Women only need more empowerment. Gender disparity isn’t something that can change overnight. But the evidence is strong that organic and sustainable farming provide meaningful opportunities for women across the globe to make change in a way that conventional agriculture never has.
Women tend to chose organic farming as they farm smaller plots of land. They focus on producing food for their community and choose organic and sustainable farming models over commodity crop production. additionally,women tend to farm with fewer machines and more hand tools, and they employ farming models that benefit and promote family, nutrition, community development, and the environment. Not surprisingly, women farmers make less money than their male counterparts, a wage discrepancy that is somewhat mitigated by the higher value of (and therefore greater incentive to grow) organic foods.
Farm wives and daughters have historically held a secondary position as “farm helpers,” something that is still very common in my area .It doesn’t go unpaid in most cases but the human labour is sometimes more than the offered pay.With the need for a rise of organic farming, women must see and embraced an alternate way to participate in agriculture. As an emerging industry, organic agriculture’s steep learning curve applies to all new farmers, not just women. Along with the new agricultural model, opportunities grow for everyone outside the fraternity of traditional agriculture – for women, and also land-less or otherwise marginalized men – making for a more inclusive atmosphere of information-sharing, collaboration, and educational opportunities. With organic farming it is possible to farm intensively on smaller plots, significantly lowering barriers to entry such as access to large tracts of land and expensive machinery with which to work it. It also redefines where farming could take place, opening the door for farming models based in urban and suburban locations, increasing access to farm-generated income into a wider geography of people
Yes women Impact organic farming.
While it’s useful to acknowledge how the organic farming methods have opened doors for women in agriculture, an equally necessary acknowledgement is how the participation of women broadens and deepens the multiple goals of organic and sustainable farming.
Women practicing organic agriculture focus on expanding their objectives beyond the goals of traditional economics. Profit is important to women farmers, but so is quality of life, health and safety, community education, social and environmental justice, and civic duty.
While one approach isn’t necessarily better than the other, creating a more inclusive and innovative environment for solving some of agriculture’s pressing issues (climate change, soil depletion, and pollinator die-off, to name a few) is essential. The more ideas at the table – from all genders – the sooner we’ll find sustainable solutions. Women farmers who focus on collaboration and community improvment would be good voices to have at that table.
Globally, women farmers play an essential role in reducing world hunger. Women entering organic farming as new farmers increase access to food and quality nutrition for their immediate family, as well as families in their community.women in developing countries tend to farm with a collaborative spirit, using their leadership positions to increase education, environmental health, and food access in their communities.
Yes Women are the future of organic farming
Evidence that organic farming helps to empower women’s voices across the globe and vice versa is compelling, but the work to give those voices equal value and influence has only just begun.
As women the world over prepare to celebrate the international Women’s day,
Women need to understand the importance of taking up a greater number of agricultural research positions in order to enrich the available body of research with women’s perspectives and self-identified objectives.
Women need more access to technical training. This includes training with farm equipment, but also a re-examination of how institutions can support and train women farmers.
Women need access to capital funds for land and equipment, as well as financial support to purchase things like tools, seeds, and other farming inputs.
Agriculture needs more policies that target a reduction of the gender gap in farming and farm earnings, and supporting action to ensure such policies work toward meaningful change.
Agriculture needs to cultivate more women leaders, both to inspire a continued increase in women farmers and to steer action, research, and access in a direction that is supportive of and accessible to women
Mbiame New Vision is committed to helping all disadvantaged families.