Promising approaches to address the needs of poor female farmers : resources, constraints, and interventions
By Agnes R. Quisumbing and Lauren Pandolfelli
IN World Development, vol. 38, no. 4, April 2010.

This article critically reviews some recent attempts to increase poor female farmers’ access to, and control of, productive resources, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It surveys the literature from 1998 to 2008 that describes interventions and policy changes across several key agricultural resources. Compared to interventions designed to increase investment in human capital, only a minority of interventions or policy changes increasing female farmers’ access to productive resources have been rigorously evaluated. Future interventions also need to pay attention to the design of alternative delivery mechanisms, tradeoffs between practical and strategic gender needs, and to culture- and context-specificity of gender roles.

download the booklet here….

Give it a try! pay a visit to the FAO Gender and Land Rights Database here…

I want to share with you how to make a cooking stove out of mud just like the one I made myself. At first, I was using a three stone fire place for cooking just like my fellow farmers. This required a lot of firewood, which I did not have time to look for. Also, it emitted a lot of smoke which hurt my eyes. Today, this is not the case as I am now using a cooking stove that I had out of mud.

continue reading How to make a Cooking Stove out of Mud…

From the introduction:

Rural women produce half of the world’s food and, in developing countries, between 60 percent and 80 percent of food crops.  Women also are more likely than men to spend their income on the well-being of their families, including more nutritious foods, school fees for children and health care.

Yet agricultural investments do not reflect these facts. Women in forestry, fishing and agriculture received just 7 percent of total aid for all sectors.

A key failing of past efforts to reduce hunger and increase rural incomes has been the lack of attention paid to women as farmers, producers and farm workers – both wage and non-wage. It’s not too late to integrate the lessons we’ve learned and avoid the pitfalls of the past. To move forward, however, the world community must make a significant shift in its thinking about women, food security, agriculture and the global marketplace to see women as key economic agents of change in rural communities who in their own right contribute to local, national and global food security and economic growth.

This paper reviews current thinking and practice on increasing agricultural productivity, both subsistence and commercial agriculture, and examines what is known about women’s roles in both sectors.

Download the book A significant shift: Women, food Security and Agriculture in a Global Marketplace here….

This brief focuses on key agricultural resources needed by poor female farmers to generate incomes and ensure their families’ food security. It is organized around key resources and promising approaches to increase poor women’s control of those resources.

Download the article here.  Lots of interesting articles can also be downloaded at the ILC website.

This project aims to plant oil palm trees to generate income for the disadvantaged members of the community. In order to begin the project, a 5.5 hectare land which is located at Lot 837, Jalan Matang, Simpang has been acquired. This program currently has 6 single mothers participating. According to Mr Saravanan, President of DHRRA Malaysia, women are most affected by poverty, discrimination and violence. They also have the potential to facilitate overall changes for the community.

Mr. Alexander s/o Samy Pillai, the program coordinator of RUMAH RAPHA, mentioned that the ladies participating in this project will gain short term of benefits of the project by learning skills needed in agriculture for them to go back to cultivating their own land. Moreover, many ladies profit from such program in the long run. The long term benefits would be the self-sustainability of the project after 7 to 8 years as gross income from the oil palm cultivation will come up to RM3000 per month.

Continue reading the about the Economic Enabling Program…

Click  here to learn more about DHRRA Malaysia…

1. Feminization of Agriculture: Trends and Driving Forces

2. Regional strategies for empowering women (6MB)

3. Strategies for empowering poor women

The conference was deemed very fruitful with the very rich exchange on well prepared case studies and of views from a range of development practitioners coming from international research institutions, universities, CSOs and rural women’s groups.

The conference synthesis identified possible areas of cooperation at different levels, regionally and bilaterally, which most participants have expressed openness to work on.

—————————-

Click here to download the Asiadhrra Presentation

Click here to read the Highlights of the seminar

Click here to read the Proceedings of the seminar

1. Empowering rural women policies, institutions, and gendered outcomes in natural resources management

2. Empowering women farmer

3. Empowering women for food security

1. Seminar Highlights

2. Selected Papers

3. Photos

—————

Read the seminar background here….