EMPOWERING FAMILY
FARMERS SO THEY CAN FEED THEMSELVES ,THEIR COMMUNITIES AND THE WORLD.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF UGANDA.
The agriculture
sector is the main driver of uganda’s economy ,employing most of
the country’s labour force and providing food for the population
and exports of cash crops. in its current national development
strategy , the gov outlined its key goals for the agriculture
sector; enhancing production and productivity, improving access to
markets, adding value, creating an enabling environment for
agriculture growth and strenthening the sector’s institutions.
Uganda is branded
the food basket of africa having 2 harvest seasons with a
strategic location in the heart of africa. agriculture is the most
important sector of the economy employing over 80 per cent of the
work force and providing most of the country’s exports. 73 per cent
of the population over 10 years of age is directly employed in
agriculture, 83 per cent of all women and 71 per cent of men.
traditional agricultural production activities include
growing,processing and packaging coffee, tea, and cotton. we also
grow tabacco,cocoa,export fish,involved in forestry and in livestock
production.
The country has over
18 million hectres of arable land ,of which less than 30 per cent is
currently under cultivation. with improved efficiency and with
involvment of women and youth in the agro sector , the natural
advantage could be exploited to make uganda a major exporter of
agricultural produce.
Recently Uganda
accented to the tripartite agreement combining the three regional
blocks, the east African community, community market of eastern and
southern africa ,comesa, and southern africa development co
operation,sadc.
The free trade area
will stretch from Cairo to cape town with the exception of the newest
nation of south Sudan, which is yet to become a member of the
respective regional blocs. these countries have a combined population
of 600 million people and a gross domestic product, gdp of usd 1.3
trillion –almost 60 per cent of the continents total gdp,according
to a 2013 COMESA policy document.
As Uganda is part of
the coffee cluster and is Uganda's main exports with 80 per cent of
the coffee being exported to Europe, i will outline the importance
of involving women and youth in this sector to not only improve the
quality and production of coffee, but to also enable value addition
strategies and market access
Throughout the
world, an estimated 25 million smallholder coffee farmers produce 80
per cent of the world’s coffee. women do much of the work on these
farms including key cultivation and processing activities that affect
coffee yields and quality. despite their contributions, women are
often excluded in decision making processes and enjoy less access to
resources , including land,credit,agricultural
inputs,training,information and leadership opportunities.
Women’s role in
production of coffee vary significantly from one country to another.
for example, in uganda women in coffee farming households are
responsible for upto 70 per cent of productive activities on an
unpaid ,family labour basis. however, they have liittle or no say in
management of a Farm enterprice oor use of coffee income. do majority
of the field work, while men do the marketing and selling part.a more
equal distribution is needed to support women to fully utilise their
potential in the commercial sector and it is important to analyse the
workload of women and involve them more in decision making.
Although women
predominate in world food production (
50 to 80 per cent) women own
less than 10 per cent of the land.the distinction between ownership
and user-rights,and co ownership for married couples is sometimes
not clear. there are many differences from one country to another,
men appear to own most of the land, equpment and means of transport.
equitable ownership of land is fundamental to improved production and
usage of land as ownership is linked to other benefits such as credit
facilities, training programmes, membership of relevant organisations
and coopearatives and marketing tactics.
In uganda, for
example, bukonzo joint cooperative socity faced many problems and
their coffee quality was low .members mentioned that they considered
coffee a real ‘man’s crop’ even though as mentioned before,
women managed the farm in terms of picking, drying, hulling and
sorting.yet it was the men who would receive the payments from the
cooperatives. however, after the gender action learning system
approach,the bukonzo joint cooperative society went through several
positive changes. currently men and women share share more of the
work on the farm, men and women go for joint land ownership and joint
decision making on income,productivity levels have improved, and
quality has increased significantly.the building coffee farmers
alliance in uganda project not only positively changed gender
relations within the household ,but also positively impacted
productivity and quality of coffee ,increasing the family income by
44 per cent.the return on their investment was now 479 per cent with
gender intervention,compared to 375 per cent without gender
intervention.thee household approach of involving the family
generated social, economic and financial benefits for actors along
the chain and leading to a win win situation for all.
I shall give an
example of the role of women,men and youth in the coffee chain in
uganda under the the hanns r. neumann stiftung programmes. this is
a private foundation which supports environmental programmes and runs
grassroots projects with smallholder coffee farmers all over the
world and has been supporting the coffee value chain in uganda since
2009. hrn’s field officers in uganda were trained on how to
focus on gender in their activities to upgrade coffee
value chains. their activities also
concluded that men perform tasks that require physical strenth, i.e
preparing land,planting or deal with the technical know how. the
women, whereas perform the more tedious and time consuming tasks,
such as weeding,sorting etc. women additionally do the housework and
grow vegetables for the family consumption.
An action to redress
these issues by the foundation
was to organise household sensitization trainings and point out the
advantages of shared responsibility and decision making for the
welfare oof the family. if men and women decide together on coffee
proceeds they have an incentive tomproduce better coffee together.
Gender inequalities
are therefore generally accepted as not only a key to household
povery and constraints on women but also poor coffee quality.gender
inequality also contravenes the un convention on elimination of
discrimination against women signed by many countries in 1979.it is
aso against the spirit ofvfair trade and corporate social
responsibility.
The example given
earlier of bukonzo joint cooperative union , has shown how with
implentation of the improved coffee practices, the farmers as a
family can get a much better price , as they have been able to change
their coffee from one oof the worst in the rregion to one of the
best. they are processing their own coffee and are exporting to
japan, us and other countries.
The way agriculture
is relayed to youth is not very appealing. it is like a last resort
occupation , and it is important to harness the growing youth
population into accepting agriculture in a modernised technological
way as a productive source of income for their families.
As regards more
youth participation in the coffee growing sector in uganda, one of
the oldest licenced coffee exportes in uganda following liberlisation
of the uganda coffee industry in 1992,kyagalanyi coffee limited klc
have just started a ‘coffee youth teams project’ as part of their
sustainability approach. under the scheme a minimum of 120 rural
youth between the ages of 18 and 35 will be assisted to create their
own employment and thereby earn an income. 40 youth teams shall be
formed in operational areas of kcl’s coffee schemes. each team will
consist of 3 youths , and will have at least one woman per team.each
team will receive several training kits , including gender aspects
and use oof smart phones. the business training will focus on
business models,and feedback workshops would allow the teams to
exchange ideas and learn from each other.each team will be supervised
by a commercial guardian, who are entrprenuers in their own rights.
such supervision will promote the coomercial drive,accountability and
performance of the youth teams.kcl will sign mou’s with the teams
nd guardians that shall set out the rights and responsibilities of
each party. each team will be linked to reputable agro input dealers.
Each coffee youth
team would offer 2 lines of services to farmers in their area;
provision of services such as knowledge on planting and applying
agro-inputs. farmers would pay for these services. 2. management of
farms for aged or absent farmers. each team to manage 2 farms a year
The aim is that
5,200 coffee farming households would benefit from increased
,sustainable coffee production due to better management by 2017. and
it would increase coffee production by 20 per cent on average.
In addition each
team will serve as a role model for 12 secondary school classes and
show opportunities of creating own enployments,in coffee. the aim is
that 24,000 secondary school children benefit from the role model
provided by the coffee youth teams to create their own employment in
the coffee value chain.
The coffee youith
teams shall present their services to the larger coffee community at
the district coffee shows,organised annually by café africa.and
within 3 years, the project would organise field days for coffee
value chain partners including ucda and coffee exporters to share
successes and Failures if any, of the approach. facebook and other
internet forums will be used to share the concept with a wider
community. the project plans to pproduce a short film and information
leaflets to promote the coffee youth teams concepts in other areas.
Access to land as
mentioned briefly could increase youth and women participation in
agriculture. young people will not work in agriculture simply
because their parents are aging. they will only do so if our
countries invest in the tools and knowledge that allow agriculture to
fulfil their dreams of a more prosperous future.
Last week, hundreds
of agriculture experts from public and private sector met in lusaka,
zambia for the 2015 africa green revolution ,agrf,whose president is
dr. kalibata who was previously the minister for agriculture in
rwanda.. a priority of this years meeting is to move aggressivly to
incorporate africa-s soaring youth population 0the 226 million people
between 15 and 24 who have made africa the world-s youngest continent
to embrace our our family farmers as the focul point of economic
transformation.
However an analysis
by agra found that lack of land,extension of services,credit,quality
farm inputs,machinery markets and other impediments is preventing
agriculture from providing jobs on and off farms for the youth
population that accounts for 65 per cent of the total population in
africa with more than 10 million entering the labour market
annualy.our region now holds 19 per cent of youth and will
increase to 27 per cent by 2030.
Although agra,s
status report shows that though in rural areas two third of the
youth are engaged in agriculture, they havr a dim view of farming as
a career .african children are stereotyped from a young age to get an
education in a field outside agriculture however, enormouse progress
is made in countries where african farmers are given more options in
the seeds they plant the fertilisers they use and the technical know
how. for example in rwanda a serous investment focused attention to
progress agriculture led to a 20 per cent reduction in poverty in
less than 10 years.
The food we
see in shopsin most african
countries comes from abroad. africans spend 40
billion usd each year on food imports, and almost 80 per cent of the
high value food products consumed in africa are grown,processed and
packaged outside africa.
But the economic
opportunities in agriculture are enormous. an assessment by world
bank shows that found that serving the food demands of
africa-growing middle class alone can create a market worth 0one
trillion usd.african agri0preneurs can own that marlet if we tap the
2 assets that should be an unbeatable combination,the world-s largest
youth population and the world-s largest holdings of uncultivated
arable land. many studies have found that access to land could
dramatically increase youth participation in agriculture,particularly
for young women farmers.
Therefore two of
africa-s biggest challenges, 0its fight to achieve food security and
its urgent ned to find employment for its young people 0can be
transformed into its biggest assets.
Several ngo,s are
actively involved in working with governments of african countries.
in uganda we have fanta ,the food and nutrition technical assistance
111project. we also have feed the furure programme, which is a usaid
initiative to help africa great lakes region maintain its position in
the coffee market by assisting in the quality and production mainly
to small holder farmers.feed the future initiatice has seen a
reduction of 16 per cent in poverty rates.other NGO-s such hivos
have drawn very useful toolkits to assist in creating awareness for
the farming family.
In uganda for world
food day, we officially launched the united nations womenempowerment
principles,wep-s in the country. this is a joint inititaive of the un
global compact and un women offering practical guidance to business
on how to empower women.
In concluson
Increase women's
participation in training programmes and decision making.
Develop a list of
gender sensitive equity principles for high level corporate
leadership for gender equality.
Treat all women and
men fairly at work. respect and support human rights and ensure
joint and equitable ownership of land. land is always a sensitive
issue and many landowners are reluctant to have their spouses be
joint owners due to factors such the land being owned by extended
family members, including other siblings. as a lawyer practising in
uganda, i advise these families to maintain the freehold interest
in the family, but form a company or a partnership that can have a
leasehold interest for purposes of farming activities. mutation of
title can also be done whereby the land can be divided up and shared
equally. in such cases, it is important to point out to the family
members grow the same crop and maintain the quality and here
cooperatives are very useful.
Improve women’s
access to credit and assets. here offer loans to women that do not
rely upon ownership of land per se as this may disqualify many
women.
Provide support for
cooperative based women’s savings groups and revolving fund groups.
in uganda several banks are now involved in agri financing. provide
women with access to micro credit financing . banks such as standard
chartered are providing credit facilities to farmers with future
crops as security.
Provide financial
literacy trainings for better business management.
Support joint
decision making and ownership of income and resources at the
household level.offer gender sensitisation trainings focused on men
and encourage men’s full participation as partners and change
agents in the effort to achieve gender vequity.
involve the youth by
encouraging and creating awareness programmes on the benefits of
farming by introducing new technology and innovations in
agriculture.disseminate information and share knowledge and skills.
All
these factors are important for enhancement of food security.
Ambassador
dr. mumtaz kassam
Deputy
head of mission/protocol officer for uganda at expo 2015.
Paper
presented at a seminar on empowering family farming organised by the
domenican republic at the expo conference center as part of their
national day events.
