By Abdel Monem Fawzi
It seems that the 21st Century is a century of women par excellence, especially in Africa.
The reason is that they represent the backbone of development in Africa, about 50 per cent of the continent’s population, and 49 per cent of the population of Egypt. According to a report compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), women make up 70 per cent of the agricultural workforce in Africa and 10 per cent of basic food processing. It also implements 60 to 90 per cent of total rural marketing.
The problem is that Africa owns 60 per cent of the arable land in the world, but imports nearly $50 billion in net food annually.
The agricultural sector in Africa is undergoing a fundamental transformation following the influx of women in this sector. One of the 17 ambitious global development goals adopted in 2015 aims to give women equal rights to economic resources, including access to and ownership of land. African women play great roles in shaping the growth of agriculture on the continent.
To this end, through the Gender Climate Change and Agriculture Support Programme (GCCASP) of the AUDA-NEPAD issued the second Catalogue for African Women in Agribusiness. The 1st catalogue was launched at the 4th Conference for Women in Agribusiness. The catalogue is one of the tools for supporting women in agribusiness. It is aimed at enhancing networking opportunities and exposing women ‘agripreneurs’ to potential buyers, financiers, investors, partners, mentors and policy makers. The second catalogue features women from different parts of Africa who exhibited their products at the 4th Conference for Women in Agribusiness. Their stories, successes, inspirations, challenges and words of advice to other women agripreneurs have been captured. Their contact details are also available in the catalogue.
“I encourage all stakeholders to support these women. Supporting women in agribusiness is one of the sure ways of ensuring that the continent’s women population is empowered for transformation,” said Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong, Director of the Programme Innovation and Planning at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).
I remember when I got a chance to participate in the fourth ‘Women in Agribusiness’ conference at the Olive Agreement Centre, in Durban, South Africa.
The conference was a great platform on an annual basis, and it sees growth and improvement in the business and quality of products offered every year.
The conference has become a valuable addition in supporting, building and strengthening women’s business initiatives. The fourth conference was able to provide a forum to discuss the main issues affecting women such as access to knowledge, skills, finance and markets, in order to find practical solutions.
The exchange of visions and lessons on what must be faced with stereotypes and exclusion based on gender that are harmful to agricultural women.
Strengthening agricultural networks of women to enhance their position in the value chains, the new that he managed
Participants in the conference are mostly peasants and farmers, a good plant and seeds for the emergence of businesswomen in the agricultural field. They successfully completed the one-year nursery and extension programme organised by AUDA-NEPAD.
The opening and conclusion of the conference were amazing. The reason is that it started and ended with the roaring African dance, but it is harmonious. They dance with joy as much as they dance with sadness.
The conference launched the first NEPAD Catalogue of Agricultural Women Support, a gender equality and agricultural support programme .The catalogue is not only a great marketing tool, but rather a means of networking and building partnerships.
The conference allowed the participating women to display and market their products and obtain additional returns for their distinguished agricultural production. On the last days of the conference, agricultural businesswomen visited the field on a farm run by a female genius, who overcame illness and poverty, by creating a system for growing vegetables using plastic bags. She has now become one of the largest producers of agricultural crops. The lady pledges to bring food security to the local communities by growing organic vegetables. The farm owner Mai Jo says, “She has managed to bring more women and youth to work and training and the negative phenomena that were prevalent in the region from addiction, rape, violence and extremism are no more.”Her slogan is “The Africa we want is the Africa we are building for ourselves.”
At the conclusion of the conference, Ms Estherine Fotabong (Director AUDA- NEPAD) touched on the main results of the conference, which required women to benefit from the African Free Trade Area and call for its ratification, and the necessity of aligning women in the formulation, implementation of policies and the need to get more trained and retrained women. The reason is that agriculture is a dense field of knowledge, with the emergence of new technologies every day, from drones and sensor technology to climate-smart agriculture. And agriculture has the potential to transform, revitalise, and flourish African economies.
“We have all created inspiration to do more with the positive energy we got in this conference, and the commitment of women,” she said.
The attendees chanted by singing and dancing the song “Long live Africa” and “We love you, Estren” for her stances of supporting and helping African women.
Frankly, women are executives by nature, and investing in women across Africa is a genius step. The reason is that women make up more than 80 per cent of the informal economy, but only about 30 per cent of women participate in the formal economy. How can we help bridge this gap? The solution, is to engage women, create incentives for them and integrate them into the formal economy.
It is true that agriculture throughout the continent, still fraught with risks due to changing weather, scarce irrigated lands and unpredictability of climate change, things are improving rapidly in the agricultural sector in Africa. Agriculture today accounts for 32 per cent of Africa’s GDP. It provides a possibility to reduce poverty and create jobs and a clear opportunity to increase economic growth through a “smart” and coordinated approach to agriculture in ours great continent.
