Empowering young women to become change makers and entrepreneurs in agriculture and agribusinesses.
We seek to empower young women to become change makers and entrepreneurs in agriculture and agribusiness. We are a newly founded NGO made up by a team of ten enthusiastic young persons from across the globe that all share the passion of sustainable agriculture and development. By supporting young women into agriculture and development, we do not only address the important aspect of gender inequality within the sector, but we are also investing in local communities, promoting youth employment and contributing to food and nutritional secure families. This will have positive impact on national and regional food security and promote women participation in agricultural research, production, value chains, technologies and business/economies.
WHY FOCUS ON THE GENDER GAB IN AGRICULTURE?
When discussing food security and agricultural development many might not think about the issue of gender as the first thing but it has a absolutely an important part of food security and sustainable agricultural development. The gender gap in agriculture refers to the fact that women typically have less access to and control over productive assets, inputs, productive resources, and services needed to make the most productive use of their time.
According to the UN’s FAO, women comprise of 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries; this figure ranges from around 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in parts of Africa and Asia, and exceeds 60 percent in some countries. But they have considerably lower productivity compared to their male counterparts. This is because women often lack the key resources for achieving higher output from the land.
By addressing the issues of gender equality in agriculture it is possible to increase overall productivity and getting closer to a food secure world. That is why gender equality is one of the main focus areas in the UN’s FAO work on agricultural development.
Equal opportunity for men and women is a central issue for inclusive rural transformation.
— “The State of Food and Agriculture” FAO, 2017
Rural men and women have different access to productive resources, services, information, and employment opportunities, which may hinder women’s productivity and reduce their contributions to agriculture and broader economic and social development goals.
— “How to integrate gender issues in climate-smart agriculture projects” FAO, 2017
It is often said that if you educate a woman, you educate a whole generation. The same is true when we empower women across the board, not only through access to knowledge, but also to resources, to equal opportunities, and by giving them a voice.
How agrikua was born
The diverse and international team behind agrikua came together during the 2017 Youth Ag-Summit (YAS) held in Brussels. This years YAS was using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as guidelines for the project ideas. We the agrikua team focused on SDG 5 that is centered around achieving gender equality.
The Team behind agrikua
The team behind agrikua consists of ten passionate young people from diverse backgrounds in engineering, social science, agronomy, natural resource management, IT, international development, law and business administration.
We are a global team representing almost all continents. We are from Canada, Denmark/Kenya, India, Colombia, El Salvador, Kenya, Indonesia, Poland, Tanzania and Ireland. We are fortunate to have members of the team living in East Africa and one, Risper Wanja, is based in Nairobi, and this gives us great opportunities to get things going on the ground.
Agrikua 