Women farmers play a fundamental role in ensuring food security, particularly in rural societies, but lack of access to training and resources often results in yields up to 30% lower than those of male farmers. Although women are responsible for about half of the world’s food production, female nutrition indicators, across all age groups, are worse than those of their male counterparts.
Empowering women to farm organically can increase yields, provide a greater nutritional diversity of fruit and vegetables for family meals, and increase household income when surplus produce is sold. In the hands of women, increased income leads to an improvement in children’s nutritional intake and general health.
Organic farmers such as Sylvia Kuria work with nature to produce food with more healthy nutrients, less food additives, and no harmful pesticides. When farming the land, they use diversification strategies such as intercropping techniques and crop rotation; giving the communities they feed greater access to a more diversified diet.
Women who farm organically are also nourishing the soil and protecting biodiversity – essential ingredients for healthy crops, healthy people and a healthy planet!
Check out this video of Sylvia Kuria, an organic farmer in Kenya, and the story of her farm.
