AfDB Reveals Plan to Empower Women in Agriculture

female farmers

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a report that seeks to empower women to take the lead in agribusiness and agriculture value chain.

Speaking at the launch of the report titled: “Economic Empowerment of African Women through Equitable Participation in Agricultural Value Chains” in Abuja yesterday, the AfDB Country Director in Nigeria, Dr. Ousmane Dore, lamented that women got lesser returns despite contributing more in the agriculture sector
The report which was carried out by the office of the Special Envoy on Gender (SEOG) and the Department for Agriculture and Agro-industry (OSAN) and commissioned by the bank, mentioned Nigeria as Africa’s top producer of cassava with 53 million tons in 2013 – about 20 per cent of global cassava (approximately $16 billion in value), but only exported $1 million worth of cassava. It also identifies opportunities for women that can increase Africa’s competitiveness and participation in global value chains.

According to Dore, “Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world but that does not mean anything, if we don’t lift women out of poverty. I want us to be the largest processor of cassava in the world as well and this can be done by adding value to our products and moving women upwards the value chain.

“In Nigeria, women contribute close to 70 per cent of agricultural work force, yet, get far less of the accruing returns. Also, in spite of their huge labour investment, productivity is low, and they often have limited roles in decision making on farms, ownership of land and other productive assets due to existing social norms. This has significant negative impact on the family income and the nation’s GDP at large”.

The report highlights five major constraints that can limit women’s productivity and full inclusion into the agricultural economy to include lack of access to assets, lack of access to finance, limited training, gender –neutral government policy, and time constraints due to heavy domestic responsibilities.

The Director stated that the role of women is largely limited to the unskilled parts of production; few of them own the land on which they work, they are rarely remunerated for their labour and often does not control the income generated from the sale of agricultural produce.

“Our objective for commissioning the study was for the AfDB to play a decisive role in contributing to the economic empowerment of African women in agriculture. This event is a call for all our esteemed stakeholders to join forces in a discussion on how to take this work forward,” Dore said.

Also speaking, the Bank’s Special Envoy on Gender (SEOG), Geraldine Fraser Molekete said women’s presence in the agricultural labour force is significant at 50 per cent and produces 80 per cent of Africa’s food, noting that there is no better overlapping opportunity to support women’s economic empowerment and to strengthen a critical sector in the continent.

The study, jointly commissioned by the Office of the SEOG and the Bank’s Department for Agriculture and Agro industry, identifies opportunities for women in four sub-sectors mainly cocoa, coffee, cotton and cassava sectors in Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

According to the report, the sectors account for $43 billion in production and $12 billion in export value across the focus countries. “They present opportunities to expand the export market share by improving processing techniques and integrating production into regional and global value chains.” Women can seize the opportunities if backed by the right policies, technologies, training, and access to finance.” the report indicates.

Furthermore, the Chairperson of the National Federation of Croppers Cooperatives, Irié Lou Colette, said in Côte d’Ivoire – Africa’s largest cocoa producer, generating one third of the world’s cocoa – land is available, but women do not have the right training and appropriate funding to modernize agricultural systems.

The same facilitation is required for Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria which are Africa’s largest producers of coffee, cotton and cassava, respectively.