- Access of women farmers to new technologies and support services can lessen food insecurity and poverty
Rising food prices and resultant food insecurity in recent years is a universal phenomenon. It is mainly the outcome of climate change, rising oil prices, COVID pandemic and rising trend among surplus food grain producing countries towards protectionist agriculture policy restricting exports to needing destinations and most importantly denial of access of women farmers (who command a major share in agriculture labour force) to new agriculture technologies and support services.
Rural women in agrarian economies of South East Asian including Pakistan are most vulnerable, denied access to new techniques and agriculture support services due to peculiar social culture setup and restricted women mobility , they are totally unaware of new technologies particularly relating to crop diversity, good quality seeds and fertilisers.
Agriculturist Women in South Asian countries are generally considered as farm helpers and not farmers in their own right.
In Pakistan despite Women’s all out participation in farm related rural activities, they remain obscure in statics relating to rural active workforce as work on their own farms taking it as part of their routine household duty. Gender base discrimination is so rampant in rural culture that women working on farms are given most laborious and monotonous work to do. Cotton picking and rice seedling task being highly energy consuming are performed by women farmers. For off farming activities also they are given hard jobs involving less skill.
Recent Asian Development Bank report titled’ Gender base impact of COVID 19 pandemic in Asia’ high lighted plight of rural women due to their non inclusion in overall economic process. The said report underlined the need to ” pay more attention to women’s terms of inclusion in agriculture. Policies related to land, agriculture extension services, and technology should be designed and implemented in gender- responsive way.”
Female literacy rate in rural areas of all the provinces of Pakistan is very low hovering around 8 to 10%. However steps are being taken to improve rural females literacy rate through efforts of some NGOs in collaboration with financial institutions, particularly micro finance banks. Emphasis is on imparting vocational skills in areas of livestock, dairy and poultry farming, fish pond cultivation, fruits and vegetables preservation and packing etc. enabling them to get self-employed by setting up their own micro businesses which will ensure employment to other rural women. Some of the financial institutions (particularly First Women Bank Ltd ) have financed rural women entrepreneurs to set up crop storage / cold storage houses, thus introducing a new off farm business avenue.
Further, Pakistan Agriculture technology transfer activity (PATTA), USAID funded service presently available in provinces of Sindh and Punjab is also helping women farmers through access to agriculture markets, institutional finance and affordable technologies.
Girls in rural areas, after completing their secondary education instead of going for general higher education must be prompted to take admission in agriculture colleges and universities to develop their expertise in research for new verities of crops and also improving yields of all crops. It is suggested that basic education regarding cultivation of major crops ,fruits and vegetables should be included in curriculum of secondary schools.
China’s efforts to lower poverty level to 5% is outcome of its focus on developing its agriculture sector through introduction of market oriented land reForm. In case of Pakistan, apart from legal reforms there is need for proper distribution of agriculture land or market in land use rights , it required to allocate land in such a way that small cultivators including women farmers who own or cultivate small pieces of land inefficiently be allowed low cost opportunity to increase their productivity.
A move on the part of Sind government to allocate land to Harris including women farmers in the past and exclusively for women under recent program to promote welfare of women farmers of Sind, need to be replicated by other provinces also. This need to be done under strict monitoring by provincial governments. These land reforms need to be introduced and implemented at the earliest to enable farmers to respond to market incentives by raising output in the wake of dramatic rise in prices of food crops in the international market. Further land reforms must be accompanied by a comprehensive program for infrastructure development with emphasis on regular water supply to farms.
Farmers particularly women farmers should have an easy access to institutional credit. Apart from Zarai Taraqiati Bank and micro finance banks having ample presence in rural areas other conventional banks can have effective links with growers through internet digital banking and to cater to their financial needs. These financial institutions need to expand scope of their financing products for non-conventional uses like construction of store houses with or without facility of cold storage etc. The credit needs of non farming businesses of rural population must be addressed in a big way to promote micro and small businesses, which in turn generate employment opportunities for both men and women.
Investment in human capital development for agriculture sector is equally important with emphasis on women farmers/cultivators. Farmers knowledge regarding new techniques should be developed and updated on a continuous basis. Uk based non profit organisation known as centre for Agriculture and Bio-science International (CABI) finding wide gender gaps in farming has launched program for supporting women farmers with plant health knowledge and promoting climate smart farming practices among women farmers in particular through use of digital advisory tools. Where women farmers do not have access to digital tools it is being done through government’s extension department to provide advisory services at their door step. In this regard there is need to hire more women field assistants as gender based social norms influence the attitude of male extension staff. Lack of rural women mobility confine training programs in farming in closed door spaces and they do not get opportunity to participate in field demonstrations training that is learning by doing the things.
No doubt In this regard government’s motivational efforts / incentives are essential , but women themselves need to go for advanced education in agriculture by seeking admission in agriculture universities and colleges to provide advisory services to women farmers being part of advisory services board on completion of their education.
Agriculture universities must disseminate findings of their research work through media and social media regarding new and improved varieties of food and cash crops and techniques to be used for the cultivation of these crops with highest yield and quality.