Women in Agriculture Archives - Page 2 of 6

This “Hidden Influencer” is Expanding Opportunity for Women Farmers in Colombia

Posted by Rob Hefferon | March 5, 2020

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. The crickets have stopped chirping and hours will pass before the rooster crows. Elizabeth Garzón Piamba is preparing the fire for breakfast while her family sleeps. After she feeds her children and gets them ready for school, she heads out to work as the sun just peeks over the horizon. Elizabeth is a coffee farmer. And she has 4,000 trees to take care of.

In Peru’s Coffeelands, These Women Mean Business

Posted by Abigail Bok | October 15, 2019

Along the impossibly steep and narrow road winding up to the village of Sanchirio Palomar, the only sounds are the rustling tree canopy and birdsong. It’s fitting, since the village’s name—a combination of Spanish and indigenous words—means “cold river with many birds.” With internet and reliable phone service only arriving last month, Sanchirio Palomar feels, at first, like a sleepy place where not much happens. But in reality, this remote Peruvian village pulses with ambition, creativity, and drive. Just ask Patricia.

What We’ve Learned Through Seven Years of Our Women in Agriculture Initiative

Posted by Katie Naeve | September 27, 2019

For years, Dora Lisa Carrión Gómez rose early every morning to open Saja, a café in the quiet Andean town of San Ignacio in northern Peru. Saja is owned and operated by members of the women’s group of APROCASSI, a coffee cooperative where, for a time, Dora Lisa also served as president. “Women have always been discriminated against,” says Dora Lisa. “But when I joined APROCASSI in 2006, I saw this new reality: a reality where women could work, could advance. A reality where women could have power.”

How Climate Change Impacts Women Farmers—and What We’re Doing About It

Posted by Rob Hefferon | March 8, 2019

Maria Eufemia Madonado Ocaño holds a small leaf in her hands, mottled yellow where it should be vibrant and green. This leaf represents her livelihood, decimated by la roya—a fungus that develops when conditions are warmer and wetter than usual. The yellow spots are a symptom, but the disease is climate change.

Transforming the Lives of Rural Women

Posted by Rob Hefferon | October 22, 2018

Bertha Nzabanita, Rwandan coffee farmer and long-time member of the Musasa cooperative. One field. That’s all Bertha Nzabanita had left after the devastation of the Rwandan genocide left her a widow. One field, a young son to raise, and few options.

Topics: Women in Agriculture |

In Rural Kenya, We Helped Businesses Invest in Women—Here’s What Happened

Posted by Shelley Martin, Value for Women, and Asya Troychansky, Root Capital | March 7, 2018

Driving along the winding dirt roads of Kenya’s central highlands, it doesn’t take long to spot scores of women farming in the mist. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that women perform 75 to 89 percent of the country’s agricultural labor. Yet all too often, this labor goes unrecognized.