Global forum on food security and nutrition

Paul Rigterink, Potomac Technical Advisors, United States of America (fourth contribution)

The U.S gave political asylum status to thousands of Afghans in the 1980’s. One Afghan Center was in California on the Union City / Fremont border not far from what became 'Little Kabul'. The people in the Afghan Center were very interested in helping their Afghan countrymen combat poverty and were excellent at determining what ideas might work. Their primary focus was lobbying organizations to help Afghanistan.

In the case of poultry, it was important to get as many Afghan people familiar with modern poultry production and modern small business practices as possible. The UN FAO Poultry Development Service in Rome Italy did an excellent job in this regard. If I remember correctly, UN FAO personnel conducted 1 hour courses every week on poultry production and small business development in many parts of Afghanistan. It took 6 months for an Afghan woman to complete their course.

The UN FAO personnel in Rome should answer the detailed questions that you posted since they were in charge of the technical direction of the FAO poultry program in Afghanistan. I believe that Afghan women will become major producers of poultry. I also believe that Afghan women will become excellent businesswomen. You may want to read the FAO report “Poultry Projects enhance lives of afghan women” and USAID report “Case Study of Poultry and Grape/Raisin Subsectors in Afghanistan” for more information on present status of poultry production in Afghanistan. It takes time for new ideas to be implemented. The Afghan government personnel may need more technical and business development help (and perhaps very limited policy help?).

I know in the 1980s that Bell Telephone Labs did a major internal study on why it took 15 years on average for new inventions to become commercial products. Many of the problems that the Bell System encountered in converting research to development and operation are exactly the problems that the FAO encountered. In particular, you need to train development and operation personnel in the new technology and finance the costs of starting development and operation facilities. Bell Labs management felt that researching a new idea costs 10% of the budget while developing the idea cost 90% of the budget. I fear that international development personnel may not have the necessary business experience to convert a new idea from research to development to operations. For example does the FAO have an expert who can increase exports to Afghanistan of the following supplies: basic home canning kits (consisting of a water bath canner, (6) 1-pint mason jars, (6) lids, canning guide, jar lifter, lid wand, canning funnel, bubble freer^TM ), additional mason jars and lids, pressure canner/cookers, portable food storage facilities, greenhouse equipment, garden hand tools, garden fencing, garden equipment suitable for preparing large gardens for schools, small trucks for transporting supplies, garden seeds, nursery stock, and horticulture information?

I feel that Mojamma Jafar Emal has done an excellent job although I do not know him. He deserves the full support of the UN FAO, World Bank, USAID and the NGOs.

Paul Rigterink

Myriam del Carmen Salazar Villarreal, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia

Original contribution in Spanish

Las relaciones de género realmente son muy marcadas en los sistemas agropecuarios y en las familias campesinas a nivel mundial. Todos somos conocedoras de que las mujeres hemos hecho un aporte muy grande a la agricultura pero desafortunadamente no se reconoce y por lo tanto no se valoriza. Las mujeres somos las que empezamos a guardar semillas, y de alguna manera inicia la agricultura cuando iniciamos el proceso de recolección y guarda semillas.

Actualmente vemos que la mujer se encuentra muy marginada, aporta ampliamente en la producción de las fincas, pero  en el momento de repartir los beneficios obtenidos en las cosechas, no es tenida en cuenta. De la misma manera se observa esta situación con las mujeres y hombres jóvenes, y niños, trabajan y aportan en las fincas, pero su trabajo es invisible a la luz del padre, que es el encargado de coger el dinero, esto desmotiva mucho a los jóvenes y de ahí que los jóvenes no deseen seguir en el campo y no vean la agricultura como una actividad rentable, súmele a estas situaciones, la situación de violencia que se vive en los campos, en el caso de Colombia los diferentes grupos armados; y no es muy diferente en los demás países de América del Sur, Centro y el Caribe. En todos se observa estos tipo de violencia de genero.

De mi experiencia de trabajo en República Dominicana, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador y Bolivia puedo mencionar que el mayor nivel de desnutrición y vulnerabilidad en la parte sanitaria lo presentan las mujeres y muy en especial la mujer campesina, y es el claro resultado de un machismo marcado y sistema patriarcal aún vigente, en donde aún se cree que  el hombre debe recibir las mejores porciones y las mejores comidas en la familia.

En las ciudades es una situación muy dura ver como mujeres jóvenes campesinas vienen a trabajar de empleadas domésticas y se ven explotadas sin un pago justo y sin tener reconocimiento de ningún tipo de prestaciones social.

A nivel de las ciudades es clara la afrenta que sufrimos las mujeres profesionales a las cuales para contratarnos nos colocan un sinnúmero de trabajos y cuando somos contratadas nos pagan un salario más bajo que el salario que recibiría un hombre, estos es típico en nuestra América.

English translation

Actually, gender relations are clearly defined in farming systems and peasant families worldwide. We all know that women have played a key role in agriculture but, unfortunately, our contribution has not been recognized or valued. Agriculture kicks off somehow when we started collecting and storing seeds.

Currently, women are highly marginalised. Their contribution to farm production is substantial, but they are left out when it comes to benefit sharing. Similarly, young women and men (and children) work in farms and contribute to their output. However, their work is invisible to their father, who manages the money. This situation has a highly demotivating effect on youth, who no longer wish to stay in the field and do not regard agriculture as a profitable activity. In addition to the above, violence in rural areas –in the form of armed groups in Colombia and similar forms in other countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean– worsens their prospects. This type of gender violence exists in all the region.

Based on my work experience in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Bolivia, I believe that women, and particularly rural women, suffer the highest levels of undernutrition and health vulnerability. This is clearly due to the marked machismo and the patriarchal system still in force, by which men must be allocated the best portions and the best food in the family.

Young women farmers come to the cities to work as maids and are exploited, unfairly paid and have no access to any social benefit.

In the cities, discrimination against professional women is evident. When we are hired, we are assigned innumerable tasks and we are paid a lower salary than men. This is typical in America.