Global forum on food security and nutrition

Md. Ataur Rahman, Global Affairs Canada, Bangladesh

Hi All,

There were many national level consultations/workshops/seminars held in Bangladesh last two years on Nutrition. e.g. Multisectoral engagement like coordination with other ministries with health, food security & nutrition, ending hunger etc. Now it’s time for a grounded nutrition program which is more important rather than consultation. Everybody knows the pros and cons of the nutrition programming. In Bangladesh women were engaged with nutrition since many years. They are involving with court yard gardening, home based poultry livestock etc. Yet they do not have enough knowledge on nutrition value or cooking practice.

I would suggest to desk review others documents and immediately design and implement nutrition programmes on the ground to avoid duplication, so that nutritional status will be better for our children, adolescents, mothers and others.

Frozan Darwish, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Afghanistan

Dear FSN Forum team,

​I am a gender specialist of ICARDA and would like to post a story about the establishing the women based Village Based Seed Enterprise for the first time in Afghanistan.

​The story is as following:

Establishing and Engaging Women in VBSE as a first Innovation in Afghanistan

ICARDA as a leading organization regarding formation of VBSE has a good previous experience in Afghanistan.

There are around 130 seed production companies which are formed by international organizations including ICARDA and FAO in different provinces of Afghanistan but all these companies were male dominated companies and the presence of women in such companies was not at all existent. In Afghanistan’s patriarchal social and cultural setup that is highly restrictive, seed production is considered to be primarily the task of men farmers. Women farmers have fewer opportunities to be involved, further deterred by their limited land rights.

Women comprise up to 65 percent of the agricultural workforce in rural areas, but their participation is primarily family-based and without remuneration, as it is not accorded a monetary value. Although women are rarely compensated for their labour, in terms of time allocated they make the majority of labour contributions to a range of marketed products (World Bank 2005).

Empowerment of women economically and socially is an essential factor in Afghanistan, not only for the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity and giving them large presence in the agricultural workforce worldwide.

Engaging the women in commercial-agricultural activities will be a sustainable approach to improve the women status, establishing the woman-led VBSE as it is a new innovation in Afghanistan and this approach will bring a good income for them and will help us to achieve this purpose.

However, through community-based activities concerted efforts are being made by ICARDA and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to encourage the active participation of Afghan women. Village Based Seed Enterprise (VBSE) model has been successfully tested in Afghanistan by ICARDA to resolve most of the problems related to the introduction and seed multiplication of newly developed improved varieties. This approach has demonstrated the potential of being replicated and scaled-up.

On the other hand, women had to be encouraged to accept social and security challenges and get involved in seed production and their skills had to be upgraded to compensate for their lack of previous experience in seed production.

Promotion of women enterprise in developing countries is essential to reduce poverty. Women are good communicators and more conscious to make more profits. They are very intelligent in marketing and it will be encouraging while they use the technology and machinery.

Approaches of Women’s Engagement in Seed Production

Close consultation with ICARDA’s national and international experts and numerous meetings in various social categories such as CDCs, DDA, DAIL, directorate of women's affairs, female farmers and male members of their families have been taken to engage women in VBSEs.

With great efforts by accepting insecurity, environmental and social challenges it was very challenging but possible.

The followings ways have been done to achieve this purpose:

ü The women farmers and female headed households have been recognized and mobilized in each targeted districts by close consultation of CDC, DAIL, DoWa and other partners or relevant projects.

ü Agreement of male members of the families is very important for sustainable presence of women in the VBSEs. Because of that, we visited male members of the families to convince them to allow their family members to take part in VBSE.

ü Involving of family couples, husband- wife, brother -sister and mother-son and father- daughter should be considered, because it obtained more women permission of families to work and increase their mobility.

ü According to project commitment, small farmers should be recognized and involved the family couples from small farmers in VBSEs. Because they need to work and have their own business to bring a real change in their life and their economic situation, it will be acceptable for them to work together with their female members of their families and other small farmers families. Usually the big farmers and well known persons don’t need to involve their female members of their families in VBSE and they don’t like to show their wives or daughters to others.

ü Women should believe on their power and capability. They should be encouraged to take a meaningful part in VBSE by us. Because of that, we had some close and informal meetings with them and their families.
Finally

Along with four VBSE establishments in Kabul and Logar, one woman-led and one mixed-women and men VBSE were formed in Parwan province – “Hurra Jalali Agriculture Service and Seed Production Company” and “Jabaulsaraj Sabz Agriculture Service and Seed Production Company”.

They were registered with the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) and have received the investment license. They were registered with the National Seed Board (NSB) and Afghanistan National Seed Organization (ANSOR) as well. Women farmers from these companies were given foundation seeds and chemical Fertilizer by ICARDA-CLAP Project and they produced certified seeds from it which will be distributed for other communities and villages.

All female members of mentioned companies have their own allocated lands for seed production and shared their capital for running the business as well as the male members. There were some organizations which interested to see these women and hear about their stories. By establishing the two mentioned VBSEs, the other women encouraged getting membership of these companies.

After these enterprises, some male dominated companies encouraged to accept the membership of women as well. Parwan-e- Bastan is one of these companies that didn’t have any female members previously, but nowadays, seven female farmers have got the membership of this company.

Women are very excited about this seed distribution. They feel confident about starting a seed business very soon. It has further encouraged women’s for participating in seed companies. ‘Parwan-e- Bastan was one of them.

In spite of many challenges, these companies will be sustainable in a closed and conflicted society, as of Afghanistan.

It is hoped that these companies will be supported by government, national and international organizations for sustainable existence.

Few women own land and where they do, fewer still exercise control over it (AREU, 2008). Access to land in Afghanistan is largely obtained through inheritance. According to Shari’a law, women can inherit land as daughters or as wives upon the death of a husband. The Civil Code of 1978 governs inheritance law in Afghanistan and is based on Islamic jurisprudence. Widows are to receive one eighth of the property or one quarter, if they have children. Where there is more than one wife, this proportion is shared among them. Provision for widows is priority. Daughters should receive half of their brother’s share. Although the law dictates that women have rights to inherit as daughters and as wives, the reality is different, particularly for daughters. In short, the inheritance of land is affected by numerous factors that largely stem from the position of women in the households. Women’s access to land is thus tied to a system that prioritises land ownership by men as the breadwinners of the family, increases women’s economic dependence as wives and later as sisters (in the event of widowhood, divorce, or desertion), and necessitates women’s compliance with these rules to assure livelihood security

The majority of female farmers, who are motivated to produce seeds, do not have sufficient land to qualify for seed production due to the current land tenure system, which restrict them from owning land. However, this challenge is slowly overcome by farmers consolidating their land for seed production and hiring land from institutions such as churches.

Women working in closed quite challenging societies of Afghanistan, Women don’t have much willing to involve in seed production. Because they are more interested in incomes that can be achieved in short time, heavy duties in seed production companies and lack of access to land are the reasons that women are not much interested in this field.

The heavy tasks on the field for seed production, presence of male farmers in VBSE and due to some social, cultural problems, and excuses in rural are some courses to have men and women in same companies.

​​With regards,

Frozan