Global forum on food security and nutrition

Tehmina Mangan, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Pakistan

Females and children of rural Pakistan are mostly malnourished due to many reasons some areas under:

1. 
   Poverty
   
2. 
   Low literacy rate
   
3. 
   Lack of availability of nutritious food
   
4. 
   Lack of knowledge about nutrition
   
5. 
   Poor cropping patterns related to balanced nutrition
   
6. 
   Male dominant social setup
   

Historically in Sindh it is observed that most people used to rear animals to get milk and butter for home use only and they feel that it is not good to sell milk or butter for earning money because they feel that these are very sacred things therefore these should not be sold for the sake of money and they prefer to use it at home and give to other people as gifts or free of cost. Along with that they used to cultivate different types of vegetables and pulses with other crops and used those vegetables and pulses to fulfil their family nutritious food requirements. As milk, butter and other poultry products and fresh vegetables, pulses etc. were highly nutritious therefore people in past were enjoying a healthy life.

But nowadays situation is totally different. Mostly they are selling total milk of their animals and not preparing butter. Due to increased population, fragmentation of natural resources and enhanced poverty people are helpless to sell these nutritious foods and as a result they face issues of malnutrition.

On the other hand, rural community has changed cropping patterns. They emphasize on commercial crops and cultivate mainly four major crops such as wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane but they are not cultivating vegetables and pulses for their home use. This situation leads to poor nutrition issues for all family members especially females and children who suffer more.

These situations need long term policy initiatives. We (Dr. Tehmina and Mr. Mustafa) have developed a model “Female Agriculture and Livestock Entrepreneurship Services” for the empowerment of females of rural areas. Results of this research model were very successful and sustainable and suggest that Rural Female Empowerment can ensure successful solutions of all problems (including malnutrition) of rural females their children and families. Based on those results it is suggested that FAO and other donors can select some areas for piloting  and  Female Entrepreneurship Centres (FECs) can be established and can be linked with other organizations for successful and sustainable results.

Mustafa Nangraj, Agriculture Department Government of Sindh Pakistan

Dear FSN forum participants

It is my suggestion that we can introduce a good kitchen gardening subject in schools and trained the students for practically cultivation of fresh fruits and vegetables at their homes. Through this trend children and females can get some nutritious food.  We can also utilize health workers, for the awareness and capacity building rural females about use and production of nutritious food but first we should trained health workers up to required level.

Thanks,

Mustafa Nangraj

Shahzad Hussain, Bunyad Literacy Community Council, Pakistan

Women are the backbone of subsistence farming and play a pivotal role in providing food security, in Pakistan, more than 75 % rural women are engaged in agricultural & livestock, unfortunately, their contribution is not acknowledged, they are not paid against their work and are considered only helping hands for their family which leads not to be considered their economic activity.

“The tragedy is that there are no accurate figures about rural women’s contribution to the economic growth and gross domestic product (GDP) which is quite significant” said Sindh Institute for Democracy and Development’s Zulfiqar Halepoto. A major portion of household budget is spent on men instead of women, despite their greater contribution. Boys are given preference over girls when it comes to education and health. If rural women’s work is recognized and recorded, it would help develop agriculture faster, and it would be the biggest single factor in reducing poverty.

·         Women’s work especially in agriculture & livestock sector should be recorded to ensure their access to resources, to open bank accounts and to borrow money and buy agriculture inputs like fertilizers and seeds.

·         Governments should give subsidy to female farmers for their active role in agriculture sector.

·         Women’s role in agriculture should be made a part in national policy.

·         Landless women should be allotted land, be encouraged to carry out their economic activity themselves, not dependent to men.

·         Their access to micro-finance facility should be ensured.

·         Women should be encouraged to make women farmers unions.

·         For the education and lifelong learning, Sustainable Development Goals 4 & 5 should be implemented in letter and spirit.

·         Kitchen Gardening for food security, must be promoted at household level. Government departments, International and Non-Governmental organizations should design programmes for training especially women in Kitchen Gardening, agriculture and livestock. Use of information communication technology (ICT) should be promoted, CDs can explain a large number of illiterates, how to work in livestock & vegetable farming, to improve & then forward with entrepreneurship skills.

Though women’s contribution in agriculture is tremendous, but it has been underestimated, the value of their output has never been acknowledged in national statistics. Need to be included women’s contribution in national statistics and they should be further encouraged and trained to manage their economic activity by themselves.

Atiqullah Khan, PECMS-DAIL, Afghanistan

The subject is very interesting, and I think we have a training (Empowering women in Agriculture) at the end of July 2016. As you are aware, we have long time internal war in Afghanistan that has resulted in poor economy and education. The situation affects the social, cultural life and environment of Afghanistan. In fact, vulnerability in the Afghan community has influenced the women’s life. For a long time now, women work behind the men in agriculture – particularly during harvesting, hatchery, Saffron processing, home gardening, milk processing, etc.

My concern is we have limited number of women with Agriculture education. In agriculture higher education for example, we have had just one female student in agriculture faculty of Kandahar University for the last 20 years. Reasons are usually because men do the hard work in the fields and women can’t do it, but that notion is not true. We have to try to encourage women to get an education in agriculture. This will make them self-sufficient and we will have some changes on women empowerment.

 Atiqullah Khan

Agri Promote Officer

PECMS-DAIL, Kandahar Afghanistan