Latin America | Peru | Activism

Peruvian Farmer Wins Monumental Battle Against U.S. Mining Giant

Acuña’s inspiring story is proof that activists’ efforts do matter, and that even the world’s largest companies will be held to account. Peruvian activists knew they were entering a David-and-Goliath battle when they decided to shut down the creation of a $5 billion open-caste gold and copper mine next to a pristine lake, but they have so far succeeded. However, much of the community’s success in this endeavor can be credited to Maxima Acuña, a farmer who owns a 60-acre plot of land on the exact site where the giant Newmont Mining Corporation desires to dig. Earlier this yea

Africa | Uganda | Agriculture

How This Entrepreneur Built A Profitable Business Empowering Ugandan Women

Source: Forbes

In Uganda, where many women earn as little as $3 per month, a new generation of agri-entrepreneurs are lifting themselves out of poverty. They are doing so with the support of KadAfrica, a social business that grants out-of-school girls with a small plot of land, passionfruit vines, and a marketplace to sell the fruit. KadAfrica provides intensive training in entrepreneurship, financial literacy and gender empowerment. Thus far, 1,650 girls have boosted their incomes to $20 – $50 per month—representing a 600% increase in income per participant. Some young women have used the money to ex

International | Agriculture

Female Farmer Project – real stories of women in agriculture

Source: Global Citizen

Stereotypes of farmers as Old MacDonald are being buried by the Female Farmer Project. One photographer is bringing empowering images of female farmers around the world to light with support from UN Women, UNFAO and the WFP. Audra Mulkern is the female photographer behind the project capturing strong women who farm everything from fresh produce to healthy hogs. She’s traveled to Iceland to photograph third-generation female farmers milking goats, to small towns in the US where women weed rhubarb and rainbow chard, Her images capture the grace, and tenacity these women bring to a stereo

International | Agriculture

If you give a piece of land to a female it will change the world…literally

Source: Global Citizen

“In a world…. Where females own land….Girls and women are able to thrive.” Ok, maybe not the most compelling opening to a movie trailer but it is the main conclusion of a new study. Land ownership is a potent tool in empowering girls and women but in 2016 and some females don’t even have the right to property ownership, let alone actually able to own land. What a piece of… land people are! (“Land,” totally what I was going to say…) Social status includes areas of human development and how a female is viewed in social situations, while laws that govern a female’s econ

South Asia | India | Agriculture

Meet India’s female ‘seed guardians’ pioneering organic farming

Source: theguardian

Bring up the topic of seeds and Nabita Goud sits up a little straighter and begins to talk animatedly. Nabita is a smallholder and a “seed guardian” at the Maa Lankeshwari seedbank of Bhimdanga village in Odisha, eastern India. The seedbank is a small room lined with rows of neatly-labelled earthen pots and stoppered glass bottles, all of them filled with varieties of millets, ladies finger (okra), pumpkin, and red gram seeds (lentil), along with cotton. Nabita puts her hand into a pot and scoops out a fistful of paddy seeds which are a dull brown, the colour of the soil. “This is

Caribbean | Jamaica | Agriculture

Deck stacked against rural women

Source: The Gleaner

The Jamaican Network of Rural Women Producers is moving to promote meaningful dialogue it hopes will go a far way in dismantling long-standing institutionalised biases which have been instrumental in keeping women, especially in rural Jamaica, firmly rooted at the foot of the economic ladder. President Mildred Crawford told The Gleaner that in observance of International Day of Rural Women tomorrow, the local body has organised four events from October 20-28, to raise public awareness about how the deck is stacked against women in Jamaica. In citing statistics to support this claim, Craw

Africa | Kenya | Agriculture

Kenyan Women Are Quietly Revolutionizing Farming.. And The Government’s Noticing

Source: Huffington Post

For people in central Kenya who are trying to live off the land, the challenges are many as the region is not known for its agriculture-friendly conditions. But, thanks to the work of an organization working to spread innovative farming techniques, that could be changing -- and women are at the forefront of the quiet revolution. As the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported in a story last month, the Kenyan arm of GROOTS (Grassroots Organisations Operating Together in Sisterhood) is working to help women take up sack farming in order to both provide for their families and generate income by gro

South Asia | India | Agriculture

Women Farmers Combat Land Degradation in Nagaland

Source: GAP

A UNDP partnership with the government of Nagaland has reduced soil erosion and increased vegetation cover on 30,000 hectares of land in 70 villages. The partnership in the North Eastern Himalayan state has empowered 7,000 women farmers to adopt farming practices that can protect soil fertility, diversify livelihoods and strengthened market linkages. 48 year old Pongha has long been famous in her hometown of Mon village for the beautifulmekhelas or traditional Naga dress worn by women that she weaves for selling to her neighbours. But in recent years, Pongha has also become an inspiration