English · Español
2 February 2017 | News | Water | Agroecology | Gender
Sustainability and feminism
In Ghana, the work with rural women is one of the focuses for the building of agroecology
Download: MP3 (1.6 Mb)
In Ghana, over half of the workforce belongs to the agricultural sector. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women are responsible for 70 per cent of food crops. Moreover, 90 percent of these farmers work on their own, without earning income from the informal sector or agribusiness. But in general terms, the rules of this country, as is the case throughout the world, exclude women from land tenure.
As a result of this situation, Friends of the Earth Ghana, the largest environmental federation in that country, has focused its work on agroecology and the link with women rural workers. Among other activities, the organization highlights the support around “the creation of seed banks; capacity building around sustainable agriculture and agroforest crops; support and capacity building to adapt subsistence agricultural practices to climate change; capacity building of rural women to support them in dialogue and decision making processes around environmental issues”.
According to the organizations, one of the goals of the work with women in the Upper East region of Ghana is to create spaces of dialogue with local authorities and institutions to enable the access of irrigation to this arid region. Besides workshops and meetings, one of the aims is to build capacities related to knowledge and agroecological farming techniques.
A similar project was carried out in the Brong-Ahafo region, including the building of food processing and storage centers, systems to gather rain water and for irrigation, as well as water pumps and wells.
To know more about the work carried out by FoE Ghana in terms of environmental sustainability and social justice, please visit the organization´s website
Imagen: https://foe-ghana.org
