UN agency launches plan to get women farmers

An agronomist at Amiran Kenya Ltd explains how to manage a small green house. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By PONCIANO ODONGO

In Summary

• Women Agribusiness Promotion Initiative will target 10,000 women across the country to turn agriculture into enterprise
• The pilot has benefited 300 women from 10 self-help groups

The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in partnership with the government and other organisations is seeking to transform 10,000 women from subsistence farmers to income generators in the next three years.

Banu Khan, programme manager for the UN Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme, said the newly launched Women Agribusiness Promotion Initiative (WAPI) will target 10,000 women across the country to turn agriculture into enterprise.

“Our aim in giving out the start up capital in form of green house and irrigation equipment is to enable women realise that through agriculture they can earn living,” said Ms Khan.

Anne Njoroge from the Ministry of Agriculture said women in the country, especially those in areas that have agricultural potential, needed to overcome challenges by using modern technologies like drip irrigation and green houses to grow their income.

“It is no secret that most women are still going through difficult times in this country despite being 50 per cent of the population. Most income-earning activities like cash crop production are controlled mainly by men,” said Ms Njoroge during the launch of WAPI last week at Amiran headquarters in Embakasi, Nairobi.

She said the ministry and other stakeholders were determined to empower women to venture into high value horticultural crops.

The function that was presided over by the Israel Ambassador to Kenya, Gil Haskel, saw 300 women from Meru, Embu and Nyandarua counties get drip irrigation and green house kits as start-up capital to venture into horticulture.

The initiative that targets women across the country has been developed by UN Women, the government through Smallholder Horticulture Marketing Programme (SHoMaP) and Amiran Kenya.

The pilot has benefited 300 women from 10 self-help groups.

The project will see ten women in a group get a start up capital for free to enable them turn subsistence agriculture to profitable agricultural production.

“It is a fact that women efforts in most parts of the world have been underutilised, calling for a paradigm shift in order to fight poverty,” said Mr Haskel.

Ms Khan noted that supporting women through capacity building and disseminating skills in green house management would help end poverty within households and grow the economy.

Yariv Kedar, Amiran Kenya deputy MD, underscored the need to ensure small scale farmers were empowered.

“Providing the right input will go a long way in not only improving the agricultural production but make it moreprofitable,” he said.

He noted that many small scale farmers were relying on traditional agricultural practices due to poverty but added that WAPI would help farmers form groups through which they could gain more from agribusiness skills.