Women farmers meet at a farmers’ congress to exchange knowledge. Photo: Annette Massmann.
The European Union through the Center for Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) last week Thursday launched a new project that targets to improve the fortunes of women in Agri-business in ACP countries of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.
The project dubbed Value for Her (Value4Her) is aimed to build the capacities of women in the entire agriculture value chain and make them competitive, efficient and productive.
The project, which was launched in Nairobi seeks to create opportunities for women on three key areas of access to finance and other productive resources, access to market, access to knowledge and skills.
Importantly, it is designed to rope women into the world of technology, especially digital technology to afford them an opportunity to be competitive in their agribusiness and enterprise.
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Richard Lesiampe, Agriculture Principle Secretary for Agriculture, recognized the role women play in agri-business.
“The Government will thus help women with opportunities such as access to credit/ financing, technical know-how of agricultural production and value addition,” said Lesiempe.
He has lamented the low rate of women in land ownership putting it at 2 per cent and those who jointly own with their husbands to 5 per cent.
“This hinders women led agriculture due to lack of access to financing and land utilization rights.”
Stefano-Antonio Dejak, Head of Mission, Head of Delegation European Commission reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to support the ACP concept and more so more women into agribusiness and enterprise.
“Agriculture is the engine of growth in Africa. To grow their economies and create jobs, countries will have to transform agriculture to be modern, inclusive, productive and profitable, ” noted CTA Director Michael Hailu.