ESWATINI WOMEN FARMER PARTICIPATION HIGH – FAO

MBABANE – Eswatini has received plaudits from a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on women farmers’ participation in agriculture.

FAO, a United Nations agency, published a public tool based on agricultural census data known as ‘FAOSTAT.  FAOSTAT, according to the FAO, is the world’s largest agricultural data base, with an important new domain that enables much easier comparison and assessment of trends over time of the agricultural structures of all member countries. FAOSTAT places Eswatini alongside Lithuania and Malta, as the only three countries with 40 per cent or more of all agricultural holdings that are headed by women. Women farmers’ participation in Agriculture in Eswatini has been driven by the Women Farmer Foundation, pioneered by Sonia Paiva. Paiva is the current Director of the Foundation.

Empower

Interviewed on the success of the foundation’s work, Paiva said for them it was not about the numbers. She said the aim of the organisation was to empower women and young girls to move away from subsistence agriculture and embrace the idea of profit driven production. “We teach young girls about the importance of having a good crop, harvest, and getting money out of it. For a very long time, emaSwati, especially the elderly, have gone into agriculture as a means to provide for their families. What we do is to inculcate the idea of ‘smart agriculture’, so that people may earn something from their activities,” she said. Paiva said the central focus of their training was putting emphasis on market led production. “It was very important that we made it clear to our young farmers that it is what the market wants that mattered, not what they want. In that way, they produce goods that are sellable, which makes it easier for them to achieve a good return,” she said.

Portal

An open access portal, FAOSTAT gathers and harmonises a wealth of data on the production, trade and consumption in the agricultural sectors, by far the world’s largest economic sector. In recent years, FAO has added an increasing array of critical information on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, forest cover, and investment. A  key takeaway from the report is the clearest display of how strongly women farmers have taken into the agricultural sector. Paiva said they would continue to upscale emaSwati women to become smart farmers and improve their lives in the process. She said it was very important that they were exposed to regional trends to see what other women farmers in the region do.

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