Women’s labour in family farming and sustainable agriculture
A virtual roundtable meeting on ‘Women’s labour in family farming and sustainable agriculture’, organised by ActionAid Bangladesh, the Dutch foreign ministry and Prothom Alo, was held on 29 November 2020. The discussion has been reproduced in brief in this supplement.
Participants
Balai Krishna Hajra, Director General, Seed Wing, Ministry of Agriculture
Moazzem Hossain , Project Director, DAE, Ministry of Agriculture
Imanun Nabi Khan, Coordinator, Missing Middle Initiative, (FAO, Bangladesh)
Osman Haruni, Senior Policy Advisor, Food and Nutrition Security, Netherlands Embassy
Ahmed Borhan, Regional Coordinator, AFSN
Rowshan Jahan Moni, Deputy Executive Director, ALRD
Mohammad Nazim Uddin, Scientific Officer, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)
Ataur Rahman Miton, Country Director, Hunger Free World, Bangladesh office
AKM Zakaria, Agricultural expert, Maria Seed Technology
Jannatul Mawa, President, Bindu Nari Unnayan Sangshta
Amirul Islam, Regional Coordinator, Asian Farmers Association
Shamsunnahar Dolly Khan, President, Bangladesh Krishani Federation
Abdul Quayum, Associate Editor, Prothom Alo, (Introductory speaker)
Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh (presiding the meeting)
Firoz Choudhury, Assistant Editor, Prothom Alo (Moderator of the meeting)
Farah Kabir: There are a lot of problems in Bangladesh’s agriculture. If these are eliminated, the farmers can advance further. ActionAid Bangladesh has prepared a policy brief on ‘Family Farming and Sustainable Agriculture in Bangladesh’. The main objective of this discussion is to present the recommendations made in the policy brief and to listen to the views of the experts present here.
According to the UN labour survey 2005-06, around 68 per cent of women involved in agricultural work in Bangladesh. And if the women who are involved in farming alongside their household work are taken into account, then this will be 74 per cent.
Women rear livestock. And 63 per cent of the women preserve local varieties of seeds, 40 per cent are involved in growing vegetables, fruit, threshing and processing crops. Women have contribution on 17 of the 21 different types of agricultural work.
Family farming is very important because in any calamity, including Covid, food security is at risk. In this Covid crisis, women are arranging for food in the form of vegetables, fruit, etc. We hope everyone here today can reach consensus at the meeting so we can work together to take these issues forward. I thank everyone participating in this discussion today from their various positions.
Abdul Quayum: When we talk about agriculture, we tend to think of it as a man’s work. But women are essentially involved in agriculture. They work in the fields now. They sow seeds, bring the harvest home and do almost everything involved in agriculture. Climate change had had an adverse effect on agriculture for which women are having to make even more contribution to this work. Women must be given due recognition for this work. This will ensure sustainable development in our agricultural sector.
Balai Krishna Hajra: The honourable prime minister has fixed certain priorities for each ministry. Our ministry has certain priorities too. These are Amar Bari Amar Khamar (My Household My Farm), the Asrayan project, women’s empowerment, Digital Bangladesh, social security, education programmes, investment and environmental protection. We have directives from above concerning the importance of women in agriculture.
In my own family I have seen how my mother, sisters and everyone would work in such an organised manner, storing the grain when the crops were brought home. And while 20 to 25 per cent of the seeds are preserved by the government agencies, around 75 per cent is done by families. It is the women who do this work. Our ministry is running two projects of Tk 5 billion (Tk 500 crore) for seed preservation. After the floods this time wrought so much damage, the ministry decided to put more emphasis on family farming. Women can play a role there.
We have made 32 family nutrition gardens in every union. The people of the villages can avail their nutrition from there. Our plan during Mujib Borsho is to have 100 nutrition gardens in each village. The ministry is placing emphasis on women in agriculture. The agriculture ministry gives the Bangabandhu agricultural award to both men and women. From this year we are starting up an award for Agriculturally Important Persons (AIP). Men and women both will receive this award.
Ahmed Borhan: The main objective of the ActionAid Bangladesh study and policy outline which has been reviewed, is to look into the consistencies and possible discrepancies between family farming and mainstream agriculture. The Sustainable Development Goals talk about family farming. Family farming is stable, climate change tolerant, a protection for the food chain and a model in food security.
The 72nd session of the UN general assembly recognised family farming as a part of agriculture. The objective was to highlight the importance of family farming in food security in the future for the elimination of poverty and hunger. Family farming is a major food investment. It talks about a tightly knit structure. It involves youth. It brings about gender balance and women leadership. It strengthens agricultural organisation. It is about socioeconomic inclusion and public welfare.
We have reviewed our policy frameworks. These include sustainable development plans and environment-friendly agriculture. We have given importance to the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s scaling up agro ecology. Our review includes a national agricultural policy, agricultural marking revenue, seed revenue, the seventh five-year plan, perspective planning, national women’s development policy and the one household one farm programme.
If we look at the participation of men and women in agriculture, we see women involved in both fish farming and catching fish. Women are involved almost the same as men in livestock rearing. Farmers still mostly use leased land. Women’s authority in decision making has still not been well established.
The economic aspect of agriculture is very important. Our research shows that over half the families are dependent on agriculture, but they feel that agriculture is not profitable for them.
Women have participation in almost all areas of agriculture. But they have very little participation in buying and selling produce in the markets. We wanted to know about the environmental aspect of agriculture. Almost all of them said that the soil quality was being destroyed by excessive fertiliser and pesticide. Integrated initiative is required to further develop family and small farming. This requires a campaign. A family farming platform has to be established.
The agricultural organisations down to the grassroots must be organised. Many talk about ‘one household one farm’ in family farming. This must become a model. There must be integrated planning to create women entrepreneurs.
Moazzem Hossain: The name of my project is ‘Production, Storage and Distribution of Quality Seeds of Rice, Wheat, Jute of Farmers Level Through Modern Technology.’ I formed a group of 15 farmers under this project, 10 men and 5 women. They are trained in 6 classes. They learn about technology. The men and women can jointly take decisions about production. Women are empowered here. Production is better if two persons take decisions in production management. Agriculture was created in women’s hands. Women collect seeds and grow fruit, vegetables and crops. That is how agriculture emerged through them. Now in the patriarchal society we work on women’s empowerment through various projects. Their concepts and scientific concepts are merged. There is a difference between food preservation and seed preservation. Seed preservation requires a lot of care. Women do this.
We package our preserved seeds and distribute these among farmers. One kg of paddy seed is almost twice the cost of one kg of paddy. Women make a profit from preserving seeds. The government BADC and private companies provide seeds but there are often problems with these seeds.
If seeds are distributed through farmers, then people will know the process of seed preservation. They will be able to buy the seeds with trust. Agriculture cannot be imagined without women. But it is up to us to bring them to the mainstream and to empower them. We have made women the team leaders in many of our groups. It is possible to earn sustainable agriculture through women. We have 8000 groups from paddy and wheat cultivation. We plan in the future to have 4000 women and 4000 men team leaders.
Shamsunnahar Dolly Khan: I work in agriculture. I also preserve seeds. Our country’s seeds are getting lost. It will be good if we can preserve these seeds. Our harvest was not good this time. It was good last time. If we have a seed bank of previous year’s harvest, we can use this.
Seeds bought in the market are not of good quality. We collect seeds ourselves and the quality of these is good. We have tested this. That is why everyone should take initiative so that the farmers can preserve the seeds themselves.
AKM Zakaria: I have worked over the past 30 years with rural men and women. Bangladesh’s agriculture is very important. Seed preservation is a major problem here. While researching, I found out that seed preservation is done completely by women. I came up with a good model in seed preservation. In honour of the village people, I called it the Maria model. I trained the people of this village. The quality of their seeds is as good as the government and private company seeds, if not better.
At one stage I saw that they were doing even better than us. They took this to a business level. They are generating an income through this. The village Maria is a model in women’s empowerment. Prothom Alo once wrote about the success of the village Maria and people all over the country got to know about them.
The work that a woman does in the Maria model, from preserving seeds to bringing the harvest home, makes a Tk 200,000. Her work increases production by 20 per cent. But what does a woman get in return? She must be publicly honoured for making such an important contribution to the country. The developed world is moving away from food production. We can employ women in agriculture and earn huge amounts of foreign exchange through food export. We bring papaya seed from Thailand for Tk 60,000 a kg. But our women can produce papaya seeds and send these to Thailand.
Jannatul Mawa: We work with rural women. The government talks about stimulus for farmers during the coronavirus pandemic, but makes no mention of women farmers.
Men have returned to the villages during the coronavirus outbreak. The women arranged for their food. Family farming played a big role here. The contribution towards family farming is completely by women, but these women get no assistance in time of calamities. Women farmers generally do not go to the market to sell their produce or the conditions are not favourable for them to go. That is why in most cases women do not get fair prices for their produce.
Rowshan Jahan Moni: There are problems with the very definition of agriculture. Agriculture does not mean just paddy, jute, ploughs and yokes. If you look for women there, you may not find them. Even men do not work in agriculture in that manner any more. Women’s participation in agriculture is 72.6 per cent. Even so there is discrimination against women from production to marketing, at almost every step.
If a woman is not given fair price for her produce, how will she take up agriculture? Men cannot run the family through agriculture and so go off to find means of earning a living. Women have to take up farming. But the question is, how much right do the women have to the land? A helpless woman will need to have a son to be able to have access to khas land. This law must certainly be changed.
Agriculture policy sees women as agricultural workers, not as farmers. Until women are recognized as farmers, they will remain deprived of all agriculture-related facilities. An agriculture bank is needed for women where they can get low-interest loans. Women must be given assistance during calamities. They must have crop insurance. Cooperative policies must be simplified. Agriculture on the plains, indigenous agriculture and various forms of farming must all be seen separately.
Mohammad Nazim Uddin: The first organised group in the world was of women. Women do most agricultural work. Over 70 per cent of women are involved in agriculture. But women are not recognized as farmers. Our main demand is for women to be recognized as farmers and for initiative to be taken in this regard. Women’s contribution is not taken into account in the GDP. An agriculture policy was drawn up in 2018, but there is no initiative to implement it. There is some work at a government and non-government level. But once the projects are over, there is nothing much to do further.
This is the UN decade of agriculture. Some issues have been raised, such as agro ecology, forestry, indigenous people, mountain families, rural women, etc. Then we can go to a mainstream economy.
I visited Japan in 2008. Initiative was taken to provide funds for family work. In the first year many contributed, many didn’t. The government said, there will be no tax for those contributing to the funds for family work. Even that did not evoke much response. Then it was said that this would have to be made through a bank transaction and they would have to show their receipts.
We have to do something so that women are given recognition for their work. So organising women is an important task. Women have carried on agriculture for thousands of years. They will take agriculture ahead in the future too.
Ataur Rahman Miton: Agriculture has a 14 per cent of contribution to the GDP. Agriculture is a priority to the present government. It is considering the export of agricultural produce too. This year a budget of Tk 145 billion (Tk 14,500 crore) has been given to agriculture. This is the highest allocation so far. There are a lot of efforts for agriculture. It should be seen how much women’s participation is in this sector.
Women have been involved in agriculture from the earliest times. Women ensure family nutrition. We must bring forward experiences to empower women in family farming. We have heard of the Maria model and other models too. Our agriculture today is heading towards technology. It should be seen how women can be involved in agricultural technology, in the commercialisation of agriculture and whether women will be able to survive in these sectors.
Plans must be drawn up to include women in all areas. Worm cultivation for fertilizer has begun in our country. There are around 20,000 to 22,000 women in different villages involved in this. These works are bringing them financial strength. This fiscal’s budget has an allocation of Tk 80 billion (Tk 8000 crore) for chemical fertilizer subsidy. Yet those involved in this worm farming will not get a single taka from there. If 25 per cent of this Tk 80 billion was allocated to the women involved in family farming, then it would have a huge contribution to women’s participation in agriculture and their empowerment.
Imamun Nabi Khan:
Those who do not get any facilities from the government or the non-government sector are known as the missing middle. We are working with some organisations of the poor. They cultivate pineapples, ginger, turmeric and other items. They face tremendous problems. Their crops are not acceptable to the banks and so they do not get any assistance from the banks. The prime minister had a loan project of Tk 2 billion (Tk 200 crore), prioritizing women. It had a 14 month grace period, but there are hardly any women participants there.
Around 85 per cent of family farming is by small and marginalized communities. They cannot survive on their own. They must be organised for their own sake. The government has good polices, but attention must be paid to implementation.
There are around 200,000 farmer organisations. However, once the project is over, many of the organisations are no longer found. We create farmer organisations with training, power tillers, tractors, and so on. They are given an idea of all sorts of things there.
If these organisations took initiative, they could fix the price of their produce and other matters. Bangladesh Bank’s rules maintain that marginalized farmers must be given loans on a group basis. But no bank wants to accept an organisation as collateral. We have worked on this matter with Bangladesh bank for 8 years.
During the coronavirus outbreak, it was difficult to take fertilizer to the people, to buy and sell produce, to carry out transactions. It was our women operators who did an amazing job then. FAO termed them as food heroes. Our women have displayed acumen on all work including looking after the organisation accounts. More opportunities must be created for them.
Amirul Islam: Much potential for farmers lies in cooperatives. Women’s participation is essential in agricultural loan, market management and more. The agriculture policy must be implemented and women must be provided with support. A woman works both in agriculture and the household. If she can be helped in the household chores, then she will be able to give more time to agriculture.
It is important to involve women in the agriculture extension programme. The male agricultural extension workers do not give much consideration to the women and so they have almost no participation. There is no alternative to organisation for women’s empowerment. And the importance of organisation is all the more acute in these corona times. If these organisations can be strengthened, agriculture will take on a new dimension.
Osman Haruni: The Netherlands is only one sixth of Bangladesh in size, but they are the second largest exporters of vegetables in the world. How has that been possible? They are far ahead of us in technology, knowledge and skill. Family farming must be viewed on an extensive scale. Family farming does not mean just fruit and vegetable. It includes livestock, aquaculture and much more. Women have a role in agriculture both in the field and on the homestead. Most women produce according to their need.
If a woman is attached to a market, then she will produce according to market demand. She will be involved in the market. Her income will increase. There is another project, ‘Making market work for women’. We are bringing women to the marketplace through this project.
Through a project of ActionAid it was seen that there are no women in Bangladesh’s market committees, only men. ActionAid is working towards including women in market committees. Space will be created in markets for women where they will be able to buy and sell produce.
Effective measures must be taken to include women’s participation in the market committees. If women can be more involved in the market system, they will be able to negotiate and fix the price of their produce themselves. There is a project called Amader Foshal which has 100,000 small farmer families. And 65 per cent of the members are women farmers. One of our projects, Proof, had 80,000 farmer families and almost all the members were women. We have attached them to the market system. They are now able to negotiate prices on their own and to take their own decisions.
Farah Kabir: I agree with everyone. Everyone spoke well. Everyone said that women have an extensive contribution to agriculture. We will work on this issue. You all have given recommendations. We will not be able to implement all the recommendations. Women’s confidence in themselves has increased. They now are taking forward many things on their own accord.
Women will need to be trained in the new agriculture and technology that has come forward. There is need for integrated initiative to take this issue to the government and non-government organisations, FAO and all concerned.
It is imperative to organise women. Agricultural produce is often damaged due to lack of storage facilities. We have to work on that too. There is need for effective monitoring to see if the policy is being implemented or not, if the allocations are being provided or not.
We must work on the national organic agriculture policy, to see what can be done. This requires commitment. We want to take our work all over the country. We need government cooperation and must work hand in hand with the government. Our work succeeds when the community supports our work. I hope we will be able to take family farming forward with everyone’s cooperation.
Firoz Choudhury: We have had an extremely fruitful discussion on family farming. On behalf of Prothom Alo, I thank everyone.
Recommendations:
· As women’s participation in agriculture is more than 70 per cent, it is necessary to bring them to the mainstream and taken effective measures for their empowerment.
· The government must establish a specialised institution for the skill development of women farmers, service, research and innovation and their inclusion in the market system
· If family farming and small agriculture is to be developed, the eighth five-year plan must drop agriculture practice that is not effective in expanding agriculture and must determine long-term objectives and plans to increase agriculture that is tolerant to climate change.
· Rural farmers produce and preserve 60 to 70 per cent of the total seeds, but the Seed Act 2018 does not recognise this contribution. This act must include community-based farmers’ seed production, preservation and exchange.
· The government must take initiative under the Seed Act 2018, for certification of the seeds produced by the community-based farmers.
· To ensure women-friendly market management, initiative must be taken by the government for value chain inclusion, toilets, breastfeeding corners, daycare centres, etc.
· It is necessary to arrange for easy-term and low-interest loans for women farmers.
· Attention must be paid to strengthening youth and women farmer organisations.
· Women’s contributions must be included in the GDP.