Issue #102

This edition of Farm Radio Weekly is dedicated to Africa’s hard working rural women. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we also welcome our newest subscribers from around the continent: Yvonne Otieno, from the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya; Christopher Mason, from Journalists for Human Rights in Liberia; Gee Dee, a farm owner in South Africa; Priscilla Ojambo from Uganda; and Emmanuel Asamoah from Rite FM, Teresa Atogiyire from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Sulemana Issah from Tropical Agricultural Marketing and Consultancy Services, Bashiru Jimma from Anabi Farms, and Loretta Vanderpuye forom the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Glovina Media Consult, all in Ghana.

This week’s news stories profile two extraordinary women farmers. The first is a Ugandan woman who uses every square foot of her small farm to grow fruit for her thriving processing plant. The second is a Cameroonian woman who left city life to manage a large plantation. The women share some of their challenges and secrets to their success. We hope these stories inspire you to produce similar pieces on the inspirational women in your rural communities!

In the Upcoming Events section, you’ll find information on how to access AMARC-WIN’s Women’s Day broadcast, featuring community radio pieces. The Radio Resource Bank presents a new tool for finding examining gender inequalities in land rights. And in the Farm Radio Action section, we invite you to share how your organization marked International Women’s Day.

Happy reading!

-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

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African Farm News in Review

1. Uganda: Woman farmer supports her family – and community – by processing fruit (by Sawa Pius, for Farm Radio Weekly, in Kampala, Uganda)

2. Cameroon: With pride and sacrifice woman keeps her plantation operating (by Lilianne Nyatcha, for Farm Radio Weekly, in Douala, Cameroon)

3. Past FRW stories on women farmers and women’s issues

Upcoming Events

-AMARC-WIN’s Women’s Day Broadcast Campaign continues through March 31

Radio Resource Bank

-FAO’s land rights database highlights gender inequalities

Farm Radio Action

-Tell us how your organization celebrated International Women’s Day

Farm Radio Script of the Week

-Families benefit when girls go to school

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Violet Malunda’s small farm is bursting with colourful fruits. Pineapples, oranges, mangoes, avocados, and grapes sprout from every corner. There are seedlings growing in small boxes and plants growing up to the very boundaries of her farm.

Ms. Malunda operates a thriving fruit processing plant. In order to produce enough fruit, every bit of space must be utilized.

Ms. Malunda began growing fruits in the Mityana district of Uganda in 1977. The project started small, but has become a major livelihood – not only for her family but for her neighbours, too.

Her family of six provides the bulk of the labour. Their family home is the headquarters of Kiyinda Agro Food Enterprises. It’s fruit processing factory that makes wine, juice, jam, and sauce.

Ms. Malunda explains that she produces different products on different days. Some days wine, some days juice. Some days sauces with chili, other days sauces without.

The products are packaged in bottles or plastic bags. Glass bottles are very expensive and importing them is a big challenge. So Ms. Malunda has come up with an alternative to buying new bottles. Her family collects used bottles. They are washed, sterilized, and used for packaging.

She also has to import sealing materials. It’s a large expense, but one she can’t avoid.

In order to maintain her loyal clients, Ms. Malunda must keep supply steady and standards constant. To ensure she has enough fruit to process, she enlists the help of neighbouring farmers. She has a tree nursery on her farm and sells seedlings to her neighbours. The neighbours plant the seedlings and sell fruit back to Ms. Malunda.

Ms. Malunda is proud that her small factory has enabled her children to attend good schools. She also believes that it has saved her family from disease. Her children are healthy because they know the value of fruits, she declares.

Her neighbours, too, have relied on her business as a source of income. As a result, many have been able to educate their children and improve their health.

Ms. Malunda is now training other farmers to do the same kind of fruit processing. Her dream is to see her community become one of the most successful in Uganda. She adds: “Ugandans should know that our fruits are fresh and organic. So they should love them and use the good climate to grow them in plenty and fight poverty.”

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Elise Dibabo doesn’t look like a typical farmer. Her round, gold-plated glasses give her the look of a newly-gentrified intellectual. Yet it has been eight years since Elise Dibabo left the city and deposited her luggage in the small village of Nkol-Ngock – much to the dismay of her husband, an executive in the shipping industry. Her husband had acquired more than 100 hectares of virgin forest in Nkol-Ngock, 60 miles from the city of Douala. Painstakingly and courageously, Ms. Dibabo has reclaimed and developed the land.

It wasn’t long ago that Ms. Dibabo worked as a housekeeper in Douala. But since her arrival in Nkol-Ngock, she has employed scores of labourers to work the land. She speaks with pride of her vast crops. There are 65 hectares of palm, over 10 hectares of pistachio, three of yams, and two each of cocoa, pineapple, watermelon, and plantain. Fifteen hectares are used to grow maize, mostly to feed her flock of 1,300 broiler chickens.

The construction of a palm oil processing plant has been the hallmark of her success. It has allowed her to grow the plantation to the size it stands today.

Ms. Dibabo’s dynamism has won her friends in Nkol-Ngock, a small town where everyone knows everyone. Getting used to the intimacy of small-town life took time. It was a big change from the crowded and noisy streets of Douala. It took Ms. Dibabo a year to adapt and integrate.

Ms. Dibabo currently employs eight workers from the village. Today she jokes with her staff. Contagious laughter erupts from time to time. Ms. Dibabo’s chief of staff is asked to name his boss’ faults. He responds that he can think of none. He feels that Ms. Dibabo cares for them like a mother. In fact, she provides her staff with meals and lodging on the plantation.

But operating a large-scale operation in a rural environment has its challenges. Ms. Dibabo says the hardest part is coping with a lack of electricity. Harvested crops often rot before they can be transported to the city. This is especially a problem during the rainy season when Ms. Dibabo’s truck can’t get through. As a result of some of these problems, she had to abandon much of her palm and banana plantings to grass.

In the midst of this sometimes harsh environment, Ms. Dibabo always finds solace in her husband, her companion of 30 years. She affectionately calls him “papa,” to which he replies “mama.” They share a love which makes young couples pale in comparison. Though her husband remains in Douala for business, he visits Nkol-Ngock every weekend. During the week, SMS messages and phone calls bring comfort.

Today, Ms. Dibabo dreams of taking a break from it all. Of moving away to a place where she wouldn’t have to worry about such things as crop viruses. At the age of 53, she is exhausted by the heavy physical and moral investment she has made. She doesn’t know how much longer she will be able to use a cutlass. So, she would like a little help from the authorities to purchase machinery.

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Following is a sample of past FRW stories looking at some of the issues facing rural women and celebrating successful women farmers and women’s groups that have overcome these challenges:

-“Uganda: Women fishers break traditions” (FRW #5, January 2008)

-“Mali: Women traders play crucial role in providing locally adapted seeds” (FRW #9, February 2008)

-“South Africa: Community gardens help women pensioners maintain their independence” (FRW #11, February 2008)

-“Burkina Faso: Women’s group finds new use for ‘green gold’” (FRW #13, March 2008)

-“Nigeria: Group advocates for women farmers’ rights” (FRW #17, April 2008)

-“Democratic Republic of the Congo: Women farmers process cassava to improve their livelihoods” (FRW #35, September 2008)

-“Uganda: Women farmers drive the economy with sunflower oil” (FRW #45, November 2008)

-“Rwanda: Women seek shared control of family assets“ (FRW #51, January 2009)

-“Cameroon: A woman agricultural engineer discusses her passion for mushrooms” (FRW #57, March 2009)

-“Swaziland: Women’s weaving co-operative gives ‘lift’ to communities” (FRW #77, August 2009)

-“Mauritius: Egg production is their path out of poverty” (FRW #86, November 2009)

-“Senegal: Rural women demand improved access to farmland” (FRW #91, December 2009)

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Here are some ideas for reporting on women farmers and rural women’s issues at any time of the year:

You may wish to interview an innovative woman farmer or entrepreneur about her experience preparing and marketing a new product – either for a news report or an on-air discussion:

-How did she come up with the idea for the product (or the idea to market a local product)?
-What kind of market research did she conduct?
-How does she package the product to make it attractive to customers? What else does she do to add value to her product?
-How did she determine the best price for her product?
-Did any partnerships or other types of support assist her to produce and market her product?
-How much money does she earn from her business? What role does this play in her family income?

You may wish to find and profile a women’s co-operative in your area:

-What sorts of products does the group produce? Do they use these products in their homes, sell them (or both)?
-What traditional materials and methods does the co-operative use? What new materials or methods have they learned about or discovered?
-Has the group been able to access training or funding programs to support their endeavours? What channels did they go through to obtain this support?
-What direct benefits have members of the co-operative experienced, such as improved income or better access products? Has the group been able to support women in the community at large (for example, with women’s health or women’s rights initiatives)?

You may wish to produce a call-in or text-in show in which callers answer the following questions regarding women’s land rights:

-Do you know women who have been evicted from their land? If yes, how were they expelled?
-Did the evicted women go to court to defend their right to land? If so, what was the outcome? If not, what happened to the women and their families?
-After the eviction, how did the women ensure their family’s food security? Did they have any support from their parents?
-If an evicted woman is living with HIV and AIDS, how does the community help her? Are there any organizations that have helped evicted women regain their land and/or livelihoods?

You may wish to host a program that offers women whose right to land and other assets has been violated a chance to tell their story. An interview with an advocacy organization could add value to this program. (Such an organization may also help you contact women who wish to share their story). Some points to investigate are:
-What are the customary practices regarding financial decisions in local households?
-What laws govern household finances, and how do customary practices compare with the law?
-What do women contribute to the household finances (e.g. what sort of work do they do)?
-What financial responsibilities to women have (e.g. to grow or purchase food, to pay school fees)?

Some questions for individual women:

-At what point were they excluded from financial decision making?
-What were the repercussions for the family of the woman being excluded from decision making?
-Did the woman try to negotiate with her husband for more control over the family finances and, if so, what was the result?
-What organizations or legal bodies could support the woman to improve her situation?

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From March 8-31, 2010, The Women’s International Network of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC-WIN) is organizing the sixth annual International Women’s Day Broadcast Campaign. The campaign will feature programs produced by community radio stations around the world. This year’s theme is: “Empowering and celebrating women as agents of recovery.”

The International Women’s Day Broadcast Campaign will begin at 1:00 GMT on Monday, March 8. To listen to the broadcast, or to download programs to re-broadcast at your station, visit: http://march8.amarc.org/index.php?p=March8_Program.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recently launched a database that gathers information on land rights and access to land in 78 countries. The Gender and Land Rights Database contains information on the major social, economic, political, and cultural factors that impact women’s rights and access to land. It seeks to highlight the inequalities between men and women with regard to land access. The FAO calls this inequality “one of the major stumbling blocks to rural development.”

The online database includes both national and customary laws governing land use; property rights and inheritance; international treaties and conventions and land tenure. It also lists civil society groups that work on land issues, and provides other related statistics. Database users can access all information available for a particular country, or select specific topics, such as the total number of land holders in a specific state. The database also generates reports which compare two or more countries.

The Gender and Land Rights Database can be found at: http://www.fao.org/gender/landrights.

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Did your organization do something special to mark International Women’s Day? Maybe you produced a radio program about prominent local women or about issues affecting local women. Perhaps you held or covered an event for Women’s Day. We would love to hear how you marked the occasion.

Please send a short description to FRW Editor Heather Miller at hmiller@farmradio.org. We will publish responses we receive in a future edition of FRW.

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As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we must not forget the girls who will become the next generation of women. Gender equality (or inequality) begins in childhood. For example, we know that boys are more likely than girls to complete an education. This will affect their livelihood opportunities as adults.

Parents who are considering withdrawing their young girls from school may not have considered the benefits of girls obtaining an education. This week’s script explores how a family can work together to ensure that all their children can stay in school; and how a girl’s education can benefit the entire family. The Notes to Broadcasters for this script also suggest other story ideas on this topic.

This script can also be found online at: http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/70-4script_en.asp.

To browse through more scripts on gender and development, go to: http://farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/gender.asp.

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