Women & Agriculture

Approximately 1 billion people live in chronic hunger and more than 1 billion live in extreme poverty. Systemic poverty weaves its way through generations: Poor parents lack access to financial resources, quality educational options and decent health care. Driven by need and spurred by lack of opportunity, their children leave school to work in low paying, often exploitative jobs and, later, raise children who face the same problems.

Many small farmers, mostly women, in the developing world. Their success or failure determines whether they have enough to eat, are able to send their children to school, and can earn any money to save. These small farmers face many challenges: including know how and finance, so we encourage plans of micro farming that can support itself after the first cycle thus empowering the women, families and the communities at large.

In sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture employs two-thirds of the population but accounts for only 4 percent of government spending. There is little support for women, who do the majority of the work. In Nigeria, women do up to 80 percent of the work on farms, like the planting, harvesting, and processing. They are responsible for both producing the food and preparing it for their families. Studies also show that women are more likely than men to pour resources they are given back into their communities. Yet women farmers receive only 5 percent of extension services and are underrepresented in training programs.

Improvements in agriculture help people in poverty improve their lives. When small farmers are able to get more out of their land and labor, their families eat better, earn more money, and lead healthier lives. In Asia and Latin America, improvements in rice and wheat crops several decades ago doubled yields, saved hundreds of millions of lives, and contributed to long-term economic growth. This “Green Revolution” showed it is possible to reduce hunger and poverty on a large scale but demonstrated the importance of focusing on the environment and the needs of small farmers.

Promises Kept is committed to helping small farmers flourish on their farms and overcome hunger and poverty. Providing emergency food relief is not a long-term solution, and thus the focus of the programme is to teaching farmers how to grow food sustainably and in an environmentally-sensitive way

This programme is geared towards the empowerment of female farmers and helping to address the wide agriculture gap in Nigeria. Our programme focuses on teaching them skills of entrepreneurship, giving them tools of farming and agrarian commodities that make sense, and then ultimately, connect them to the bigger global market where they can make funds to set aside and become more successful and break out of poverty and dependency.”

The foundation is also looking to develop a curriculum to teach girls how to be better leaders. “We know that women are a powerful force that they really do work in making this planet a better place.

Partnering with Choice Farms Limited, Promises Kept will be training women in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State to rear chickens that can produce table eggs and of course raise new chickens. The integrated programme will train participants in sustainable agriculture practices for 6 months and will assist these farmers purchase all the necessary equipment to help them make a living and provide for their families.