Lobby seeks policy to protect women from exploitation in family farming

Women are exploited in family farming despite being more involved in food production, a lobby has said.

Inades Formation Kenya managing director Joseph Munyoki said women work more in family farms while men (their husbands) enjoy the returns.

He attributed this to retrogressive culture among communities alongside bad practices.

He said as an organisation, they were focused on improving gender participation in family farming and the role of women leaders.

Munyoki said the NGO was committed to addressing issues which affect women in agriculture considering that 80 per cent of women were involved in it at family levels.

“IFK is a Pan African organisation based in Machakos county with a membership of ten other organisations working in ten other African countries,” Munyoki said.

He spoke during a media engagement on gender and women empowerment and mainstreaming in family farming at a meeting in a Nairobi hotel on Monday.

“Today we are gathered here with a team of members from Kenya National Committee on family farming to discuss issues of family farming,” Munyoki said.

“Family farming is part of processes that the government which is a member of the United Nations Decade for Family Farming (UNDFF) for family farming launched in 2014 and has officially been running since 2019 and will continue to 2028 to promote elements around family farming,” he said.

Munyoki said it involves farming in which agriculture is organised around family units.

“We have developed a draft national action plan that is spearheaded by Kenya National Committee on Family farming in which IFK is the secretariat," he said.

“We intend to continue engaging the government to take up the role to spearhead the national action plan considering that in Africa, there are only three national action plans that have been validated and four are in draft stages including the Kenya National Action Plan for Family Farming."

Munyoki said among the issues discussed in the workshop were land access to women, market access and supporting and working with rural farmers. He said they have a presence in 43 counties.

He said they shall through a consultative action plan have their national action plan validated by the end of 2023.

Munyoki said the forum will be inclusive of a broader network of civil society, community groups and government.

He said family farming was central to improving food security, nutritional security and surplus to drive the economy.

Pauline Kariuki from Rural Women Network, a Kajiado-based organisation said they attended the workshop to amplify the voices of grassroots women engaged in farming.

“When we see food on the table, we appreciate the role women play in terms of labour, taking care of family needs, farming and the environment. These are the same women who grow farm forests and take care of water resources,” Kariuki said.

Kariuki said women were exploited with bloated workloads and unpaid care work.

She said in Kajiado men own livestock while women, milk and clear the cow dung.

“Men have left with livestock in search of pasture due to the ongoing drought, leaving women and children behind. Now women rear chickens and plant vegetables to earn a living due to our intervention,” Kariuki said.

Penina Muthoni from Tharaka Nithi county said women had been ignored in decision-making on matters of land and livestock ownership and sell.

“In Tharaka Nithi land is purely owned by men who make decisions on how to utilise their parcels. A woman can’t make decisions on what to grow on the parcels,” Muthoni said.