Sudan: Women Farmers Unite
The Problem
Rural women in Sudan face a triple crisis of poverty, environmental degradation, and armed conflict. Many are struggling to provide enough food to keep their families from starving. Mothers often go hungry to ensure that their children can eat. Despite this sacrifice, UNICEF estimates that more than 40% of children under age five in Sudan suffer from malnutrition, and humanitarian organizations report that supplies of food aid are running low because of record international grain prices.
The effects of global climate change are wreaking havoc in Sudan, where intermittent droughts and floods are destroying crops and livestock and making farmers’ traditional knowledge obsolete. Many of these farmers are women, who grow and harvest the majority of food crops in Sudan. Yet, the government's farm aid programs traditionally exclude women, denying them land rights, credit, and agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer.
Ongoing warfare in Darfur has caused millions of people to flee and settle elsewhere, creating a need to grow more food on soil that’s been depleted by climate change and stretching the meager resources of poor farming communities to the limit.
In March 2009, the Sudanese government expelled 13 of the largest food aid organizations, leaving over 1 million people without food or clean drinking water.
The Solution
MADRE supports women farmers so that they can grow the food their families need to survive. Unlike emergency food aid, Women Farmers Unite gives women the tools, resources, and technical assistance they need to sustain their families for the long haul. The program, conducted with MADRE’s Sudanese partner organization Zenab for Women in Development, provides women farmers with seeds and supplies, including donkeys and plows. The women’s greatest hope is to obtain a tractor, which will enable them to do three month’s work of turning the soil in just half a day.
In response to the government decision to expel international aid agencies, Women Farmers Unite is growing extra food to send to Darfur. With the assistance of MADRE and Zenab for Women in Development, they are:
- purchasing larger quantities of organic seeds
- hiring extra workers
- renting land, farm equipment, storage space for grain and trucks to deliver their harvest to Darfur.
The Results
- Hunger is alleviated and nutrition and health improve as women gain the resources they need to grow and produce food.
- Women and families living in the refugee camps in Darfur will receive the food aid they desperately need.
- By working together to grow crops, participants build a network of women farmers who can share resources and work to boost their economic status over time, improving conditions for themselves and their families not just today, but well into the future.
- The women’s improved economic status and organizing skills enhance their decision-making power within their communities and their capacity to demand human rights for themselves and their children.
- Community food sovereignty is strengthened because the project supplies women with organic seeds to grow nutritious traditional foods, including cereals and vegetables.
