WOFAGRIC 2019 set to reverse the 'unsung hero status' of women in agric

A recent news report by the Ghana News Agency, GNA captured a not so rare story of the precarious conditions under which most women work in the agric sector.

According to the opening paragraph of the story, “Fear griped the Napila Community in the Bimbila District of the Northern Region when the news of a couple who went to the farm and kept their sleeping baby under a neem tree whilst they worked could not find the child upon their return. It has been three months since the incidence and the hope of the couple ever finding the baby is diminishing by the day. Leaving a child in the shade under a tree to enable a mother work on a farm is a common practice in that community but that has ceased after the incident.”

This storyline is just one of many similar challenges that women, especially those in agriculture, go through in the rural areas. Despite the plethora of challenges however women have continually shone bright in the local agric sector.

Indeed, women in Ghana, especially those in agriculture, are worth mentioning and celebrating. Women are the key actors in Ghana's agriculture, making up of over half the agricultural labour force and producing 70 per cent of the country's food stock, according to a SEND-Ghana study.

It is not uncommon to see women with their babies strapped at their backs painstakingly tending their farms, applying urea and other fertilizers to enhance the growth of crops. A whopping 95 per cent are involved in agro-processing and 85 per cent in food distribution and their contribution to agriculture varies even more widely depending on the specific crop under cultivation, type of involvement and activity.

Besides agriculture-related activities, smallholder women farmers are heavily engaged in domestic and reproductive tasks, which are crucial to the maintenance of households and communities. These tasks are regarded as an extension of household duties and hence, remain hidden economically.

Due to the specific role of smallholder women farmers in food production, many of them are repositories of knowledge on cultivation, processing, and preservation of nutritious and locally adapted crop varieties.

Knowledge, innovations and technology are advancing; markets are changing very fast, especially for the higher value products; and environmental degradation and climate change require improved sustainable natural resource management to ensure access to land for enhanced food security, particularly for women smallholder farmers.

It is this enduring narrative that has inspired the need to reverse the “unsung hero” status of women in agric by Agrihouse Foundation and her supporting partners- who are set to rollout the maiden edition of the WOMEN IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL LEADERSHIP FORUM & EXPO (WOFAGRIC 2019) and the GOLD IN THE SOIL AWARDS set to take place from Wednesday, June 12th -Thursday, June 13th, 2019 at the Chances Hotel, Volta Region.

According to the organizers, the conceptual undertone for the project will focus on equipping agric-industry women with the capacity to improve production output. It will also access the impact women have, in shaping and directing the conversation on production, processing and marketing, policies, how farm related components of rural economy can contribute to income generation and employment and how women can rightfully take their place and tap in the opportunities within the agric sector.

While emphasis on women in agriculture has largely focused on the Northern Region in recent years, the organizers consider other regions including the Volta Region an ‘unsung hero’ that has rather unjustifiably endured underwhelming attention despite the impact of their industrious women in the agricultural value chain and are confident that WOFAGRIC and the GOLD IN THE SOIL AWARDS will pay a key role in projecting women in agriculture in each and every region it gets to and become a sustainable platform for women in agriculture to have a share of voice, share ideas, train and empower each other, discuss issues pertinent to women in the industry, promote by showcasing through exhibitions, the works, products and services of women in Agric. The event will focus on Smallholder Women, beginner agribusinesses and women achievers in Agriculture, whiles building capacity, alongside the 2day event.