Rural woman farmer with her crops in Zambia. Photo: Elly Kaas/CJI
On the UN’s International Day of Rural Women, October 15, Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) highlights the crucial role that rural women farmers play in reducing hunger and poverty, and in addressing the impacts of climate change.
Since the 1990s, CJI’s Jesuit partner in Zambia, the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), has been training small-scale farmers, both women and men, in organic agriculture. Organic farming has helped rural farmers raise healthy and sustainable crops, and has allowed them to feed their families better and improve their livelihoods.
Women comprise between 43% to 50% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And yet, compared to their male counterparts, they control less land and less livestock, and do not enjoy the same access to credit, according to the FAO.
The role that rural women play in eradicating poverty cannot be underestimated. The UN estimates that worldwide, “60% of chronically hungry people are women and girls.” In 2022, 388 million women and girls lived in extreme poverty compared to 372 million women and boys, according to UN Women.
CJI reaffirms its support for efforts to empower rural women farmers in Zambia and around the world.
Learn more about KATC and its work with rural farmers in Zambia: https://www.canadianjesuitsinternational.ca/projects/zambia-kasisi-agricultural-training-centre-katc/
