Women have an important role in promoting initiatives, solutions, and innovations towards food system transformation. However, in many countries, women farmers are vulnerable to inequalities and are deprived of access to land and other critical resources like knowledge, technology, and power over agricultural decision-making that impacts their agricultural productivity.
AFA works with partners in Asia and the region to support women farmers. In India, AFA works with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a member-based organization of poor self-employed women workers of informal sectors with a membership of 1.7 million poor women across 16 states in India and in neighboring countries, with 2/3 of its membership is rural and ½ of its members are engaged in agriculture and farming.
“Our approach to rural organization has been to identify the needs and demands of the local members and provide support to organize programs to address the needs or link with the government’s developmental programs.” – Sakhiben Ahir, SEWA member
SEWA is providing its members with an online platform for marketing and government linkages., where they can access government schemes or buy or sell products; where they can buy or sell their high-quality products at the local level directly. By linking women farmers to these digital platforms, members have achieved increased farming efficiency and cost-effectiveness of last-mile operations, improved delivery, SEWA has also provided tools and equipment libraries that benefitted 15,000 farmers. SEWA has achieved significant progress in promoting women-led enterprises, increasing women farmer’s well-being, incomes, and rights, especially in a highly patriarchal society.
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