GlobalGiving.org: Support Women Farmers in Sudan

MADRE Partner Fatima Ahmed on Climate Change and Women's Leadership

Erica Hellerstein — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:58:50 GMT

Fatima Ahmed of Zenab for Women in Development

In December, Fatima Ahmed, President of MADRE’s partner organization Zenab for Women in Development and founder of Sudan’s first women farmers union, attended the international conferences on climate change in Durban, South Africa. We interviewed her on the effects of climate change on women and on her community, how women are at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis and what needs to be done at the conferences to secure meaningful solutions. Read her responses below:

How has climate change impacted your community?

Climate change has had a big impact on my community in Gadaref State, Sudan, which is the number one major production area of the staple foods for Sudan. It produces 75% of the sorghum and other cash crops like sesame, gum arabic, ground nut and millet. For years now, there have been fluctuations in the amount of precipitation we receive, and drought makes it very hard for the small scale farmers, including the women farmers, to grow their crops.

The price of the sorghum has tripled in the last couple of years and is still going up. This has contributed to extreme poverty and malnutrition, not only in Gadaref State but in the whole Sudan. There have also been floods in some areas around the rivers and the tributaries of the Blue Nile.

Also there has been a shift in the pattern of the seasons. Some areas like Khartoum, which is more at the North, now receive more rain than before, which affects the poor people who live in shanty houses who are not protected from this much rain. This current pattern and Mediterranean climate is very unusual for Sudan.

How are women particularly affected by climate change?

Women are more affected by these changes because they can’t produce enough food for their families, it is harder to find clean drinking water and the women who are pastoralists must travel long distances looking for water and grass for their animals. The overall outcome is that women become more vulnerable and live under extreme poverty.

How are you helping communities adapt to the impacts of climate change?

To adapt we are working with women farmers to learn new ways of planting, including using better tools for their land preparation. These tools go deep into the soil so the little precipitation we receive can be conserved for some time. We are also training women farmers to use more varied and improved seeds which better withstand drought, and also teaching them to learn simple techniques of water harvest, using crop rotation and weeding in a better way. We also encourage the women to plant trees as much as they can in their villages and not to cut the trees. We have dug water wells for women and their families in poor communities.

How have women been leaders in this work?

Women are very committed to finding solutions to this problem; this is why they are eager to get informed and to follow recommendations. They are trying very hard to cope with this problem and to adapt but they need much help in many ways.

Moving forward, what do you hope to see accomplished at the UN Climate Change Conference? In other words, what do you think needs to be done by policy makers to protect women and their families from the climate crisis?

The Cancun agreement provided real opportunities to advance global cooperation in adaptation, reforestation, climate change finance and technology transfer. If all opportunities within the Cancun Agreement are fully grasped, and parties take logical next steps, COP 17 could lay the ground work for a fair, ambitious and legally binding global climate change regime. If instead there is delay and lack of ambition, then we risk losing the chance to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius and the world will face catastrophe. Poor communities and countries are already feeling the devastating impacts of the changing climate; without adequate mitigation, finance, technology and capacity building, their homes and livelihoods will be destroyed.

Additional Resources:

A Letter from Our Sisters at Zenab for Women in Development

Erica Hellerstein — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:57:08 GMT

As famine struck East Africa, our partners at Womankind Kenya mobilized to provide emergency food and water to refugees. The members of the Women Farmers Union in Sudan, founded by MADRE's sister organization Zenab for Women in Development, wrote the following letter to the members of Womankind Kenya.

To Our Sisters at Womankind Kenya,

We stand with you in this time of tragedy and hardship. As women farmers of Sudan, we know what it is like to wait months for rain and to watch our children grow hungry. Every year, when we plant our crops, our families depend on us. Without rain, we have no harvest – we have nothing.

We made our Women Farmers Union so that we could support each other. Before that, the government did not recognize women farmers and gave tools, seeds and training only to the men. So we came together to share our resources and to demand that the government respect our rights.

In eastern Sudan where we live, farming has always been part of our lives. But recently, the droughts have gotten worse, and they come more often. We had to adapt how we farm. This is because of climate change, a danger created mainly by those in the rich countries.

Our friends at MADRE have helped us through the years, when the harvests have been good and also when the rains failed to come. They told us how refugee women and families are fleeing Somalia to Kenya. They told us that what you need are the resources to buy emergency food and water to help them live.

And so we are sending you the money that we saved after our last harvest. Usually, we use these savings to improve our communities. Last year, we put a roof on the local school. But this year, your needs are greater than ours. We are able to send you this money because we joined together as women farmers and made ourselves stronger. We hope you will be able to use this gift to feed your children and strengthen yourselves as women.

We send this to you with our blessings. As mothers and as farmers, the future depends on us.

In solidarity,

Fatima Ahmed, Director of Zenab for Women in Development & The Women Farmers Union
Sudan

Seeds, Tools and Even Rain for Women Farmers in Sudan

Maria Trimble — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:12:32 GMT

c. Zenab

Just a few weeks ago, it rained in the communities of the Women Farmers’ Union in Sudan—welcome news! It has been a productive month, and we’d like to share some of the updates we’ve received from our partners at Zenab for Women in Development.

With MADRE support, Zenab was able to purchase seeds for the upcoming planting season. Najla, a young woman leader with Zenab, oversaw the distribution of sesame, millet and sorghum seeds to over 2,000 women across 50 communities.

What’s more, with your help, the Women Farmers’ Union was able to purchase a wide tractor disk to aid in plowing. Remember when we gave you the good news that they had bought a tractor? Now, with the new wide tractor disk, they will be able to increase their efficiency in harvesting crops even more. It will greatly cut back on the time it takes to plow.

Women Farmers Union in Sudan Purchases a Tractor!

Yifat Susskind — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:51:43 GMT

In Sudan, most women farmers manually prepare land for the growing season. Tilling and seeding by hand is backbreaking work and extremely time consuming. It can take one woman several days to prepare just a tiny plot of land.

But thanks to MADRE member support, the Women Farmers Union, a project with our sister organization Zenab for Women in Development, has been able to purchase a tractor! Work that took them days by hand will now take only hours with the help of the tractor, which the many union members will share.

Now the farmers are working to purchase two tractor attachments: a planter and a disc harrow. The disc harrow allows for deeper plowing, giving plants more access to underground water sources. This is an important adaptation now that climate change is causing more droughts in Sudan.

In May, Zenab hosted 500 women for a General Assembly. Representing some 60 villages, this gathering allowed the women to learn from one another and plan their activities for the remainder of the year. The Women Farmers Union is the only organization of its kind in Sudan. As one woman farmer said after the General Assembly, “Zenab for Women in Development is the only one who helps us.”

As our partners prepare to plant this year’s crop of sorghum, millet and wheat, Zenab’s founder and director, Fatima Ahmed conveys her thanks: “MADRE members helped us buy this tractor. Thanks to you, more women will be able to feed their children this year and earn money for school fees, medicine and other basic needs.”

Links:

Women Farmers Union in Sudan Purchases a Tractor!

Women's Farmers Unite in Sudan

Maria Trimble — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:25:31 GMT

In 2008, MADRE and Zenab for Women in Development partnered to found Sudan’s first women farmer’s union. The goal of the Women Farmers Unite is to increase crop production in the rural Al Qadarif area of Sudan while conserving natural resources and empowering women farmers to gain access to tools, credit, and training opportunities usually reserved for men. The women are committed to farming organically and working together to promote an understanding of good nutrition and environmental preservation in their communities.

In 2010, Zenab was able to support six communities, a total of 496 women, to improve their agricultural processes. This support included seed distribution, land rental assistance, and improved plowing and harvesting techniques.

Success stories:

The community of Wad Daeaf is in their second year of profit, which they used to expand community gathering spaces and pay for primary and secondary education for their children.
The village of Gungulesa was able to build a club and successfully pay rent on their land from last season’s profits.

Women in Sudan Unite to Provide for their Families

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:15:12 GMT

The women farmers and their families

During the last farming season, MADRE and our sister organization, Zenab for Women in Development, coordinated the delivery of sorghum, millet and peanut seeds to hundreds of Women Farmers' Union members in Gungulesa, Guregana and Um Khanjar, Sudan. Previously women had to commute to a central seed distribution site. This was especially significant because Sudan’s cash-strapped Ministry of Agriculture was unable to distribute seeds this year. MADRE and Zenab also coordinate trainings in organic farming and human rights, as well as provide the women farmers with more effective farming tools and financial support for land rental. In addition to growing healthy food for their families, the women farmers are generating enough income to send their children to school. “Without the Women Farmers’ Union, I would never have earned enough to afford school fees for my children,” Hadija, a 47-year-old farmer, told us. “I am so proud because this year, I was able to send my youngest daughter to college with the income from my crops.”

One group of women farmers have pooled their extra income to fund literacy training in their village, where 95 percent of the people cannot read. In another village, the women are using their earnings to bring electricity to the community. With MADRE and Zenab’s support, these small-holder women farmers are able to create lasting food security for their families and positive change for their communities.

Addressing Climate Change

Vivian Stromberg — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:51:02 GMT

Women Farmers in Sudan

As world leaders gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a climate change agreement this week, MADRE is emphasizing that the creation of any new policy is an opportunity to advance human rights. In particular, we are calling for world leaders to recognize small holder women farmers, including the women farmers we support in Sudan, as a crucial, but underrepresented constituency in addressing the crisis.

We are emphasizing that small holder women farmers are not only disproportionately threatened by climate change; they are also advancing practices of sustainable agriculture that hold incredible promise to confront climate change.

MADRE is providing women farmers in Sudan with organic seeds and training in sustainable farming. The women are learning techniques such as crop diversity and crop rotation to enhance soil quality, control pests and cool the planet by attracting carbon back into the soil. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “small-scale sustainable farms have been found to emit between one-half and two-thirds less carbon dioxide for every acre of production” than industrial farms.

In Sudan, climate change may bring a frightening 50 percent drop in crop yields within two generations. The effects of global climate change are already 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.

Sustainable agriculture is our best hope for feeding a growing population and restoring the stability of the climate. Worldwide, the vast majority of those who farm sustainably are women. Securing the full range of their human rights—as women, as workers, and as rural and Indigenous Peoples has always been at the heart of MADRE’s work. Now we know that these women’s rights are key to empowering them to enact solutions on which we all depend.

Achievements of the Women Farmers

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:09:04 GMT

Copyright Zenab for Women in Development

Thanks to MADRE’s support, the women farmers in the Al Qadarif region had a successful harvest, allowing them to pay back their entire bank loan of US$5,000. Local banks praised the women for this achievement. Because of these positive results, Zenab is now introducing women to a credit union, a benefit that they have never had before.

Another exciting result of last year’s successful harvest was that women farmers in the community of Walddaeef have begun the process of bringing electricity to their village. Fatima is optimistic that the motivation of these women to use their new income in productive ways, will lead to “a better life” for the whole community.

Finally, Zenab purchased an events tent and chairs with the income raised from recent harvests. They rent out these supplies to communities as another source of income for the women of Walddaeef.

Copyright Zenab for Women in Development

Women in Sudan Sow Seeds of Success

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:11:24 GMT

Uniting Women Farmers in Sudan

Women Farmers Unite has expanded to over 2000 members from 20 different villages in Al Qadarif state in Sudan. MADRE and its sister organization, Zenab for Women in Development, were able to distribute high-quality seeds to 500 women from 20 different towns.

Sorghum, sesame, and peanut seeds were distributed in July 2008 at Zenab’s center in Al Qadarif City, with 35 union representatives traveling up to five hours each way to collect seeds to bring back to their communities. Seeds were distributed by Zenab staff and volunteers from the Department of Agriculture, who calculated the amount of seeds for each community according to the area of farmland held by union members. Women who wished to grow other crops such as millet in order to better suit their families' needs were able to trade their seeds at markets.

To ensure a successful growing season and harvest, local coordinators visited different villages and spoke with union members. The coordinators also discussed plans for the winter harvest and made sure the farmers were well prepared. The use of high-quality seeds, new tools, and better training for women farmers proved to be a winning strategy. The Women Farmers’ Union celebrated their first harvest last winter, a large bumper crop that produced enough food to feed hundreds of families. The union is now preparing the soil for their next crop this summer and the women farmers have new hope that they can grow enough to feed their families and support themselves.

Uniting Women Farmers in Sudan 2

Uniting Women Farmers in Sudan 3

The women farmers of Sudan need your help!

Vivian Stromberg — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:05:40 GMT

Al Qadarif is Sudan’s main agricultural state; 75% of sorghum, a dietary staple for many, consumed nationally has traditionally come from this region. As virtually all of Al Qadarif’s population relies on farming for their livelihoods, and a vast majority of residents live in a female-headed household, it is clear that women play a huge role in the state’s overall agricultural output. However, until 2007, women were denied entry into Sudanese farmers’ unions, and thus deprived of the information and resources crucial to a successful harvest. Here were thousands of women sitting on some of the most fertile land in all of Africa; meanwhile, war and famine were ravaging their country, and male-centered family and government structures were preventing them from lifting themselves, and their families, out of poverty.

Enter Fatima Ahmed, the director and founder of Zenab for Women in Development, MADRE’s Sudanese sister organization. Fatima comes from a legacy of community organizing. Her family has lived in Al Qadarif for many generations, and her mother, for whom Zenab is named, was well-known throughout the region as a champion of the children’s education, and girl’s education in particular. Because she is native to the region and has a comprehensive understanding of the culture and its unique challenges, Fatima has been able to gain the trust and commitment of the women farmers, along with the cooperation of government officials. She is truly an amazing and accomplished person, and this story, her story, the story of the women farmers of Al Qadarif, is inspiring.

Very little data exist on the population and agriculture of Al Qadarif, as government, scientific, and academic institutions in Sudan have been in varying states of upheaval for years. Fatima gathered information from twenty of Al Qadarif’s sixty-four villages. According to her research, 70% of households in the region are headed by women, with an average of 8.5 people per household. 72% of residents are illiterate, while 8% have obtained the U.S. equivalent of a high school degree. 99% of households studied rely on farming for either subsistence or income; poor seed and a lack of financial resources were the most commonly reported agricultural problems.

Armed with this data, project planning shifted into high gear, and we entered phase one of the project. Several women representatives from each of the 20 villages surveyed traveled to Al Qadarif City for an intensive two-day series of workshops in late March of 2008. The trainers taught interactive classes on successful agricultural techniques, basic business education, and human rights. Several participants initially exhibited some reluctance and trepidation; their wariness was warranted, as the history of outside aid in most areas of poverty and conflict has been riddled with shallow, quick-fix “solutions” that do little to address root issues, leaving the wellbeing of participants compromised. The trainers and organizers were sensitive to these needs, and by approaching them from a culturally relative perspective based on achieving lasting change, were able to not only gain the participants’ full trust, but their excitement and full commitment to the project.

Phase two of the project, which we are currently in, concerns the acquisition and preparation of land and resources. Some of the farmers own their own land, but many rent small plots from others; we have to ensure that the women from each village had enough communal farming space to sow crops for both subsistence and income. Once this is accomplished, the soil has to be readied for an optimal harvest; as the survey showed, the women had very low levels of production, due to use of poor seeds, inefficient methods, and plant and animal parasites. Tractors must be rented and shared between villages to clear this amount of space. Land is rented and cleared easily enough, but finding seeds that were of good quality and reasonably priced presented a much larger hurdle. Fatima was able to secure a meeting with then-minister of agriculture; he sagely realized the potential of this project to raise overall food productivity and standards of living in Sudan, and offered to sell Zenab sorghum, sesame, and millet seeds at a reduced price. Finding a controlled environment for seed storage was another major issue, but Fatima was also able to persuade the minister to offer space in national seed bank for Mothers’ Farm.

Phase three, the planting and harvesting of the crop, was originally slated to begin in early July of 2008. However, trends in climate change have caused the rains to come early this year, so the planting has been stepped up to late May. Fatima and the women farmers are doing everything in their power to pull together the finishing touches of land preparation, but there are still many materials, and much land, that need to be rented, and only in a matter of weeks. Your donations in these next few weeks are crucial to the success of this project!

The women are thrilled about the very real potential for individual and collective success, but they’re not yet fully equipped for this season’s quickly impending harvest. You, the Global Giving community, have the ability to make a palpable difference in the lives of many. Please give today to ensure lasting change for the women farmers of Al Qadarif.