Despite doing about 66 per cent of cocoa work, women earn only 10 per cent of its income. They are also financially excluded and discriminated against when they apply for loans, leaving them poor. The Farmers Development Union (FADU) plans to come to their aid. Daniel Essiet reports.
Many small-scale farmers and their families depend on cocoa for a living. One of them is Mrs Martha Ade (not real name). Because cocoa grows well in her area, it is the main cash crop for some farmers. In the past, income from cocoa has helped them to feed and meet their basic needs. But not so now.
Mrs Ade earns little income because of poor quality of the produce and limited access to markets. Most times, the price they received from their cocoa is low. Those who work like contract farmers accept low pay because of the low prices offered by middlemen who visit their farms.
Most women farmers were cheated on the weight of their product, and the price they received for it is too low to meet their needs. Other women found that they could no longer make a living from cocoa.
Some of the farm plots are small with ageing trees that are becoming less productive. As farmers, they did not meet certain necessary requirements, such as owning assets. This lack of knowledge and understanding is further compounded by gender discrimination limiting women’s options.
There are many families, whose situations are terrible and need change. How to resolve this has drawn the attention of the Farmers Development Union (FADU), a leading farmers’ cooperative in Ibadan. In response, the group organised a stakeholders’ workshop. It was aimed at bringing about improvement in women, particularly the poorest. It also focused on mainstreaming gender justice, improving cocoa quality, promoting the national and local markets and diversify livelihoods to reduce over supply and vulnerability.
Addressing a gender sensitive cocoa workshop in Ibadan, the Programme Coordinator of FADU, Mr Victor Olowe said women do much of the work in the industry, but earn small income. They experience higher financial exclusion and are discriminated against when they apply for loans.
Since they cannot access the capital to invest, they are trapped in a cycle of poverty and subsistence living.
As a result of this appalling condition coupled with the economic situation in the country, Olowe said many local women, who engaged in farming, live in abject poverty and remain vulnerable.
He also said without land rights, women, as cocoa farmers are vulnerable, unable to take responsibility for their well-being and that of their children.
Such rights and opportunities, he noted, empower women, enhancing their status and food long-term security.
He explained that crop’s production is, particularly, good for women farmers. That is, if they have the same access to input, such as credit and fertilisers.
He added that small cocoa farmers, especially women, have poor bargaining power. They typically sell at low price to the market.
To this end, he said a lot of small farmers need to be connected to better markets to boost their productivity.
What FADU has done is to band them in groups, so the farmers can sell their produce in bulk, connect to better markets and realise more of the crop’s value.
The groups offer a forum to improve farming skills through training and demonstration plots. And the members of business groups are better to access critical input and services, such as seeds, fertilisers, irrigation systems and credit.
Another method the organisation is using to highlight the plight of women is through the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). The GALS approach represents a creative approach reaching marginalised voices in the supply chain: poor men, and especially, women. It is useful not only to non-governmental organisation ( NGOs) or development agencies, but for social auditors.
The Programme Officer, Women’s Empowerment Mainstreaming and Networking (WEMAN), Oxfam, John Ajigo, said cocoa production involves many households, adding that it is crucial not only to incomes of rural households, but also the national economy. As in many value chains, women are important as producers and small traders. But they face a vicious cycle of gender discrimination and gender based constraints, which limit their ability to contribute to the industry, or to benefit from it.
He said his organisation used GALS with many women and men producers and other stakeholders to sensitise them on the need to get more women into cocoa work.
Getting this through, give women and men in communities the drive to push gender justice.
The Project Manger, FADU-Continaf Kokodola Project, Mrs Mopelola Fabunmi, said the gender action learning programme emphasises strengthening the role of women in the cocoa value chain industries and improving food security in households.
A participatory methodology, she explained that GALS through pictures, canvasses the inclusion of the marginalised ones in the value chain and discussion of sensitive topics such as gender equality. Ultimately, she said the visual method of drawing contributes rich data through enhanced participation,which can feed into enhanced sustainability programmes.
Through the programme, she said women learned new ideas and skill, experience and activities to increase food production for consumption and income.
Mrs Mopelola said her project has trained 1,600 farmers in Oyo and Osun states.
She said the project is helping the farmers to access new markets, by working also with Continaf International, Dutch cocoa trading firm, ASN Bank, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, and the cocoa producers, Delfi and Ferrero.
But a major challenge is to increase the number of women cocoa farmers participating in the programme, about 20 per cent.
Controller, Programmes, FADU, Mr Bayo Olaniyan said his organisation found women smallholder farmers make a large contribution to the production of commodity cashcrops on their farms, but derive a disproportionately low direct financial benefit from their work.
He said empowering women farmers is crucial to poverty reduction, food security, and economic stability and growth.
