Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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Ms. Kamasa Dorothy

Member since
Organization: Centre for Women and Food Security-Ghana (CeWaFS-Ghana)
Country: Ghana
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:

Nature based solutions for climate adaptation, community development, rural women empowerment, farmers capacity building, indigenous food systems, circular economy, climate education, Humanitarianism (Diplomacy and Management)

Kamasa is a purpose driven African youth with over 12 years’ experience in sustainable agriculture, nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration, food systems innovation, indigenous climate solutions, food security, public policy, governance, and community development. She is an MBA (Food Security) fellow at the Business School Netherlands, holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Humanitarian Action from the Catholic University of Murcia, Spain; a Certificate in Local Climate Response from The Hague Academy for Local Governance (Netherlands), Certificate in Decision Making for Environmentally Sustainable supply chains (Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick, USA), Certificate in African Civic Engagement (University of Georgia, USA), Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Agribusiness (African Management Institute, Kenya), Diploma in Project Management (Alison Academy), Diploma in Human Resources (Alison Academy), Certificate in Media Studies (Alison Academy), and Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Science: Majored in Conservation Biology, Entomology and Wildlife (University of Cape Coast, Ghana) 

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Dorothy Kamasa, committed to empowering rural women farmers in Ghana :: AWE - En (africawomenexperts.com)

 

 

 

 

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    • Resilience is a multifaceted concept defined differently across cultures and disciplines:

      Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations: Resilience is seen as an innate determination to succeed, intertwined with spirituality, culture, healing, and land connection1. It’s about community success and well-being, not just overcoming adversity.

      Scientific Literature: Resilience is the capacity to adapt and maintain mental health despite adversity. It involves personal, biological, and environmental factors interacting dynamically throughout one’s life.

      Key Rights Holders: They view resilience as the ability to prepare for, react to, and sustain identity and culture in the face of stressors.

      Each perspective emphasizes resilience as a process of adaptation and growth, influenced by individual and collective strengths and experiences.

      Food supply chains are complex networks that involve the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food. They are susceptible to various types of vulnerabilities that can have significant consequences for all actors involved. Below is an overview of the main types of vulnerabilities and potential consequences for food system actors:

      Types of Vulnerabilities:

      Environmental Risks: Climate change, extreme weather events, and natural disasters can disrupt production and supply routes, leading to shortages and loss of crops.

      Economic Risks: Price volatility, inflation, and economic downturns can affect the affordability and availability of food, as well as the financial stability of all actors in the supply chain.

      Geopolitical Risks: Conflicts, trade disputes, and policy changes can lead to trade restrictions, sanctions, and loss of market access, impacting the flow of food commodities.

      Technological Risks: Cybersecurity threats and technological failures can disrupt logistics and information systems, leading to inefficiencies and loss of data.

      Health Risks: Pandemics and animal diseases can lead to labor shortages, closure of production facilities, and restrictions on trade, affecting food safety and availability.

      Social Risks: Labor issues, such as strikes or lack of skilled workers, can impact production and distribution capabilities.

      Kindly find attached, the full input

      BUILDING RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS: KAMASA DOROTHY, GHANA

      Resilience is a multifaceted concept defined differently across cultures and disciplines:

      Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations: Resilience is seen as an innate determination to succeed, intertwined with spirituality, culture, healing, and land connection1. It’s about community success and well-being, not just overcoming adversity.

      Scientific Literature: Resilience is the capacity to adapt and maintain mental health despite adversity. It involves personal, biological, and environmental factors interacting dynamically throughout one’s life.

      Key Rights Holders: They view resilience as the ability to prepare for, react to, and sustain identity and culture in the face of stressors.

      Each perspective emphasizes resilience as a process of adaptation and growth, influenced by individual and collective strengths and experiences.

      Food supply chains are complex networks that involve the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food. They are susceptible to various types of vulnerabilities that can have significant consequences for all actors involved. Below is an overview of the main types of vulnerabilities and potential consequences for food system actors:

      Types of Vulnerabilities:

      • Environmental Risks: Climate change, extreme weather events, and natural disasters can disrupt production and supply routes, leading to shortages and loss of crops.
      • Economic Risks: Price volatility, inflation, and economic downturns can affect the affordability and availability of food, as well as the financial stability of all actors in the supply chain.
      • Geopolitical Risks: Conflicts, trade disputes, and policy changes can lead to trade restrictions, sanctions, and loss of market access, impacting the flow of food commodities.
      • Technological Risks: Cybersecurity threats and technological failures can disrupt logistics and information systems, leading to inefficiencies and loss of data.
      • Health Risks: Pandemics and animal diseases can lead to labor shortages, closure of production facilities, and restrictions on trade, affecting food safety and availability.
      • Social Risks: Labor issues, such as strikes or lack of skilled workers, can impact production and distribution capabilities.

      Potential Consequences for Food System Actors:

      • Input Suppliers: Shortages of seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs can lead to reduced production capacity and increased costs.
      • Food Producers: Crop failures, livestock diseases, and reduced access to markets can result in financial losses and reduced output.
      • Traders: Trade restrictions and market volatility can lead to decreased trading opportunities and financial risks.
      • Food System Workers: Health risks and labor shortages can lead to job insecurity and health concerns.
      • Consumers: Reduced availability and increased prices of food can lead to food insecurity and reduced dietary diversity.
      • Shocks and Their Impacts:
      • Natural Shocks: Droughts, floods, and other natural events can cause immediate and long-term damage to agricultural productivity and infrastructure.
      • Economic Shocks: Sudden economic crises can lead to rapid changes in demand and supply, affecting prices and food security.
      • Social Shocks: Political instability and social unrest can disrupt food systems, leading to food shortages and humanitarian crises.
      • Health Shocks: Disease outbreaks can lead to widespread disruption of food production and distribution, as well as changes in consumer behavior.

      To mitigate these vulnerabilities, food system actors need to develop resilience strategies, such as diversifying supply sources, investing in technology, and enhancing coordination and communication within the supply chain. By doing so, they can better prepare for and respond to potential shocks, ensuring the stability and sustainability of food systems.

      For a detailed analysis of risks and vulnerabilities in the EU food supply chain, you can refer to the study “Mapping the Risks and Vulnerabilities in the EU Food Supply Chain” and other resources that provide insights into the challenges and strategies for enhancing food system resilience. Additionally, exploring global food system shocks, scenarios, and outcomes can offer a broader perspective on systemic risks and their implications.

      Inequities and power imbalances in food systems are significant factors that affect Food Security and Nutrition (FSN), particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. Here are some key points:

      Inequities in Food Systems:

      • Imbalances in food systems are major drivers of dietary and nutrition inequities, which can restrict access to healthy diets or promote low-quality diets1.
      • The dominance of cereal production over diverse crops like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains leads to a lack of availability of healthy foods1.
      • Food environments, where consumers make decisions about what to eat, are often inequitable in terms of physical access, affordability, targeting of advertising, marketing, and quality of foods1.
      • Power imbalances need to be addressed by amplifying the voice of those excluded and holding the powerful accountable.

      Impact on Resilient FSN: 

      • Inequalities in FSN diminish people’s life chances, hamper productivity, perpetuate poverty, and impede economic growth.
      • Unequal food security and nutrition outcomes can lead to political unrest, protests, and food riots.
      • Vulnerable groups such as women, farmworkers, informal workers, migrants, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and chronic illnesses, elderly people, and youth are systematically disadvantaged and excluded.

      Addressing the Issue: 

      • A systemic approach is required to tackle these inequities, which involves an integrated response at global, national, and local levels.
      • Policies should aim for structural change towards equity, considering the cumulative effects of multiple interacting inequalities on marginalized peoples.

      To build resilient FSN, it’s crucial to develop pathways that tackle these inequities and create food systems that are equitable, sustainable, and capable of supporting all dimensions of food security. This includes addressing the systemic drivers of FSN inequalities and advocating for actions in favor of equity and equality.

      Resilience frameworks that are relevant for food systems:

      1. Food System Resilience Measurement Framework:
      • This framework focuses on assessing the resilience of food systems at the local level. It is structured around three components:  
      • Mapping of the actors and the local food system.
      • Assessment of the resilience of these actors and the food system itself.
      • Outcomes of this resilience, are assessed in terms of the local population’s food security.
      1. Social-Ecological Resilience Framework for Food Systems:
      • This framework adapts social-ecological resilience thinking to food systems, aiming to define factors that help achieve food security for all and at all scales. It emphasizes the importance of functional and response diversity within food systems to maintain resilience against shocks and uncertainties.
      1. The Local and Regional Food Systems (LRFS) Resilience Playbook:
      • Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Resilience Playbook provides frameworks, strategies, and real-life examples to support LRFS leaders in creating equitable resilience approaches for short-, mid-, and long-term planning.
      1. RFS Food Systems Conceptual Framework by USAID: 
      • Designed by the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, this framework articulates the contribution of USAID to strengthening food systems. It provides high-level operational guidance to staff globally, aligning with the strategy to build more resilient communities and sustainably reduce hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

      These frameworks offer a structured approach to understanding and enhancing the resilience of food systems, ensuring they can withstand and recover from disruptions while maintaining their capacity to provide food security and other essential functions.

      The resilience of food systems at various scales, from household to regional, is influenced by a combination of determinants, assets, and skills. Here’s a summary of key factors:

      Determinants:  

      • Diversity of production and partners.
      • Redundancy of activities and networks.
      • System thinking through science and communication.
      • Buffering strategies to manage shocks and disruptions.

      Assets:

      • Natural assets: Access to land, water, and biodiversity.
      • Physical assets: Infrastructure for storage, processing, and transportation.
      • Human assets: Education, health, and nutrition status of individuals.
      • Social assets: Community networks, social cohesion, and mutual support systems.
      • Financial assets: Savings, credits, and insurance to invest in food system activities.

      Skills:

      • Adaptive capacity: Ability to adjust practices, processes, and structures in response to changes.
      • Management skills: Efficiently organizing resources and making strategic decisions.
      • Technical skills: Knowledge of agricultural practices, food processing, and marketing.
      • Collaborative skills: Working with different stakeholders, from farmers to policymakers.

      At the household level, resilience is often about diversification of income sources and access to resources like land and livestock. At the community level, it involves collective action and local knowledge systems. Nationally and regionally, it’s about policy support, infrastructure, and market stability.

      Evaluating and measuring food systems resilience can be complex due to the multifaceted nature of food systems and the different scales at which they operate. 

      The general approach to assessing resilience at various scales:

      Household Scale:

      • Mapping of Actors: Identify all members involved in the household’s food system.
      • Resilience Capacities: Assess the adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities of the household to withstand shocks.
      • Food Security Outcomes: Evaluate the household’s access to food, utilization, and stability over time.

      Community Scale:

      • Local Food System Context: Understand the community’s food sources, distribution channels, and consumption patterns.
      • Actor Typology: Categorize different groups within the community based on their role in the food system.
      • Emergent Properties: Analyze community-level characteristics that contribute to resilience, such as diversity of food sources and social networks.

      National Scale:

      • Policy Analysis: Review government policies and programs that support food system resilience.
      • Infrastructure Assessment: Evaluate the robustness of national food storage, transportation, and market systems.
      • Economic Indicators: Monitor economic factors like food prices, trade balances, and employment rates in food-related sectors.

      Regional Scale:

      • Cross-Border Collaboration: Assess the level of cooperation between countries in the region for food security initiatives.
      • Climate Adaptation Strategies: Examine regional plans for dealing with climate change impacts on food systems.
      • Supply Chain Analysis: Study the interconnectivity of regional food supply chains and their vulnerability to disruptions.

      For each scale, it’s important to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data. This can include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and the analysis of secondary data. Indicators might include the diversity of food sources, the stability of food access, the response to food price volatility, and the presence of social safety nets.

      Frameworks and tools such as the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) guide on selecting appropriate indicators and methodologies for resilience measurement. Additionally, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a global benchmark for assessing progress towards more resilient food systems.

      It’s also crucial to consider the specific context of each scale, as resilience can manifest differently depending on local, national, or regional circumstances. The goal is to identify vulnerabilities and strengths within each system to inform strategies that enhance resilience against future shocks.

      Resilience in food systems is a complex concept that involves various components working together to withstand and recover from disruptions. 

      Key indicators that can measure the resilience of food systems across different components:

      Consumption:

      • Diversity of diet: A variety of food sources can indicate resilience against supply shocks.
      • Nutrition sensitivity: The ability of the system to maintain nutritional quality under stress.

      Supply Chains:

      • Robustness of primary production: The capacity of production systems to withstand shocks.
      • Redundancy: Having multiple sources for critical supplies to avoid disruption in case one source fails.

      Retail:

      • Accessibility: The physical and economic access to food, ensuring that food remains available and affordable during crises.
      • Buffering strategies: The presence of stockpiles or reserves to buffer against supply fluctuations.

      Production:

      • Diversity of production: A range of agricultural products can buffer against the failure of any single crop or livestock.
      • Adaptive capacity: The ability of production systems to adjust practices in response to changing conditions.

      These indicators can help assess the capacity of national agri-food systems to absorb shocks and stresses, which is a key aspect of resilience. The FAO and other research articles provide frameworks and further details on how to measure these indicators.

      The weak points in global food systems that impact the resilience of food security and nutrition are multifaceted. 

      Key vulnerabilities: 

      • Supply Chain Concentration: The global supply chain of food is concentrated in the hands of fewer companies, making it susceptible to disruptions.
      • Climate Change: Increasing desertification, disrupted rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels stress food production.
      • Economic Inequality: Disparities contribute to a system where many are hungry, suffer from hidden hunger, or overconsume, leading to health epidemics.
      • Unsustainable Practices: Overfishing, soil erosion, and aquifer depletion threaten food security, alongside climate change impacts like droughts and extreme weather events.

      To measure resilience and the effectiveness of interventions, various evidence bases are used  

      • Resilience Assessment Frameworks: These frameworks evaluate the resilience of food systems at local levels, considering both individual actors and the system’s emergent properties.
      • Empirical Evidence: Studies often use multivariate techniques to quantify resilience, finding that higher resilience capacity tends to correlate with better food security outcomes5.
      • Systematic Reviews: These reviews synthesize academic studies to understand the evolution of food system resilience assessment and identify the need for comprehensive frameworks and granular metrics.

      These points highlight the complexity of global food systems and the importance of robust measures to ensure their resilience. For more detailed information, you can refer to the full articles and studies linked in the citations.

      Understanding the nature of shocks and their impact on food systems and food security and nutrition (FSN) is crucial for preparedness and resilience. 

      Types of Shocks Relevant to Food Systems:  

      • Climatic shocks like droughts, floods, and extreme weather events.
      • Economic shocks such as market volatility and price spikes.
      • Political shocks, including policy changes and instability.
      • Social shocks like pandemics or mass migration.

      Under-Researched Shocks Impacting FSN:

      • The interplay between multiple shocks and their compounded effects on food systems.
      • Long-term impacts of recurring minor shocks that may not be immediately devastating but erode resilience over time.

      Effects of Different Shocks on Food Systems:

      • Climatic shocks can disrupt production, leading to food shortages.
      • Social shocks may affect labor availability in agriculture and processing.
      • Financial shocks can impact investment in food systems, affecting all stages from production to distribution.
      • Political shocks can lead to trade restrictions, affecting food distribution and access.

      Balancing Short-Term Shocks and Long-Term Sustainability:

      • Building resilient food systems that can withstand immediate shocks while maintaining the capacity for long-term sustainability.
      • Implementing adaptive management practices that can adjust to changing conditions.
      • Encouraging diversification in crops, livestock, and income sources to spread risk.

      Enhancing Resilience to Unknown Shocks:

      • Strengthening local food systems to reduce reliance on global supply chains.
      • Investing in research and development to anticipate and mitigate the effects of potential shocks.
      • Creating buffer stocks and emergency reserves.
      • Develop early warning systems and risk assessment tools to detect and respond to emerging threats.

      It’s important to note that enhancing resilience is not just about preparing for known risks but also about creating systems that are flexible and robust enough to adapt to new and unforeseen challenges. Collaborative efforts across sectors and scales, from local to global, are essential to achieve this goal.

      Understanding and mitigating trade-offs in adaptation strategies is indeed a complex issue. Increasing adaptation to one type of shock can inadvertently create vulnerabilities to other types of shocks or stresses. For example, in agriculture, adaptation decisions can lead to trade-offs between crop yield and profitability, farm economy, pest and weed robustness, and soil quality. These trade-offs involve balancing various socio-ecological system aspects that are different and have different functions.

      When it comes to resilience programming, different understandings of food security and nutrition can significantly impact the approach and outcomes. The concept of resilience is closely linked with food security and nutrition; good nutrition is both an essential input for resilience and an outcome of it. For instance, a focus on nutrition can bring to resilience programming a more nuanced understanding of the multiple causes of malnutrition and the role of agriculture in addressing them. This can lead to more effective programming that not only aims to improve immediate food availability but also considers long-term nutritional outcomes.

      The four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability along with the six dimensions, which include aspects like food safety and agency, provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing food security. When resilience programming incorporates these pillars and dimensions, it can more effectively address the multifaceted nature of food security and nutrition challenges. This comprehensive approach can help ensure that resilience-building efforts are not only robust in the face of shocks but also contribute to sustained improvements in food security and nutrition outcomes.

      In summary, while trade-offs are an inherent part of adaptation and resilience programming, a thorough understanding of the interconnections between food security, nutrition, and resilience can help mitigate these trade-offs and enhance the overall effectiveness of such programs.

      Countries are actively working to enhance food systems resilience through a variety of strategies and policies. 

      National Level Plans for Food Systems Resilience

      Countries are preparing for food systems resilience by:

      • Mapping actors and local food systems.
      • Assessing the resilience of these actors and the food system.
      • Analyzing outcomes in terms of the local population’s food security.

      Main Policies and Documents

      Key documents include:

      • Food Security and Nutrition frameworks2.
      • Climate Change Adaptation Plans.
      • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aligned strategies.

      Partnerships and Initiatives

      Successful partnerships/initiatives:

      • Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for sustainable food production.
      • Global Alliance for the Future of Food, sharing best practices.

      Lessons Learned

      Important lessons include:

      • The necessity of diversity and redundancy in food systems.
      • The importance of stakeholder engagement and capacity building.

      Success Stories and Best Practices

      Examples of success stories:

      • Zero Budget Natural Farming in India, promoting resilience through traditional farming.
      • Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) in Zambia, transforming poachers into farmers.

      Alignment with Shocks and Scales

      Current resilience programming is increasingly aligned with various shocks and scales by:

      • Incorporating climate-smart agriculture practices.
      • Enhancing supply chain diversification.

      Gaps in Current Policies

      Gaps identified include:

      • Insufficient integration of digital technologies.
      • Limited focus on smallholder farmers.

      Policy Changes Needed

      To enhance resilience, policy changes needed are:

      • Repurposing agricultural support to address climate change.
      • Trade reforms to ensure food security and sustainability.

      Role of States

      States play a crucial role by:

      • Providing infrastructure and regulatory measures.
      • Coordinating international policies for coherence.

      Incentivizing Private Sector

      Measures to incentivize the private sector include:

      • Infrastructure investments.
      • Regulatory flexibility to adapt to new technologies.

      These strategies, policies, and initiatives collectively contribute to building more resilient food systems capable of withstanding various shocks and stresses, ensuring food security, and promoting sustainable development.

      Recent Literature on Food Systems Resilience  

      • Food System Resilience Measurement: A framework to assess resilience at the local level, considering both individual actors and the ‘emergent properties’ of food systems.
      • Exploring Resilience Concepts: A systematic review of regional food systems, identifying strategies and challenges for resilience.

      Case Studies on Food Systems Resilience

      • Fiji - Climate Resilient Food Systems Alliance: A case study focusing on increasing adaptive capacity, resource use efficiency, and resilience against climate events.
      • Equity and Resilience in Urban Food Systems: A U.S. case study examining equity and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

      Data on Food Systems Resilience

      • Ontology Development for Food System Resilience: Discusses the challenges in reaching a unified conceptualization of food system resilience.
      • Data-Driven Food Systems for Crisis Resiliency: Highlights opportunities for data to enable better decision-making and empower stakeholders.

      Defining Food Systems Resilience

      • Food System Resilience UK: Discusses the ability of food systems to deliver acceptable outcomes before or following disruption.
      • Center for a Livable Future: Defines a resilient food system as one that can withstand and recover from disruptions.

      Nature of Shocks in Food Systems

      • Food Shocks and How to Avoid Them: Addresses the problem of sudden food scarcity in cities and how to mitigate food shocks.

      Mitigating Trade-offs in Food Systems Resilience

      • The ABCD of Food Systems Resilience: Offers a practical assessment framework to support policymakers in strengthening food systems’ resilience.

      Existing Programmes and Policies Promoting Food Systems Resilience  

      • Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO): Focuses on increasing fodder and feed productivity and actions against desertification.

      Gap Analysis of Current Strategies for Food Systems Resilience

      • Supply Chain Resilience Capability Factors: A study employing a multi-method approach within China’s agri-food supply chain to fill research gaps.

       

      See the attachments:

    • The path of global agricultural development has been narrowly focused on increased productivity rather than on a more holistic integration of Natural Resource Management with food and nutritional security, therefore a system-oriented approach is preferable because it can address the difficult issues associated with the complexity of food and other production systems in different ecologies, locations and cultures.

      Most rural women are comparatively poor and uneducated, their impact and activities are significant as their indigenous knowledge in the management of natural resources such as land, soil, water and forests (trees) because their traditional gender roles bring them in direct contact with these natural resources, and their survival and that of their families depend directly on exploiting and harnessing supplies from these natural resources, which are the main factors that affect agricultural productivity. When the world environmental protection and conservation policies advocate for protection without any form of use, while ignoring rural women, they become the greatest victims of such a policy.

      In rural communities, land provides many basic needs, the most essential one been food. The main activity of rural women is producing food for their families. Women provide over 80% of labor directly in food production on most farms, firewood collection, fetching water for domestic use, cooking and treatment of common rural ailments. Women have direct contact with land in their effort to produce food. If the soil doesn’t yield enough crops as a result of exhaustion, women would have to deal with modification of farming practices like provision of local manure to replenish the soil. Their traditional activities, skills and knowledge are crucial in understanding why lands deteriorate or remain viable, while it is becoming increasingly important to protect soils from erosion, and degradation. A lot of natural biodiversity and change of ecologies also result when land is misused; loss of biodiversity because of intensive, indiscriminate and careless use of land. It is of much urgency that women are taught to use farming and other compatible land use approaches for biodiversity and ecological conservation. The common problems related to use of land in the face of increasing human population and diminishing land resources are deforestation, soil and water pollution.

      Addressing gender, many people don't understand what gender equality actually means: Instead of seeking for women to be treated fairly just us males would be treated in any situation, a lot of activism in the gender mainstreams rather incite women to disregard men which over shadows the relevance of seeing both genders as equal humans. Gender equality should be sorted on the basis that both genders have access to opportunities and accorded equal respect. Gender disparities in agriculture hinders the chance of achieving food security, for example in the traditional  settings, inheritance is mostly patrilineal making land owner very tough for women. Once a woman marries she has no direct right to lands in her husband's family unless she's fortuned to be given any or is privileged to acquire lands of her own. Women in rural communities struggle a lot to achieve household food security though about 80% of agricultural labor in rural communities comprises of women, women do not usually have control over agricultural produce once harvesting is done the men take charge of everything and sometimes they sell all and the women will have to find means of fending for the family. 

      To help achieve food security and reduce poverty, sustainable natural resource management and measures to stabilize and increase soil productivity need to be taken without delay. The use of indigenous knowledge in solving food shortage remains a powerful means of sustaining rural household food security. Trial and error natural resource management experiments contribute to develop many indigenous techniques and practices for cultivating, processing and preserving foods at the rural community level. Indigenous methods and solutions applied by women to sustain household food supplies are culturally acceptable, economically practicable, and more appropriate for the local environment and conditions. Rural women have an important role to play in using and preserving this valuable indigenous knowledge, they manage to achieve sustainable food security at household levels, with practical, efficient and economic solutions.

      One effective means to achieve household food security is by recognizing, supporting and helping improve the agricultural skills of rural women. A number of changes will strengthen women’s contribution to agricultural production and sustainability, these include support for public services and investment in rural areas in order to improve women’s living and working conditions; giving priority to technological development policies targeting rural and farm women’s needs  and recognizing their knowledge, skills and experience in the production of food and the conservation of biodiversity; and assessing the negative effects and risks of farming practices and technology, including pesticides on women’s health, and taking measures to reduce use and exposure.

       

    • It's very sad seeing children working on farms while their colleagues of same age go sit in classrooms learning but the big QUESTION is CAN CHILD LABOR IN AGRICULTURE BE STOPPED?

      It is very challenging addressing this issue because expert will see it as an abuse to children or perhaps the children are been denied education and rather used as labor on farms by their parents, relations or some unkind humans taking advantage of the vulnerability of some children but the issues are so much to deal with.

      In rural communities it is common seeing kids going to work on farms on weekends and some too go to the farms to work everyday after close of school: this isn't child abuse or their parents don't love them much to subject them to such responsibilities, the issue is that the children nor their parents or relations have  no choice because everyone's efforts are needed to help on the farm that feeds the family. It will interest as all to know that most rural folks bring forth lots of children so that they can help boost the Agricultural human resources of the family. Some children are orphans and if they don't work on the farms, they will be denied food by their relations and those that are desolate will starve if they ignore the only chance to survive.

      LET ME USE MYSELF AS AN EXAMPLE

       I was born into a family whose main occupation is subsistence farming with a financially weak background in the northern part of Ghana. Growing up in such a rural community among other several children of an extended family, I realized one thing was key in this life that will enable me to change the situation of my life, i believed education was the weapon, even when there was no one to pay my school fees. As early as 11 years I  was working on people's farms to fend for myself, when they paid me I used the money to buy exercise books for and food for school because no one asked me to go to school, I took myself to school and therefore no one was going to take the burden of taking care of my education, I did this and was able to take care of myself till I got enrolled in secondary school, I was in the boarding house and couldn't work again and that left me without money in school, but since the school was feeding students I was some nphow okay. During vacation I never went back home to the north, I took to the streets of Agbogbloshie a suburb of Accra, where I engaged myself in selling yams in the market to help me save some amount for my tertiary education after my senior high school. After secondary school, I went to stay with an uncle of mine in Cape Coast and carry out that business, this took me a year after completing my senior high school education to gather some money for my undergraduate education and my uncle gave me some financial support to raise the full amount needed because I and an effort and he was very impressed with my determination. While in the University, I had to skip lectures sometimes so that I can go and take yams from farmers and sell and raise funds for my upkeep and this affected my academic performance badly. When I got to my third year in the university, my uncle who was my only source of support got involved in an accident that got him paralyzed. Things became very tough because I had to fend for myself all alone again, I struggled a lot and he died. I continued the business and I was able to graduate from the University. This the faith of a lot of my kind such that without been used as Agricultural labor we will have no no education, or might not even survive to tell the story.

      Child labor in Agriculture can only be ended if  there's a way of putting money in the pockets of every desolate child..........

      Child labor in Agriculture can only be ended if we can have a world without hunger and poverty........

      Thank you.

       

    • Most rural women are comparatively poor and uneducated, their impact and activities are significant as their indigenous knowledge in the management of natural resources such as land, soil, water and forests (trees) because their traditional gender roles bring them in direct contact with these natural resources, and their survival and that of their families depend directly on exploiting and harnessing supplies from these natural resources. When the world environmental protection and conservation policies advocate for protection without any form of use, while ignoring rural women, they become the greatest victims of such a policy.

       

      See the attachments: