How Guatemalan refugees found peace and prosperity through farming

In Ethiopia’s southeast region, livestock are essential for survival. “We were pure herders. We used to follow the water and grass,” said Mahabo Hassen, a female livestock owner from the outskirts of Warder, in Ethiopia’s Somali Region.

In Kenya, FAO and the European Union are supporting small-scale women farmers to grow more food and earn more from their crops by adopting conservation agriculture (CA), and by linking the farmers to markets.

Women and children are among those most vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition. This is no different in Mozambique where, according to the FAO Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition, 35% of the population is food insecure.

The story of Hanen Talbi, Sonia Mhamdi and Imen Chelbi.

FAO’s Collect Mobile app is improving incomes and lives for men and women dairy farmers.

"In the programme we are taught to take care of the small children. They have to eat enriched porridge," she says.

ICTs as drivers of rural women’s empowerment.

Women learn new skills to fight hunger and help their communities.

The purpose of FFS is not only to build the technical capacity of farmers but also to contribute to community development including gender equality and social inclusion.

FAO is working in over 50 countries, before, during and after crises to provide emergency assistance to those that depend on agriculture to survive.

An FAO climate-smart agriculture project is helping families in Nepal, like Ashmita’s, to improve their yields and livelihoods, giving them alternatives to migrating abroad.

Zinetemam Adem is 22 years old and lives in Kalu, in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia. Like many young men and women in the country, she faced the tough decision of whether to stay or leave.

Faced with the worst drought in living memory, more than 1 million people were forced to flee their homes last year as hunger tightened its grip, pushing the country to the brink of famine.

While gender equality in Guatemala has improved in recent years, male hegemony still strongly characterizes the culture, particularly in rural areas.

Agriculture is currently facing many challenges such as decreased productivity and limited market access to sell produce. This is making it difficult for the sector to serve as a primary source of income for Egypt’s increasingly unemployed population.

An FAO program in Yemen is helping farmers take advantage of dam water to improve sustainability, while simultaneously giving women more opportunities to participate in the country’s conservative decision-making process.

Kopalapillai Theivarmallar makes her living from fish-smoking in Sri Lanka. Using the traditional fish-smoking method can cause health hazards from smoke inhalation.

With this project, Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture, FAO and the Global Environment Facility are helping hundreds of women farmers, like Laxmi, to improve their yields and incomes.

In Guatemala, young women and men often hold precarious jobs in the informal rural economy, earning half of the minimum national wage. Increasingly, they try to migrate to urban areas or abroad as a last desperate resort for making a living.