A shoulder to lean on for female farmers in South Sudan
The vegetable group allows them to make an income safely and with the support of other women. Agok and her fellow women feel strongly about the amount of support the group provides.
The members of the group are doing so well they are looking to expand and establish an official bank account.
©FAO/Andreea Campeanu
“In the Dinka language, there is a saying: men eat first, then women, then children. But here we, as women, we eat beside the men.”
Apande Dut smiles as she says this, sitting with a large group of women under the shade of a mango tree, shelling peanuts while nursing her children. The women are all members of a female-dominant farming group in the town of Rumbek, South Sudan.
Up until 2018, both Apande and her fellow community member and friend, Agok, farmed on their own, but their farming knowledge was limited and with such difficult farming conditions, the food grown was never enough.
This is an area that also struggles with conflict and violence, making it hard for farmers to access markets. In fact, only 31 percent of households in the Lakes State have access to food year-round.
When Apande and Agok heard about a nearby farming group, established through the ‘Sustainable Agriculture for Economic Resiliency’ project, run by FAO and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), they decided to join.