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All-female team aim to raise £75k to support female farming in Kenya
The GROW for Good Challenge, which stands for Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Women, is hoping to raise £75k. This will go towards supporting Farm Africa’s work, helping small-scale farmers in eastern Africa to grow and sell more, while adapting to climate change and protecting the environment.
Women are the backbone of Africa’s farming workforce, yet life for rural women isn’t easy. In sub-Saharan Africa, the female share of the agricultural labour force is the highest in the world.
Coupled with the challenges of climate change and a growing population, things have become harder still for these communities.
The GROW for Good challenge will see an all-female team cycle across Embu County, making stops and pitching in at several female-run farms.
Juliet, a farmer who is taking part in Farm Africa’s regenerative agriculture project in Embu and is among the stops the UK team will be making, explained the impact the initiative has had.
“In this area, regenerative agriculture has really helped women. Beforehand, the harvest was not enough. Due to climate change, the rains are less. After adopting regenerative agriculture practices (that is use of manure, minimum tillage, use of mulching materials and micro-dosing) their yields are much more than they were before. Women usually use their money for their families,” she said.
Farm Africa’s work stretches across five East African countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganada, DRC and Kenya.
All its programmes place emphasis on helping women and young people in these communities, with the GROW for Good challenge being no exception.
“Women have less access to all the resources and opportunities that you need to succeed in farming,” Libby Plumb, head of communications for Farm Africa, explained.
“But we know it's so important to support women because if you support female farmers, then the incomes of whole families can go up.
“When women's incomes increase, they tend to invest that money in their families and invest in opportunities for the next generation.”
Many of the projects Farm Africa has been involved in will help women set up village savings and loan associations, where women come together to save small amounts of money every week.
“This creates a fund that all women can borrow from and invest in. This makes such a difference particularly as climate change becomes more of an issue across Eastern Africa.”
Farm Africa also encourages communities to farm together so that there is not only enough produce to feed their families but also to attract the interest of high value buyers.
“We help farmers to increase both the quantity and quality of what they produce and market it better. In Kenya, we’re supporting quite a few farmers to produce for the export market.”
Farm Africa has hosted a number of fundraising challenges over the years and this latest one marks the 10-year anniversary of its trip to Kenya to dig an Olympic sized fishpond with women Tilapia producers.
“Those aquaculture businesses are still generating important income today, these are projects with a real legacy,” added Judith Batchelar, chair of the GROW for Good Committee, who participated in the big dig.
This latest challenge will begin on 20 October, with the team concluding its journey on 25 October with a special roundtable event.
Joined by other female industry leaders in the capital, Nairobi, the roundtable discussion will look to illustrate the need to drive positive change for women in the global food system.
In the lead up, Farm Africa is inviting both corporate and individual sponsors to support the challenge. These partnerships not only help team GROW to reach their fundraising goals, but also provide businesses with a platform to showcase their commitment to sustainability and women’s empowerment.
Details on corporate sponsorship can be found here, and the GROW team can be sponsored via their online team fundraising page here.
In other news, Deliciously Ella has been acquired by Swiss-based Hero Group.
