“We realized that we can do so much more.”
Women farmers in the Philippines share how they have gained skills, started businesses, and are keeping their community healthy
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2019, the World Food Programme (WFP) puts the spotlight on the women farmers of Maguindanao, Philippines who took steps toward achieving a #BalanceForBetter.
“Before, we were just stay-at-home wives because we thought we do not have the skills needed to have a job. But when we joined this programme, we realized that we can do so much more.”
Badria and the women of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan municipality of Maguindanao, were empowered through WFP’s gender-transformative asset creation activity.
It all started when the Municipal Agriculture Office in their town invited the women to join a cooperative in September 2018. The office organized the members and linked them with WFP’s conditional cash-based assistance. As they joined WFP’s activity, they learned not just farming techniques, but also about the agricultural value chain.
This modest initiative led to the establishment of 15 women farmers’ cooperatives that significantly increased women’s participation and decision-making on livelihoods in their town.
“At first there were just around 20 members in our cooperative. But when the non-members saw the good turnout of the activity, they also became interested in joining. Now, we have more than 30 members,” said Badria. Meanwhile, in another village, Guiamelan says that their members grew from 20 to 75 members in just four months, thereby increasing the planting activities that women were engaged in.
Noraisa, another farmer, said they were also contributing to the municipality by reducing the shortage of fresh vegetables. “In a way, we also support the community’s need for supply of fresh harvest. So I hope we will be able to continue doing this.” Badria added that “aside from benefiting from the fresh harvest that we serve to our family, we also made some profit by selling our produce to the local government, which they supply to schools for the school feeding programme.”
The women farmers of Maguindanao pushed for the sustainability of their livelihoods even after the completion of the cash-based assistance. “We agreed to continue our farming activities. In fact, we have already moved the matured seedlings to a larger plot of land so we can multiply the gains,” said Noraisa.
Badria seconded, “even after WFP has completed their assistance to us, we will continue to do this because we can see how it has positively contributed to our families. It has been financially rewarding to us because we were able to improve our marketing and sales by selling our harvest to the local government, and from our earnings, we get to provide for our children’s needs in school.”
In Maguindanao or elsewhere, farming is usually a male-dominated activity, but thanks to the local government’s initiative of empowering women and WFP’s support, the ladies of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan levelled the playing field and proved livelihood participation knows no gender.
Learn more about WFP’s work in the Philippines.
