Women empowerment key to fight poverty

HYDERABAD: Najoo Bheel, a woman farmer of Thar desert, sharing the ups and downs of drought says, “Those coming from outside cannot imagine the difficulties we always experience when rainfall gets delayed for many consecutive years, resulting in lower food supplies and devastated grazing fields.”

Belonging to village Khariwah, Tharparkar district, she, like other women has been involved in animal rearing and farming to ease her family’s life. She talked to The News on Tuesday during the International Women’s Day 2020 event organised by UN FAO under the theme “I am generation equality: Realising Women’s Rights” at FAO Resource Centre, Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam.

The event attracted rural women from Tharparkar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Matiari, Sujawal, Dadu, and Larkana. They came to mark women’s day and share their stories.

In recent years, Najoo said during severe dryness and droughts they received seeds of vegetables, guwar gum, and mung (pulse), which they cultivated on their family land. This year, harvest was 12 maund guwar and seven maund mung despite untimely rains, which was enough to avoid any problems for the family.

Khariwah has around 250 households. Mostly men and women work together and have the same source of living; cultivating crops and rearing animals. The people face the same problems in case of dryness and droughts.

UN FAO has established a water reservoir in Khariwah, where the community accesses water, helping women to avoid travelling long distances to fetch the essential natural resource.

Najoo, with other women of the village, has responsibility to look after the artificial reservoir and maintain kitchen gardens without chemical input, which allows them to be self-sufficient in vegetables.

Women in the desert area understand the importance of potable water, and urge the government to provide access to water through a pipeline, which could alleviate many of their problems.

Fahmeeda Jarwar, a peasant woman of village Khair Muhammad Jarwar, Tando Allahyar district talked on improved land tenancy in Sindh (ILTS). She said they grow seasonal vegetables through drip irrigation system, and used compost instead of chemicals. Their food security has improved. They have their own animals for milk, wheat for consumption, and vegetables for selling in Tando Allahyar.

Prof Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam and a known researcher in the field of food insecurity, talked about poverty in Sindh and the role farmer women could play in overcoming poverty.

UN FAO First Policy Officer in Pakistan Genevieve Hussain in her remarks said, “When women have access to land, credit and information, agricultural productivity and food security are enhanced.”