Woman farmers role lauded

LAHORE :Oxfam in Pakistan and Indus Consortium organised a rural women’s convention wherein over 80 smallholder woman farmers from five districts of Punjab presented a "charter of demands" to Minister for Environment Protection Zakia Shah Nawaz Khan. 

The charter demands the approval of the Climate Change Policy with proper resource allocation for smallholder women farmers and their participation in budget-making process. The convention was held at a local hotel on Friday and was attended by a large number of people from civil society organisations, government departments, environmentalists, academia, corporate entities and development organisations.

Minister Zakia Shah Nawaz said, “Farmers, specially female farmers play an important role in contributing towards Pakistan’s economy and the rural development." She said they were the backbone of Pakistan.

Presenting their ‘charter of demands’, the female farmers said that natural disasters affected their crops thus the government needed to take action in this regard. They demanded the government provide good quality seeds for improved crops, loans to small female farmers on easily installments. They also demanded sufficient allocation for agriculture in the provincial budget.

In Pakistan, women contribute significantly to agricultural production, processing and promotion. Still they face formidable obstacles to their potential role as a major economic and social force in the development of the agriculture sector. Amongst the problems that constrain the development of women’s potential are heavy workloads, lack of access to factors of production, lack of training and access to advisory services. 

Oxfam Programme Director Ms Javeria Afzal welcomed the participants and encouraged them to support rural women farmers, “Women are key to food production with 72.7 percent of women engaged in agriculture. Creating conditions that allow rural people to have more resilient livelihoods is a crucial component of any plan to tackle poverty and hunger. Oxfam addresses the global sustainable development goals of zero hunger and climate action with the aim to end all forms of hunger and help mitigate climate-related disasters by 2030.”

The convention provided a platform to Punjab’s women farmers to raise their voices, share their concerns and present their demands to prompt the government to respond effectively and systemically to domestic climate change threats and to incorporate women-focused schemes in the budget of the provincial government in the upcoming year.

Moderated by Fiza Qureshi, program manager, Indus Consortium, the concluding session was chaired by Dr Ayesha Khan, country director of a foundation.