There is a need to empower more rural women to take part in farming to build a food-secure country.
ActionAid's Land and Resilient Livelihoods programme coordinator Dennis Omoyo urged women to join the agriculture value chain and generate income.
He spoke during the United Nations UN-backed International Day of the Rural Woman at Kishushe in Taita Taveta county.
He said already more than 70 per cent of Kenyan women in rural areas are taking part in crop production while 50 per cent are engaged in livestock production agriculture. Most of them are smallholder farmers.
However, Omoyo said, the number needs to be pushed further in a bid to achieve sustainable development goal 2 (SDG2) which calls for achieving zero hunger and SDG5 on gender equality.
“A large number of women in rural areas are not participating in meaningful farming. They need to be empowered to actively join the sector,” Omoyo said on Saturday.
He further said they need to grow indigenous and fast-maturing crops due to the low rainfall that has been experienced across the country over the seasons.
“Women are gatekeepers of our food basket. I encourage them to use their indigenous methods in agriculture as this yields nutritious foods,” he said.
More than 600 rural women from across the country had converged to celebrate the day under the theme, ‘Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All.’
Omoyo said that the theme was set to recognise the role of rural women in food production.
ActionAid, he said, is in the process of supporting rural women and girls to build their resilience, skills and leadership
County director for Gender and Social Services Wallace Mwaluma noted that the county government is keen on taking advantage of the agricultural potential in the area to achieve optimum equity.
“The county is collaborating with development partners to work towards supporting rural women to increase food production. This is key for the intended agricultural transformation,” Mwaluma said.
Mwaluma said the county is set to bring solutions to gender equity, hunger, water scarcity and issues of human-wildlife conflict which mostly affect women.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)