A young spice farmer in Zanzibar is on a mission to grow her business and improve her future, one plant at a time. Wearing a pink headscarf and a grey abaya, 24-year-old Khairat Suleiman Ame doesn’t look like your typical Zanzibari farmer. Don’t let looks fool you; she’s ready to get her hands dirty tending to her ginger, turmeric and hibiscus plants. Although many Zanzibari women rely on their husbands for economic support, Khairat has other ideas. “Most of my friends are...
As a young girl, Christine Amea Manzan would follow her father into his cacao field. After losing her mother, it was up to her father to raise her. She grew up in a rural area of Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire, always wanting to stay alongside her father and his crops. When she turned six, her father sent her away to school. Years later, as a teenager, she was again sent away – this time to learn sewing, a “proper skill” for...
This story was originally reported by Caroline Wambui and edited by Laurie Goering for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  In this arid stretch of Kajiado County, Kenya where worsening heat and drought have been tough on livestock farmers, Arnold Ole Kapurua is experimenting with a hot new crop: chilies. Ole Kapurua, 29, a farmer and agronomist, now grows two acres of the fiery pods – and is training other farmers to do the same – as a way to protect their incomes in...
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of its 17 million people living on less than $1.25 USD a day. For the past five years, Mali has experienced a multi-dimensional political and humanitarian crisis, driven in part by internal conflict and terrorism. Mali’s food security has been rocked in recent years by recurring disasters, including erratic rainfall, drought, and a military coup that triggered a political and security crisis. Although peace negotiations were...
India has an estimated 20 million completely landless rural families. Providing these families with secure rights to a small patch of land gives them security and opportunity. When women are given the rights to the land, the benefits ripple even further – with women gaining economic empowerment and a greater voice in decision making at home.
Anne Wafula (second from right) harvests millet on her farm in Kenya with the help of neighboring women farmers. Photo: Hailey Tucker Did you know that women make up half of Africa’s agricultural workforce overall, and more than half in several countries? And did you know that these African women, depending on where they’re from, produce up to two-thirds less per unit of land than men? It’s not because they’re less able than men. It’s not because they’re less resourceful. And it’s...
African smallholder farmers are the people that feed Africa – but struggle to feed themselves. How is this possible? Our new report, Ripe for Change: The Promise of Africa’s Agricultural Transformation, explains. It’s a vision of what a continent-wide agricultural transformation would look like for millions of smallholder farmers, illustrated by examples of success across the continent. We’ve put the top three findings into share graphics to help visually break down this phenomenon and make it easy for you to...