President Irfaan Ali made some interesting comments last week as part of his address to the 38th Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean. Speaking at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal, he called for an equitable global system and trotting out well-known statistics, emphasised the need for data-driven decision-making in agriculture to combat climate events and ensure food security. These were necessary, but not new, pleas that should not even have to be made at this point. The entire world is cognisant of the challenges posed to food security by climate change.
As he doubled down on his theme, President Ali pulled out what appeared to be his trump card. “… But for me, the future of food production revolves around women and young people,” the Department of Public Information (DPI) quoted him as saying. He then asked, “How do we get women and youths more involved in the food production system?” This could only be a rhetorical question, as it has long been answer-ed. They have to be given land, incentives and financing, it is not rocket science. Yet, this is an answer that governments continue to pretend they haven’t heard.
Let’s be real, globally, women account for some 43% of the agricultural workforce, but own less than 15% of farmland. Apart from being discriminated against with regard to land ownership, they also lack access to financial services and for the most part, do not earn equal pay. In many cases where women and girls work on farms owned by family patriarchs, they earn nothing. These statistics form part of a report – “The gender gap in land rights” published by the FAO, which has called for progress in land rights for women. The report noted too that “legislation that guarantees rural women’s equal rights to land, irrespective of their civil and marital status, is crucial”.
According to the DPI release issued to the press, President Ali announced that his government had “already set a target for the country’s growing agriculture sector to ensure that 35 percent of all new farms are owned by women and young people”. This raises a series of questions. Why 35 percent? Why not 50 percent or 60 percent? Was that figure pulled from a hat? Was it arbitrarily set? Or was it an example of the ‘data-driven decision-making’ Mr Ali had mentioned earlier in his speech?
Curiously, if the President expanded to mention over what period this feat would be completed, it was not captured by the DPI. One has to wonder therefore, if the President or Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has the figures on how many women and youth in Guyana already own farms. If so, perhaps they can enlighten the public on whether “35 percent of all new farms” offers equal rights to land. Moreover, maybe they can also shed light on how that 35 percent is to be divided among women and youth.
In addition, the President proudly told the FAO conference that Guyana had increased its budgetary allocation in the agriculture sector by 150 percent, from $13.3 billion in 2019 to $32.2 billion in 2023. How much of this increased allocation, one wonders, was as a result of gender budgeting? How many women benefited last year? How many are earmarked to benefit this year from the $97.6 billion set aside for the sector, as announced in the national budget in January?
Politicians have a way of tossing figures into their speeches, which when examined closely, do not add up. Successive governments in this country have done this with impunity. However, in a time when the struggle to make ends meet is wearing citizens down, they are interested in practice, not theory. Glib statements will no longer cut it.
The FAO’s latest report, published earlier this month – “The unjust climate: Measuring the impact of climate change on the poor, women, and youth” – combines information from over 950 million rural people across 24 countries with over 70 years of climate data. It confirms what other organisations have also said, that climate change, like poverty, disproportionately impacts women. On the other hand, it has long been established, by mountains of research, that when women are empowered there is likely to be faster progress in eliminating poverty and malnutrition. Whoever coined the saying, “If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the community will eat”, knew what he/she was talking about.
This is 2024 and enough lip service has been paid to women’s empowerment. It is time for results, not theories. If President Ali is laying claim to investing in women, then he should have no problem with producing the receipts.
