Marginal farmers in Zambia
17 December 2009
Concern in Zambia recently published new research on the difficulties women farmers are facing.
Opening the launch on 7 December, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Permanent Secretary, Abednigo Banda, said research like this was crucial to the development of agriculture. It was stressed that this type of research was something the country should invest in.
Focus on women
Banda acknowledged the difficulties communities in rural areas are faced with and the important role of women in alleviating these problems.
It is for this reason that I wish to commend and congratulate Concern Worldwide for carrying out this research which focused on women marginal farmers in the Western Province. I wish to assure you that my ministry will look at the report and will take note of the recommendations made in the report and find various ways of incorporating them in the various interventions that government has put in place.
Inclusion
Concern country director, Rakesh Katal, said the organisation believes that the inclusion of women is critical in policy and decision making at every level. Drawing up policies and processes need to account for the specific needs of women.
The aim of this research was to bring to the table proposals we consider useful in improving the state of women marginal farmers. Although the research focused on Western Province, we do not doubt that women marginal farmers in the rest of the country share similar challenges and the findings would therefore be useful to the rest of the country.
The launch was covered on the evening news on national television stations.
