The CROPS4HD project puts a strong focus on integrating the gender dimension into all its activities. The project’s implementation is guided by 14 principles: the 13 agro-ecological principles (drawn up by the high-level panel of experts on food security and nutrition), and a 14th principle, gender equity. Agroecology must ensure that women improve their economic autonomy, gain equal access to and control over productive resources, have equal access to the market and benefit from a healthy, violence-free environment.
As part of a campaign to mobilize and structure the CACOPAs (Consultative frameworks for promoting agroecological practices) in Chad, a series of testimonials were collected. This also includes the testimony of Ms. Faba, a farmer and mother of four living in the village of Ngara Jova, in the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest Province.
Ms. Faba and her family have chosen to rely exclusively on agroecological practices. She explains that using agroecological practices reassures her, as she knows that she and her family are eating healthy food. The use of chemical inputs, on the other hand, poses a number of problems. Farmers’ animals that accidentally consume these chemical inputs may die for instance. This represents a major loss for farmers, who lose their main means of production. Consumption of and exposure to food produced by chemical inputs can also lead to health problems, particularly for women and children.
Ms. Faba believes that women’s contribution to food security is essential. Indeed, in addition to the family fields on which the whole family works, smaller fields are tended exclusively by women, sometimes with the help of their children. On these plots, the women grow the crops of their choice, and the management of the harvest is entirely in their hands.
While harvests from family fields cover household needs such as health, clothing and education, those from fields cultivated by women cover household food requirements. These crops are diversified and provide households with food supplements during periods of food shortage. Ms. Faba points out that agroecology generates large harvests, so the family is never short of food.
Ms. Faba encourages women to take an active role in choosing agricultural techniques, in favor of more productive crops and healthier food. This also implies that women must be given the means to get involved, so as to facilitate this essential contribution.
You can find below the full testimonial (in french):