Women are making a positive impact on agriculture and nutrition in Africa and should be acknowledged for their efforts. This was the key message during an online Leading African Women in Food Fellowship programme hosted by Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition limited in Nigeria.
The event, in celebration of International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on 8 March, saw changemakers in the food industry lauded for their contribution to Africa’s food ecosystems. The online event was hosted under the theme: “Digital Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”.
In his opening speech, Sahel Consulting managing partner, Temitope Adegoroye, said the event aims to celebrate women in food throughout the entire African continent.
An inspiration to all
“These women work to make sure that everyone has access to safe and nutritious foods by contributing to development and sustainable processes. They are inspiring all of us and the next generation of leaders,” Adegoroye said.
Keynote speaker, Dr Agnes Kalibata, told attendees she acknowledges the efforts made to celebrate women in the food ecosystem. However, she highlighted how difficult it is to be a female leader in the food production industry. Kalibata is a Rwandan agricultural scientist and policymaker, and president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
“It is difficult to be a leader in food systems, especially today when food systems are challenged in ways that we know coming from Covid-19. We saw so many women SMEs being impacted, and we saw a lot of erosion of capital and erosion of capacity,” she said.
“If that wasn’t enough, climate change is here. If you live in Kenya, it is one of those things that are testing your abilities in this ecosystem, and I am sure it is the same thing across the continent. It is difficult to be a leader and even more difficult to be a leader in food systems.”
Kalibata, celebrated as one of the women changemakers in agriculture and nutrition in Africa, highlighted that 80% of the food produced in Africa goes through the hands of small and mid-sized enterprises.
The lifeblood of Africa’s food systems
Meanwhile, the founder and executive chairperson of the Africa Food Changemakers, Ndidi Nwuneli pointed out the importance of women farmers, recognising them as the main changemakers in farming.
“Africa Food Changers really believes that small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood of the food ecosystem in Africa.
“These enterprises are [run by] driven, dynamic, and innovative entrepreneurs who operate as primary producers, aggregation, processor, distributors, finance and technology providers, chefs, cooks, consultants and innovators. We call them changemakers,” she said.
Importance of technology
Nasa Harvest Africa programme director, Dr Catherine Nakalembe, also attended the women’s event. Nakalembe highlighted the importance of using satellite earth observation and mechanism learning for agriculture monitoring.
This forms part of modern technology in agriculture that unfortunately not many small-scale farmers have access to Nakalembe said. Some, she added, do not even have access to the internet. A reality that needed to change for small-scale farmers, she admitted.
Nakalembe is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s department of geographical sciences.
In 2022 she won the highest civilian award called The Golden Jubilee Medal-Civilians of Uganda and in 2020 she won the Africa Food Prize for her dedication to bettering food security on the continent.
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