{"id":9291,"date":"2019-03-08T00:33:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T06:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sistema.bio\/blog\/international-womens-day-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-03-08T00:33:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T06:33:50","slug":"international-womens-day-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sistema.bio\/ke\/blog\/international-womens-day-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons why we should promote a gender-balanced agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we commemorate International Women\u2019s Day<\/strong> and this is not about celebration, it\u2019s about raising awareness and promoting gender equality at all levels. When we think about agriculture it\u2019s common to think of it as a profession for men, but that\u2019s not true and the numbers can\u2019t lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Food and Agriculture Organization <\/span>(FAO)<\/span><\/a> estimates that 70% of work in Latin-America’s agriculture is done by women and according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (<\/span>UNCTAD<\/span><\/a>), 76% of all women in Kenya are employed in agriculture. The number is quite big and the reason why we don\u2019t usually notice the impact of women in agriculture is that they are not empowered and don\u2019t have access to decision making roles and processes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of the reasons why gender-balanced agriculture benefits everyone and how new and accessible energies can help too:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. If women in agriculture are empowered through access to technologies and renewable energies they can save time and energy from domestic activities and invest it in their farms and crop production. For example, women using Sistema.bio biodigesters have been able to save time and money to invest in their own businesses, they now have access to clean-renewable energy called biogas, they no longer need to buy firewood or LP gas, the only resource they need to produce it is animal manure. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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Women all over the world are cooking with biogas<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0According to<\/span> Value4Women<\/span><\/a>, by empowering women, their family well-being is considerably improved. Women usually live under certain social and cultural gender norms that reduce the time they can invest in new income generation. When having access and exposure to higher-valued positions within agriculture, women can guarantee a bigger income and health\/food security for her and her family. In this video, you can see some of the testimonials of women that have improved their lives by using biodigesters: <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n