BE PROACTIVE WOMEN TOLD
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By Derrick Sinjela published on Monday 11th July 2011
A LUSAKA District Agriculture Cooperatives (LDAC) Committee Member Mary Sakala has called on women in the rural to take keen interest in agricultural activities for them to contribute to ensuring household and national food security.
Sakala says time has come for women till the land pointing out that desist spending time on gossip and idle talk would not empower them economically.
Sakala wants the Zambian Government led by President Michael Chilufya Sata to treat women farmers as equal partners in development process as this particular gender had the numbers to economically build national food security capacity.
“My plea to my colleagues is that as women we are a large group which if helped by the Government we can create a stable economy and food security at household and national level. The Government must target us as we are a marginalized group in our society. As women we must rise and work hard as not to be idle talk and gossip will not feed our families. We all need to work tirelessly to survive,” Sakala told this author in Lusaka.
Sakala, a woman farmer reiterated that she equally faced a lot of challenges accessing farming inputs like seeds and fertilizers distributed in collaboration with the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
“Women in rural areas need support as our male colleagues often overpower us when seeking farming output distributed especially in the rural areas,” observed Sakala.
Sakala urges the need for networking among women so as to scale up access to FISP at district level.
Meanwhile, Zambia Alliance for Women (ZAW) Executive Director of Women Edah Chimya has challenged the Zambian Government to ensure that there is equal access to farming inputs countrywide.
Chimya says her organisation in championing the cause of women in agriculture notes the growing need for women to receive equal share of farming inputs, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Farmers Input Support Program (FISP).
“We want to bring it to a point where there is equal access to a point where input coming through the support program should reach the intended user.
Further, Chimya observed that farming communities in rural areas had difficulties accessing inputs although distances did not hinder male counterparts engaged in subsistence farming.
