She made the remarks Saturday in Kigali at the breakfast meeting on women in agri-business that was organised on the sidelines of the 8th African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2018.
Mrs. Kagame said African agriculture cannot develop while leaving women behind.
“I would like us to first envision an entire year without food production. A year, during which those women in Africa decided to lay down their tools. The consequences of their refusal to work anymore will be many,” she said.
“We would lose out on the fight against hunger, we would lose out on holistic diets for our infants, with the risk of nutritional stunting in African children in years to come. We would lose out on overall health; we would lose out on the economic gains made thus far from agriculture; we would also lose out on the much-needed foreign exchange as a result of greater food importation.”
The First Lady said the AGRF 2018 binds everyone to consider the role women farmers play in African development in addition to the heavy burden they often carry as sole breadwinners in female-headed households.
“We are doing a disservice to women by not acknowledging their hard labor in agriculture, by taking for granted the fact that they feed our continent and by under-valuing their contribution to socio-economic growth,” she remarked.
“As leaders, and experts concerned with the advancement of agriculture and on increasing its productivity in Africa, I am certain that you can identify, even more consequences of not investing more heavily in women in agriculture.”
She added that all the concerned people should chart lasting solutions to ensure better livelihoods for the most vulnerable and turning subsistence agriculture into viable agri-business.
Major challenges that women farmers face include having no rights on their family’s land and lack of access to finances.
Mrs. Kagame said that, as an advocate for gender equality and a firm believer in women capacity to create sustainable wealth for themselves and the future generations, she believes that real agriculture transformation must include more robust investment in women.
World Bank reports that agriculture accounts for 32% of African GDP and employs around 70% of the population.
Women represent over 60% of the farmers on the continent.
Leave a Reply