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Women in Agriculture

As the UN is about to talk about Rural Women for the first time from February 27-March 9, it is important to remember how feminine the face of global farming is. In Canada, farming is largely a male domain, but in places like Africa and Asia it is a very different picture.

As we contemplate this, I was struck by this TED video that talks about women entrepreneurship. We already know women’s co-operatives are frequently part of primary processing in developing world agriculture, but we talk about it as a rarity – an anomaly. The broader discussion of female entrepreneurship highlights the need to think of women not as a special interest group, but as half the world’s population. So as Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says, why do they only get micro credit and micro chances?

Watch the TED Talk

Robynne Anderson

Robynne has extensive experience in the agriculture and food sector, working throughout the value chain – from basic inputs to farmers in the field to the grocery store shelf. She works internationally in the sector, including speaking at the United Nations on agriculture and food issues, and representing the International Agri-Food Network at the UN.Throughout her career she has worked with farm organisations like the Prairie Oat Growers Association, the National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi and the Himalayan Farmers Association, as well as global groups, to further the voice of agriculture in the food debate. She has also worked with Fortune 500 companies growing worldwide businesses to assist them with issues management and strategy decisions.

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