SOBBA
The Strategy Organization for Building Business Initiatives in Agriculture- Sierra Leone
A Dedicated Seed and agricultural services company
Female Farmers & Farming groups
SOBBA has in its past three years employed an average of 50% of women primarily as labor on its farming operations. A recent UNDP paper on Gender, Climate change and Food Security stated that women face challenges such including gender bias, financial disadvantage, legal and socio-cultural barriers. These barriers notwithstanding, women do play a major role in agricultural production. Women farmers generally have valuable knowledge in seed selection, vegetative propagation and the reproduction of plants and animals. Although the roles of women in agriculture vary widely by region, age, ethnicity and social status, women are involved in agricultural production, food security as well as other related agricultural ventures and furthered the following:
“ Women comprise 20 to 50 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries.(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Food and Agriculture, Rome, 2011b).
More than three quarters (79 percent) of women in Least Developed Countries who are economically active report agriculture as their primary economic activity, which highlights the importance of the agricultural sector for women.(Cheryl Doss, “If women hold up half the sky, how much of the world’s food do they produce?” 2011. FAO (Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA), Working Paper No. 11 - 04).
In countries such as Lesotho, Mozambique and Sierra Leone, women constitute over 60 percent of the agricultural labour force.( FAO, Note 7, 2011b).
SOBBA will make a concerted effort to employ at least 50 contract farmers and a significant number of women and their families for all future activities (as land preparation labor, planters, harvesters and local/community sales agents).
WOMEN PARTICIPATION
A cross-section of women farmer groups weeding the 2014 corn plot
Women farmers and farming groups in attendance at SOBBA's Khumalo's 2014 Kick-off meeting
A cross-section of women farmer groups helping to apply fertilizers on a corn plot
Women farmers and farming groups in attendance at SOBBA's Markoloh's 2014 Kick-off meeting
Female farmers during the 2013 harvest season.
Women farmers and farming groups in attendance at SOBBA's Markoloh's 2014 Kick-off meeting
SOBBA has increased efforts to ensure that all groups are motivated and engaged in all of its activities because minority groups are the most adversely affected with hunger malnutrition and poverty.