Women and Ecological Agriculture

Women’s indigenous knowledge and skills are vitally necessary for food production and ecological agriculture. Seeds and genetic resources conservation, selection and protection were often in the hands of women. However, with the recent push towards corporate agriculture, these knowledge and skills are being irreversibly lost and even “stolen” through biopiracy and patenting. Corporate agriculture contributes to the feminisation of poverty and hunger, and hastens the erosion of women’s knowledge and skills, loss of jobs and food diversity that leads to malnutrition in women and children.

In 2002-2005, PAN AP focused on producing the documentation of women’s knowledge in three (3) countries into a publication for easy distribution. This experience shows that women’s knowledge in agriculture is rapidly being lost and only available in small pockets in the remote regions or in areas where the green revolution has not made a dent. Women’s knowledge, while vital, is not recognised nor appreciated and women rarely hold positions of power where she is able to assert her knowledge and skills. It is thus essential to continue with documentation activities to make the invisible visible.

It is however important that documentation of women’s knowledge is undertaken so that it is not lost or that it does not disappear. It is important that the significance and vitality of women’s knowledge of agricultural systems should be recognised, but it is equally important to document and bring on record that knowledge so that it can be used as a tool for women’s liberation. Documentation of women’s knowledge alone is not enough and may be perceived as an extractive process. Documentation has to go hand in hand with discussions and consultations with women and with the communities on the integration of this knowledge within local farming systems. Being able to conserve, innovate and utilise this knowledge within the existing system is the ultimate, in terms of the sustainability of women’s knowledge, and will be a test of its appropriateness and relevance.