More opportunities should be provided to women in agriculture sector – Caricom Rep.

As the Caribbean region fights for the creation of an infallible food security strategy, the Agriculture and Agro-Industrial Development Programme Manager at the Caricom Secretariat, Shaun Baugh, has said that more opportunities should be provided to women if the region wishes to achieve food security.
Baugh made his remarks on Wednesday via a zoom panel discussion hosted by the Woman and Gender Equality Commission on the topic: “Is Gender Equality Important to Achieving Food Security?”

Baugh pointed out that women are disadvantaged in the Caribbean region, specifically in terms of achieving food security.
“Women are disadvantaged due to the fact that they do not have access to some opportunities or resources as men, owing to stereotype issues based on gender; and these are manifested in the areas of ownership of assets and certain resources, such as land, energy, technology, loans, pesticides, fertilizers and others,” he said.
“Women have more limited access to training, information, public service, and social protection in some of the areas within the Caricom region,” he also said.
Baugh noted that there are women who play major roles in the issue of food security, but he said they are not given the level of recognition that their male counterparts receive.
“If we are to agree that women play a critical role, we also have to agree that sometimes it is not acknowledged at the level it is supposed to be. Certainly, when we speak about food and nutrition security, unfortunately, what comes out in the studies and discussions has to do with domesticated matters; but, based on research that has been done, women play a far greater role in some of these areas, more than men,” he posited.
In this regard, Baugh recommended that there should be more opportunities for women in the agriculture sector, and that those opportunities should start with empowering women to join the field, or fight for food security, by allowing equal participation of women in identifying specific actions, and promoting their roles in the agriculture sector.
Baugh recommends that women be given improved access to productive activities; and women should be given opportunities such as incentives, access to loans, access to land, and access to the means of capital in order for them to play a greater role in relation to agriculture production and agricultural development.
According to Baugh, for the agriculture sector in the Caribbean to progress, there must be incentivisation and adoption of advanced technology.
“Technology is the way to go in agriculture; it is the only way. And in order for us to make it a little bit more equitable, a little bit more profitable, it must be one that we promote the use of technology, and certainly among our women population,” he said.
The Caricom Secretariat also explained that strengthening of data collection in the agriculture sector can contribute to enormous progress in relation to accounting for women, who are playing major roles in the agriculture sector but are not being recognised for their hard work.
“I am putting forward that we need to increase our data-collecting ability, so we can better account for women’s involvement in rural areas in agriculture and in the food system. It is my view that if we’re able to do this, we’re better able to put forward policies, programmes, projects, and actions that will bring the type of returns we want, and development that we want to see, certainly for our female population in relation to rural development and agriculture,” Baugh related.
On this note, Grace Paris of the Guyana School of Agriculture related that 40 women’s groups are being funded in the hinterland regions by the Hinterland Environmentally Sustainable Agricultural Development Project – a project designed to improve the livelihoods of families by targeting female-headed households.