A podcast explores the challenges faced by female farmers and initiatives to support them. It highlights an app in Bangladesh that helps women sell their produce anonymously to overcome sexism. It also discusses programs in Peru and Bangladesh addressing gender inequality in agriculture. The podcast introduces vertical sack farming as a solution for women without land and explores the benefits of virtual fencing in farming.
Farm to Go app in Bangladesh helps female farmers sell their produce at fairer prices by maintaining seller anonymity.
Vertical sack farming in Nigeria empowers women to grow crops without land ownership and increases household income.
Deep dives
Helping Female Farmers Get Better Prices for their Crops
Female farmers globally face many challenges, including a lack of access to land, capital, training, and sexism. In Bangladesh, an app called Farm to Go is helping female farmers sell their produce at fairer prices. The app works as an e-commerce platform where women farmers can upload their produce for retailers to see and make transactions. By selling online, female farmers can avoid revealing their identity and receive better prices than at traditional markets. This app has resulted in increased monthly revenue for farmers and is helping challenge gender biases in agriculture.
Empowering Female Farmers with Vertical Sack Farming
In Nigeria, an entrepreneur named Rejoice Osin is empowering female farmers through a farming system called vertical sack farming. This system allows women to grow crops without owning land by filling up sacks with soil and planting vegetables like tomatoes and potatoes. With just a few hours of work, these sack farms can produce a significant amount of crops, providing a substantial increase in household income. By leasing small patches of land to women in village communities, Rejoice has been able to get thousands of female farmers involved in vertical sack farming, creating economic opportunities and challenging traditional gender roles.
No Fence Grazing - Using Technology to Allow for Fenceless Farming
In Europe, farmers are using an app called No Fence to practice fenceless grazing. John Phillips, a farm manager in London, uses this technology to control his herd of cattle without physical boundaries. Virtual fences are created using GPS collars worn by the cows, which play a sound or give a mild electric shock if they approach the virtual boundary. This technology allows farmers to safely graze animals without the need for expensive physical fencing. It also enables real-time monitoring of the animals' location and promotes conservation by preventing overgrazing in sensitive areas.
In Bangladesh, there’s an app helping female farmers to get a fairer price for their crop.
At the market, women farmers often face sexism, and struggle to sell their produce for what it’s worth. But by making the seller anonymous, they’re able to sell more and reap the profit they deserve.
We’ll also hear from other projects around the world trying to bridge the gender gap in agriculture- and investigate how supporting female farmers doesn’t just help with reducing inequality – it can also help fight poverty, hunger and climate change.
Also on the programme - a remote control for cows and goats which lets farmers control them with virtual fences on their phone.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Producers: Craig Langran and Zoe Gelber
Reporter: Salman Saeed
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk
Image: A female farmer in Bangladesh
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode