The National Muslim Women’s Organization of Trinidad and Tobago (NMWOTT) recently distributed twenty-five thousand seedlings to schools to commemorate World Environment Day. World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
This is one of the many initiatives undertaken by NMWOTT within the theme, “Let’s Plant for Food Security”.
The objective of this project is to encourage children to plant food, eat fresh local foods, share the food which is produced as well as save money and reduce the food import bill. We hope to make this a sustainable project by continuing to encourage growing of plants that provide food and improve the air quality in our environment.
What Is the Role of Women in Food Security?
Food security isn’t just a question of availability of food, nor of the financial resources to access it. People must also have consistent access to quality, nutritious foods in order to ensure food security.
It is reported that, “If women had the same access to agro-economic resources as men, agricultural and farming production would increase and we could feed approximately 150 million more people.” (FAO, 2021).
The role of women is key in agricultural production and in food security. Women are the primary farmers and producers in a large part of the world; however, their work continues to go largely unrecognised. In fact, in developing countries women comprise approximately 43% of the agricultural workforce.
The Gender Gap in Agriculture
Women make up approximately half of the world’s farmers, but there is massive inequity between male and female farmers—especially in the developing world.
These inequities are most pronounced in terms of women lacking equal access to and control over productive resources. To address this ‘gender gap’ in agriculture, there are numerous NGOs, multilateral agencies, and donors working to improve women’s engagement in and empowerment through agriculture and food security programming.