Jan 1, 2021
Image sourced from The National
Written By: Weaam Al-Attaya
Encouraging Women to thrive in the agricultural industry
There seems to be a noticeable gender gap in the Middle East when it comes to women being represented in agriculture, whether they are farmers, scientists, or business owners. The main driver behind decreasing the gender gap is to further equip highly educated and qualified women who are scientists and technicians in the field to take more leadership roles, or achieve a more well-rounded skillset in their specific occupation within the industry; or to strengthen and provide essential skills to women who are in the farming industry to help them improve their standard of living from work that is either meant to feed their families or yield revenue when sold.
As a result, various governments and non-profit organizations in the Middle East have created local and regional programs and projects to empower women in the industry. These programs are targeted towards those who are highly skilled and educated and hold positions in governmental agricultural organizations, and those who work on individually or publicly owned farms for their livelihood. Governments are aiding and providing training opportunities to encourage women of various socioeconomic backgrounds to venture and thrive in the agricultural sector.
Once a very male-dominated industry, women are now becoming more involved to improve their families’ financial status and support their male counterparts.
Many of these government-led projects are mainly aimed towards liberating women financially and teaching them the health and environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture. Projects include programs such as greenhouse, and urban farming.
The U.N. Women report, Empowering Women in the Rural Labor Force with a Focus on Agricultural Employment in the Middle East and North Africa, states that women will need more support in order to achieve their full potential and essential role in the agriculture industry. This could be accomplished through well-established educational programs, sufficient funding, and the provision of farming resources.
Tamkeen, a program that was developed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2016 has established a pilot project to encourage, train and develop the skills of Middle Eastern and Emirati women within the Agriculture industry. It focused on mentoring university-level women, on how to deal with challenges faced by female farmers. The female participants were professionals or students of university agriculture-related programs such as horticulture, biotechnology, irrigation management, and so forth.
The program, a young Arab Women Scientists Leadership program run by the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai, was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nine women from the Middle East and North Africa were chosen to participate.
The program provided leadership, essential soft skills, and technical skills they deemed important to help the participating women move forward in their career and help women advance further in agriculture in the Middle East.
Highly qualified women from the UAE, Oman, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco were chosen and have participated in the program. Most of these women were highly qualified scientifically but required more training on leadership and soft skills.
The center is also trying to address issues various issues affecting the agriculture industry but also the important role of women in agriculture in the Middle East. Some of the key issues that need to be addressed are those of food and water security in the Middle East, the fact that currently, women are under-represented at all levels in the industry, from farmers and field workers to scientists, researchers, and policymakers.
The ultimate goal is to create a community, an ecosystem where different entities within the region work together to provide women who constitute a great portion of the population and play an important role in supporting households financially opportunities to not only be represented in once male-dominated roles and positions but also allow them to make a significant and essential impact in the future of their countries’ agriculture industry, and environment.
