Empowering women through sunflowers

Together, Farm Africa and UN Women worked to close the gender gap in the sunflower sector. UN Women teamed up with local government to ensure Agricultural Marketing Cooperatives (AMCOs) in Tanzania’s Ikungi district increased their female membership. In particular, Farm Africa helped female members in three of the AMCOs to boost their productivity and meet the growing demand for sunflower oil.

Many women are currently excluded from participating in and benefitting from the sector, being held back by poor production practices, and lack of access to markets and cooperatives.

Building on the experience of Flourishing Futures, a project that supported 10,000 farmers to establish sunflower businesses, Farm Africa provided training and access to resources to increase the production and sale of sunflower seeds and oil, and reduce post-harvest losses.

Female farmers were trained on Good Agricultural Practices including conservation, Quality Declared Seed production and climate-smart agriculture. We strengthened links between farmers and buyers, opening up markets to ensure that smallholder farmers are able to sell their crops for the best price. We supported the construction of a warehouse to improve post-harvest storage. We linked cooperatives with reliable suppliers to give women access to improved seeds, organic fertilisers and pesticides.

This project is part of the UN Women’s Realising gender through empowering women and adolescent girls programme.