It was Chairman Mao who said “women hold up half the sky.” I’ve borrowed part of that phrase and added “half the land” in order to frame a topic as big in scope and as vital to the world as the role of women farmers in transforming global agriculture. Women like Jacqueline, who farms in Haiti. She qualifies as a smallholder farmer because she has less than 2 hectares... or 5 acres. And it’s specifically smallholder women farmers that I’m focusing on at the Parliament today. But because the whole category of smallholders is so misunderstood, I’m going to begin with smallholders in general, both female and male, throughout the developing world. |
