Fintrac Harvest Fall 2010

Fintrac programs find ways to incorporate more women

With the Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Program (USAID-TAPP) Fintrac has a client base that is 50 percent women, which is on track to meet project goals and in line with Fintrac’s policy to incorporate more women.

Fintrac sets, tracks and meets gender goals because we believe that women are critical forces in agricultural value chains and because empowering them through agriculture enhances the lives of everyone in the rural household and contributes to food security, quality of life and education.

According to the U. S. State Department’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative, economic output could be increased by 15 to 40 percent and under-nutrition reduced by 15 million children simply by providing women with assets equal to those of men.

In Ethiopia, Fintrac’s Agribusiess and Trade Expansion Program has reached 146,781 women since

In Honduras, Fintrac’s EDA program has helped hundreds of women establish profitable farms.

In Nepal, Fintrac has helped more than 1,200 women develop kitchen gardens to feed their families and provide income from surplus.

Fintrac promotes crops that benefit all members of the household and provides training in high-value and value-added products and processing, where women often excel and have opportunities for growth. Even the technologies that Fintrac introduces are designed to decrease workloads, freeing up time for women to find other opportunities to increase household incomes and food security.

Fintrac also helps commercial farms meet export standards, which generates opportunities for thousands of women. Women trained in certification standards such as GLOBALGAP learn valuable skills that can lead to promotions or to other positions, one of these women is women is Asrat Nega, who started as a packer at a large farm packhouse in Holet. Because of skills she learned through Fintrac assistance, she was promoted to packhouse supervisor and now earns 50 percent more.

“I am proud because I worked hard to earn this job,” Nega said.