California Women for Agriculture
State CWA President in the news.

Diana Westmoreland Pedrozo isn't a farmer. So why has she positioned herself as one of Merced County's most fervent agriculture supporters? Her answer is simple: "I like to eat."

A longtime Merced resident, Westmoreland Pedrozo has spent much of her working life at a family-owned cabinet and door shop.

Though her only hands-on experience in farming was spent on her grandparents' almond farm as a teenager -- Gracey Elementary School stands there now -- the 51-year-old has dedicated her life to agriculture, the county's largest industry.

She has served as executive director of the Merced County Farm Bureau for four years and has no plans to leave. She's one of the county's most vocal, impassioned advocates for farmland preservation, and for a quarter-century she's been a member of California Women for Agriculture, a statewide, nonpartisan group dedicated to the survival of agriculture.

In January, she'll begin a two-year term as CWA's state president.

Westmoreland Pedrozo spoke Friday about her efforts to support agriculture, about the current state of the county's largest industry and about its future.

Q: What's the biggest challenge facing agriculture today, both in Merced and across California?

A: No. 1 is water, and you can't talk about water without talking about land use. They're intricately connected. But even if you have all the water and land you can farm, if you don't have people to farm it you're in trouble. So I'd say water, land use, the work force and the regulatory environment are the biggest things.

Q: What can state leaders do to better protect agriculture and our domestic food supply?

A: I think that every decision they make, they should first ask themselves, 'How will this affect agriculture?' Honestly, they need to ask that question because it all comes back to our basic necessity for food. No matter what issue we're talking about -- crime, quality of life, the underserved, health care -- it all comes back to the ability to provide nutritious, safe food.

It's critical, especially here. No place else on Earth produces what the Central Valley does. And we're casually paving it over. We're casually paving it over, and we need to be a lot more thoughtful in our decision making.

Q: How would you address the water shortage?

A: Water efficiency is critical. And we need more storage. We need the ability to store more water as our climate changes and we're faced with more water versus snow as our water source.

We also have to be careful of the divisiveness of the north-versus-south mentality. We need to be more efficient in the delivery and use of water.

Q: What can the average consumer do to protect agriculture and the domestic food supply?

A: We have to support local growers and we have to look at labels before we buy and ask our grocers where the food comes from. ... Less than 1% of the food that's imported into our country is inspected, so buying from local farmers markets and asking grocers to buy local should be the first priority for consumers.

Source: www.cawomen4ag.com/id56.html

Women's farming in Africa: A case for donkey power THEME: Although donkeys have their limitations, it is possible that their usefulness has been underestimated, particularly for poorer women farmers in Africa.

The donkey is a low-status animal, often considered of little value. It is not acceptable as a wedding gift. A man cannot buy a bride with a donkey. A donkey cannot be eaten. Keeping one tethered outside one’s home does not add to one’s position in the village. If a donkey dies, it "has to be buried like a human being". But the authors of a 1998 study by IFAD, FAO and the Government of Japan view the humble donkey in a different light. If nothing else, donkeys are (in development terms) ‘self-targeting’. No one but the poor wants them, and even better, poorer males may not be interested in them. What is more, they may be a good low-risk investment. And, while donkeys are not always the best alternative, there are situations when they are acceptable and useful to African women farmers for animal traction and transport.

Usually animal traction is associated with draught oxen. These powerful bovines are able to pull heavy agricultural implements or carts and work in difficult soil conditions. But ox-power has its drawbacks:

The African women studied say – and the men agree – that oxen equipment is too heavy for them. Women in Zimbabwe said they sometimes actually fell over when trying to turn corners with a five-tine cultivator and had trouble moving the heavy lever that adjusted the cultivator’s width.

In parts of Africa, oxen are at high risk from diseases born by the tsetse fly (such as in parts of Uganda) or from tick-borne (Corridor) disease (in Zambia). But disease is not oxen’s only threat. In recent years, bovine animals in the northern part of Uganda has been seriously depleted by marauding tribes from neighbouring areas. In parts of Africa, there is also a feed gap.

In some areas, as in parts of Uganda and Zambia, there are also taboos against women working with cattle. Where there are no taboos and women sometimes do use draught animals (as in parts of Senegal and Zimbabwe), such animals are still viewed as belonging to the men. This means that the implements they draw also belong to the men, and the men have priority to their access. Women have to wait their turn to use both cattle and implement, and by then it is often too late.

Donkeys, of course, are not as physically powerful for animal traction purposes. This means that ploughing with donkeys may not be possible in certain soil conditions. However, the study refers to research in Zimbabwe that made controlled comparisons of oxen and donkeys. The comparisons showed that the nutritional status of an animal, whether donkey or oxen, makes a great deal of difference in the animal’s performance. The research also noted that whereas donkeys may be slower than oxen, they never stop, but continue working. They also learn their tasks very quickly. The IFAD/FAO/Government of Japan study recommends that development programmes consider the value of donkeys particularly for inter-row cultivation. Where taboos against women associating with donkeys do not exist, and soil conditions are appropriate, donkeys have considerable advantages:

• They are lighter and easier to handle and train than oxen.
• Their implements are lighter (lightweight three-tine cultivators for donkey-draught seem particularly promising).
• They are a lower-risk investment than oxen, particularly where veterinary services are scarce and conditions harsh; where drought or illness kills off oxen, donkeys usually survive.
• They require very little time in terms of feeding (they take care of themselves, grazing on any available shrub or plant, even in the dry season), and therefore do not add to women’s already heavy workloads.
• Because of donkeys’ association with low social status and poverty, men are willing to let women control them. They are also less likely to be stolen.
• They are much cheaper than oxen or horses and therefore more affordable to women (although, in recent years, they have gone up tremendously in price in some areas).

Donkeys are already being used for animal traction by women and men in some parts of Africa, as in the areas east of Dakar, Senegal, where the study took place. If used first, a lightweight donkey-drawn cultivator can save enormous time and energy in hand hoeing. But in some areas, such as in central Zambia in the Chimbombo District, such implements are virtually unknown. Implements for donkeys are manufactured commercially and by blacksmiths in some of the African countries studied, but not in others. For instance, lightweight donkey ploughs that can be easily transformed into cultivators are available in Zimbabwe. In Uganda, the Agricultural Engineering and Appropriate Technology Research Institute (AETRI) is undertaking research and development related to such implements.

Donkeys could also be valuable for transport purposes, particularly for women. In Niger and Burkina Faso, where the endogenous technology of the zai (traditional planting pits) is spreading, donkey carts would be useful for transporting the manure that must be spread in the bottom of the pit to attract termites. Donkey carts would also be useful for carrying produce to market, for instance, for groups of women who are farming collective plots (as in parts of Burkina Faso and Senegal). This would save women from the heavy work of head-loading. Donkey carts could also transport water. Donkey-powered pully lifts (such as those made in Senegal) could also be viable.

Women in many countries in Africa seem to see animal traction as the answer to their production problems. As one woman in Burkina Faso said: "Animal traction makes the difference between night and day". Where they cannot afford or use oxen and oxen-drawn implements, women are interested in donkeys.

After considering the pros and cons, the study came out "on the side of the donkey". There are certain situations in Africa where development programmes could usefully promote donkey power for poorer farmers, and especially for use by poorer women. Animal traction or transport packages could be made available to women’s groups on credit, where women were engaged in collective cultivation of cash crops, and could be particularly valuable for inter-row hoeing. In many African countries, poorer women believe that donkey-traction and transport would suit their needs, and they are anxious for related credit and training.

Adapted from:
IFAD/FAO/Government of Japan. 1998. Agricultural Implements Used by Women Farmers in Africa. Rome.
Source: http://www.ifad.org/gender/learning/sector/agriculture/73.htm