Stakeholder Farming

Challenged by the daunting threats of environmental crises, such as repeated droughts, and a booming population, Nigerian women struggled to fight looming hunger crises in their communities. Thus, local women, buttressed by Ripples staff, produced a solution: provide female farmers with land and teach them techniques that would both protect them against ecological disasters and give them a consistent source of income to support their families with education, medical care, and proper nutrition.

Stakeholder Farming - Nigeria

How We Work

Adopt a village

Problem

Women form the backbone of the Nigerian agricultural sector, providing 60-80% of all labor. However, due to gender inequality, they also have less access to resources and limited decision-making powers, resulting in a gap in harvest value, despite the fact that they carry the bulk of household and child-raising responsibilities.1   Additionally, Nigeria faces recurring droughts and looming environmental crises, as well as a rapidly growing population- as of 2018, the average woman gives birth to 5 children in her lifetime.2  During Town Hall meetings with Ripples women in Ogidi and Oke-osun, both remote Nigerian villages expressed that it was increasingly difficult to fight hunger in their communities and feed their families. Further, village youth who struggle to find employment must migrate to cities in search of work, leaving them, their families, and their communities to fend for themselves.

1 Gender Roles in Nigerian Labour Market
2 Fertility rate, total (births per woman) – Nigeria

Sustainable Agriculture

Solution

Ripples had a town hall meeting with local women and the Council of Chiefs to co-create a small, female-led stakeholder farmers group. Thus, a sustainable farming initiative designed to teach women and youth sustainable, profitable, and eco-friendly farming techniques was created. Not only does Ripples’ sustainable farming program help generate income and feed families, but it also empowers women and youth to lead in the adaptation of their community’s agriculture while increasing the resilience of farms to environmental crises and climate change. Farmers are also taught how to run their farms like businesses, and how to make long-term investments, such as planting investment trees like Ebony, to guarantee income when school fees are due. Participants also learn invaluable skills, like farm irrigation, to allow their communities to weather droughts and increase harvests from one to four times a year.

Stakeholder Farming - woman with peppers

Impact

The sustainable farming program began in Nigeria in 2018 with a pilot of 70 female participants: each woman was provided with 2 cleared hectares of land, seeds, and training.  Women were able to provide food for their families, earning income from the sale of their harvests.  Additionally, proceeds from women’s harvest sales were  used to buy irrigation pumps and high-yield seeds, guaranteeing investment and sustainability for the future of farms. In addition to having regular income, improving farm resilience to environmental threats, and feeding families, sustainable farming with Ripples USA presents women with the ability to provide medical care and education for their children with the income they make after the sales of farm harvests. With the profits Ripples women gain from sustainable farming, they are able to earn the incomes necessary to ensure the prosperity and security of their children and communities. 

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