#InternationalWomensDay: Hellen’s story
March 02, 2021
Hellen Wanjiko Waweru, a Kenyan smallholder farmer, shares her farming practices, challenges, and hopes for the future in this documentary short.
By GAP Report team, filming by Moses Irungu
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that improving women’s access to productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs and knowledge would enable them to produce 20 to 30 percent more food.1 This in turn provides positive impacts on children’s nutrition, health, and education, and could increase national agricultural outputs by as much as 4 percent.2
In honor of International Women’s Day, the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Initiative is sharing the story of Hellen Wanjiko Waweru, a Kenyan small-scale farmer, who describes her farming practices, challenges, and hopes for the future. Hellen was featured in the 2020 GAP Report film, Agricultural Productivity in a Time of Pandemics – Stories from the Front Lines.
1“Invisible Farmers: Why recognizing and supporting women farmers is key to food and nutrition security,” via World Bank Blogs: https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/invisible-farmers-why-recognizing-and-supporting-women-farmers-key-food-and
2Closing the gender gap in agriculture” via Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/52011/icode/