Women who are at the frontline of the climate crisis are bearing the brunt of rising hunger due to Covid-19, as they skip meals in order to feed their children, as per a study.
They are also victims of the rising levels of gender-based violence, according to an ActionAid study.
The study, conducted on 190 women farmers and local leaders across 14 countries in Africa and Asia, including Bangladesh, in September, was launched on the eve of World Food Day 2020, a press release said.
Its findings highlighted how measures to control Covid-19 are affecting the lives of women farmers. It also showed how market closures, travel restrictions, and soaring food prices are negatively affecting rural communities and jeopardizing the next planting season.
Catherine Gutundu, ActionAid’s head of resilient livelihoods and climate justice, said: “Around the world, Covid-19 has left women farmers indebted and hungry. Many of them now can't afford to plant for the next season. A dangerous spiral of increasing hunger and poverty could set in unless governments urgently increase their support to family farmers now.”
ActionAid has urged the governments to prioritize investment in sustainable, climate-resilient local food systems, as part of Covid-19 recovery plans.
Some major findings of the study
Covid-19 related market closures and lockdowns have severely affected earnings and food security. About 83% of women farmers reported loss of livelihoods during the pandemic, with 65% saying they are experiencing food shortages.
More than half (55%) of the women said their unpaid care and domestic work has increased during the pandemic.
Women are prioritizing their children’s needs over their own, as many reported skipping meals or eating smaller portions, so that their families have enough to eat. About 58% of women said members of their household skipped meals during lockdown.
More than half (52%) of the respondents said there has been an increase in gender-based violence.
They said there had been an increase in men forcefully taking money from their wives, rising incidents of police harassing women and girls, and difficulties reporting cases of violence to relevant authorities.
About 64% women farmers said lockdown had made women and girls more susceptible to abuse and exploitation.
Women farmers report increase in violence
Speaking about the violence women are facing in their community, Yandeh Gissey, a smallholder farmer from Upper Niumi in The Gambia, said: “We are witnessing physical abuse on women and girls by men. Especially where the women used to provide for the family and now they cannot, the husband is always violent.”
In Malawi, Alinafe Nkhoma, a smallholder farmer in Phalombe district has struggled to find enough, nutritious food for her family since losing her livelihood to Cyclone Idai which destroyed her farmland in 2019.
This year, her harvest was affected by drought and now the global pandemic has further affected her ability to sell her produce.
To survive and feed her family, she walks for four hours to gather Mikawa, a wild poisonous tuber, which has to be boiled for six hours before being safe to eat.
“Due to hunger in the area, the scramble for the wild tubers has become high,” she said. “On a daily basis there about 100 families in the mountains digging for tubers and one has to count themselves lucky if they find the tubers in good time.”
