Until recently, Mansab Mai worked as a milk producer. The Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan, where her family of nine lives, is well-known for milk production, and livestock are an important part of people’s livelihoods here. Almost every household has cows or goats. Ever since the lockdown in the country to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Mansab’s family is keeping the milk for their own consumption.
Mansab’s husband and eldest son are masons and had been working as a daily wage labourers, but due to the crisis they have been out of work for the past months. Their family used to rely on this income to provide for themselves and their seven children. They had no savings to call upon.
With countries around the world introducing lockdowns to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansab’s situation is unfortunately not uncommon; smallholder farmers and rural communities are already suffering the negative impacts on their livelihoods. For many people, the restrictions to contain the spread of the virus have curtailed or completely stopped their ability to work.
Sowing seeds
Fortunately, just a few months before the worldwide crisis began, Mansab took a chance on starting a new livelihood. She participated in FAO’s Farmer Field School (FFS) in November 2019 with other female participants. They received canola seeds to help them get ahead of the crop growing season. The canola oil can both be used for household consumption and be sold for a good price.
With these seeds and new knowledge, Mansab, her husband and her eldest son prepared and ploughed a small piece of their family’s land before sowing the seeds. She hoped to get a good harvest, but as she had only ever grown wheat and vegetables in the past, she was uncertain about the results.
Throughout the farming cycle, FAO provided technical support, helping farmers make key decisions on land preparation, fertiliser requirements, biological pest control methods and harvesting techniques. With this help, Mansab could just trust that this new activity would succeed.