The fifteenth of October is the International Day of Rural Women. This is a day to recognize that women’s empowerment and gender equality can lead to better lives, better production, and a better environment for all. One such story is that of how Hilal and Emine created a lavender agribusiness cooperative to improve their lives and livelihoods.

Hilal Kos and Emine Karakoca are two proud women from Adana, a city in south-eastern Türkiye. It’s the last of the lavender harvest now, and with 20 other women all from rural families with limited economic resources, they are working hard to get the crop in on time. Yet none of them are there as part of seasonal, unpaid, or family workforce, which are the conditions around the globe under which many rural women work. Instead, they manage themselves with the Tapaneli Women Farmers’ Cooperative, an “all women-run cooperative,” supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Adana Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry.