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.
Making dry land flourish
Hilal’s grandmother calls her the voice of the women in their village. Now known as “The Lavender Valley,” Adana was once unfertile and arid. Now, thanks to the determination of the women who founded the cooperative, the valley now blooms and produces, processes, and markets lavender.
The solidarity of these women in Adana seems to have paid off this time.
The Adana Tapaneli Women Farmers’ Cooperative was founded five years ago by three women, eager to develop sustainable livelihoods on their ancestral lands. The cooperative was established first to combat drought that severely affects rural communities in the region, and which makes lavender production an increasingly popular option for a viable alternative crop in dry areas of Türkiye. The cooperative is not only involved in the production and trade of the plant, but it also markets some products such as lavender tea, oil, honey, marmalades, cologne, and bouquets, thanks to proper machinery, equipment, and training at the cooperative’s premises.
“I am the president of the cooperative” says Hilal with a big and proud smile. “We have 20 members, out of which 15 have lavender gardens on their own lands,” she adds while closing off the day’s accounts and calculating the amount of the lavender they have produced this season.
“I’ve learned to produce and earn money jointly with other women in the cooperative; and I'm happy now,” says Emine proudly, a fellow villager and member of the Tapaneli Cooperative. She’s been working since age 13, often as an unpaid child laborer in agriculture. Now she is able to make a living and take care of her family. Emine claims that she has increased her awareness on the importance of equality between men and women and of standing on her own feet, thanks to her job at the women’s cooperative.
