Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Gender perspective in sustainable land management

Here I allow myself to share in this forum some ideas-reflections about the relationship of women and the use and sustainable management of land; I start by saying that the sustainable use and management of the land is everyone's responsibility, in that rural women can play a leading role as long as they are able to occupy a place in the family and in society that allows them to develop their human capacities and develop skills and competencies to promote environmental and ecosystem care.

The theme proposed for this forum merits a paradigm shift in the face of understanding the environment, the ecosystem and the role that human beings women and men play as part of it.Integrating two strategic issues for sustainable development such as the gender perspective and environmental management implies generating a thought that allows us to understand the complexity of the man-nature relationship and how it should be mediated by values ​​such as respect and ethics.Let's start by making the relevance of the soil visible as a finite and non-renewable natural resource that fulfills various functions in the ecosystem and in the environment, it is the natural seat for production (Burbano, 2016), it is the source of nutrients for plants in order to produce food and biomass in general; Soil depends directly or indirectly on more than 95% of world food production, therefore, soil degradation is one of the biggest problems that threatens food production on the planet.

Soil is the largest carbon sink in nature, the fixation of carbon by the soil, misnamed "carbon sequestration" or "carbon sequestration" - prevents CO2 from going into the atmosphere, since this is one of the greenhouse gases that promote climate change.The relationship of human beings with the soil represents one of the greatest threats derived from the relationship of "modern man" with the planet through their conceptions and management style, a situation that in 2002, generates the term " Anthropocene ”, to refer to the current era of Earth's history, when human actions are driving with great force, environmental changes, many of which are undesirable for an overpopulated planet, increasingly hot, with intense felling of the forests and unfortunately, with soil degradation. However, there is also hope, when these challenges become opportunities to reinvent and overcome the current situation (Burbano, 2016).

Gender equality defined by UNESCO as "equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for women and men, and girls and boys" means that rights, obligations and opportunities do not depend on sex with that they were born, gender equality means that they take into account the interests and needs of both women and men, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men.Relations between women and men play an important role in human, social and economic development; they have to do with the way they are developed, as well as the evolution and transformation of the values, norms and cultural practices of a society; which, in turn, determine these relationships. In fact, they are relationships that evolve over time and that influence a matrix of socio-economic, political and cultural factors. Changes in the combination of these factors can affect them in a positive or negative way (UNESCO, 2012).

The relationships and roles that women and men play in society also determine how they relate to the ecosystem and the environment, have to do with education, culture and opportunities to participate in the workforce that in the rural environment it translates into participation in agricultural activities closely linked to land use.Participation in the workforce is essential for the social and economic empowerment of people and their communities that offers them more options and resources, as well as greater autonomy to live the life they want.Women play a fundamental role in land management through their participation in family farming (Chiappe, 2005; Ballara, et.al., 2012), this role is documented in various investigations that coincide in identifying the sexual division that occurs in the performance in this activity and the invisibility of the work they performed. Specifically, women's activities are considered to help men and are included in the work carried out by men or heads of household.Among the activities carried out by women in the countryside are agricultural activities selling small-scale products and household chores that may be in addition to their own, the service they provide for other families; they also perform family care activities such as food preparation, child and elderly care, laundry, firewood, water collection, etc; - When there are temporary hiring in the homes, women, in addition to fulfilling their responsibilities in agricultural production, must also guarantee the conditions (food, laundry, house cleaning) so that those who are hired can fulfill their work.

Women participate in the entire process of food production from planting to harvest, but this participation is considered as support for men; the artisanal or almost artisanal processing of food for the sale and distribution of these. According to the study on the situation of rural women in family farming in five countries in Latin America (Chiappe, 2005), the activities assigned to them generally in the productive area of ​​the agricultural sector need qualities conceived in patriarchal cultures to women by the established role both in socialization and in relation to obligations in reproduction.Women have qualities that allow them to participate in agricultural activities such as the “ability to perform repetitive and routine tasks, the ability to perform several tasks at the same time, the ability to associate work with their responsibilities in the field of reproduction, bringing their children with them for the farm ..., due to the responsibilities they have in the domestic sphere, their availability to perform temporary jobs ..., greater availability for the execution of some tasks that require attention to detail, as well as the permanence in a awkward position ..., acceptance of a remuneration relatively lower than the payment given to men ..., greater docility ... ”(Chiappe, 2005: 5).

From the two-dimensional analysis of the activities described above, the sexual division of labor is evidenced in which there is a lack of recognition of the contribution of women as well as distribution in the domestic activities culturally assigned to them.It is observed that although the participation of women during the last three decades has increased both in agricultural activities of land use and in different tasks, gender inequalities remain considerable.

While it is estimated that women represent more than 40% of the active population, they continue to encounter invisible barriers in terms of income and salaries and access to managerial positions, and are very likely to be overrepresented in low-income economic sectors. productivity and / or in the informal economy.The soil is the main element of ecological structures and synthesis of the state of the ecosystem and as such its proper management is essential for the success of other environmental policies. It plays a fundamental role in the sustenance of society and people; therefore, its degradation affects the welfare of the population.

Conservation and sustainable land management are essential to achieve the well-being of the population and is interrelated with the success or failure of numerous public policies, including those related to the agricultural, mining, housing, urban development and water sectors drinking, industry and commerce, transportation and health, among others. Additionally, sustainable land management is essential to consolidate peace processes in countries or regions that have been victims of the armed conflict.The role of women in the use and management of land is related to the processes of family transformation in general in society; For example, in Latin American countries the process is slow, in terms of the consideration of gender equality, of more democratic power relations between the couple and the formation of children, in modifying the stereotypes of the traditional roles of men and women. women, among others, in rural families these transformations are even more distant. 

The gap between cultural changes at the social level and the structural transformations of the family is greater in rural families.The preponderance of the authority of the father, motherhood as a central aspect of women's identity, the submission of children to authority and the presence of machismo in the patterns of socialization and cultural relationship, are the aspects that are still strongly supported in family structure and organization.

The new generations are stressed in the processes of family socialization, the processes of formal education, which strengthen this type of relations and the discourse of public policies and cultural change, which promotes relations of equality and democratic patterns among those who decide to form new families.

On the other hand, rural youth appear in the midst of the processes of anchoring new social representations of the rural world and yet decisions are made for them on a daily basis; which on the one hand anchors them to a rural world without expectations for them and on the other encourages them to know new directions without forgetting their culture and rural environment.

The vision of the future of young people contains this double tension.The increase in the years of schooling, a sign of important transformation in the rural world, must be oriented to higher quality processes and social policies in that sense, must overcome the exclusion contained in their own rationality and mediate real inclusion processes to the new ones generations and allow them to find more development opportunities in their own rural environment.Social and political participation in the rural world today is very small and this appears consistent with its traditional structure in which the participation alternatives focus on traditional roles and strengthen sexist and unintegrative cultural patterns.

The process of incorporating women into work in the rural sector has been carried out from the logic of their contribution to the family and not from their own development as a person or subject. In this sense there is also a tension in the new generations, that reaching more schooling and higher education, they can make a difference with the women who preceded them, but on the other hand the same education ties them to the traditional model of subordination to the world of men , based on asymmetric relationships, rather than real democratic and egalitarian patterns.In this sense, the new generations seem to keep in tension, the traditional family vision and the scenarios of modernity, marked by the capitalist model, which promotes the more individualistic perspective, where the individual subject weighs, above the affirmation of a us.

Finally, I consider that the main limitations based on gender are cultural, educational and public policies that not only lead to mental models about the role of rural women as a family member but also in the role they play in the home economics and land cultivation, land use and management; These limitations are generated by unequal gender relations including discriminatory policies and norms that hinder the sustainable management of soils and contribute to their degradation.

Practical solutions and approaches that could help overcome these barriers include raising the level of formal education not only in women but in the new generations of children and young people, implementing public agriculture and rural development policies that improve living conditions and that allow the development of the field linked to local development, which generates attractive scenarios in agricultural activity in such a way that women, young people and the same men see that cultivating the land is a promising activity for their present and for their future.

Sustainable land management policies must be comprehensive policies, articulating rural development, social welfare and human development policies, which include education, training and awareness strategies for sustainable land management, environmental education policies, which are inclusive, not only with the communities, but with their different members, women and men, boys and girls in environmental education activities; it is necessary to educate in a systemic vision of the environment and of the integral formation of the human being in order to strengthen the participatory processes, the installation of technical capacities for the conservation and the sustainable use of the environment, including the soil, beyond its conception merely productive.   

Mylene Rodriguez Leyton

Teaching researcher

Nutrition- Dietetic program,

Food and Human Behavior Group,

Metropolitan University, Barranquilla- Colombia.

Master in administration research emphasis,

Specialist in administration of public health services,

Nutritionist - Dietitian

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References

Burbano-Orjuela, H. (2016), Suelo, servicios ecosistémicos y seguridad alimentaria. Rev. Cienc. Agr. Julio - Diciembre 2016, 33(2):117-124.

Chiappe, Marta B. (2005).La situación de las mujeres rurales en la agricultura familiar de cinco países de América Latina. Asociación Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción al Desarrollo.

Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible de Colombia. (2016). Política para la Gestión Sostenible del Suelo. Bogotá, 2016. http://www.minambiente.gov.co

Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura. (2015).  Las mujeres campesinas: su gran aporte a la agricultura familiar y la economía productiva. Junio 2015.

UNESCO. (s f) Igualdad de género, Manual metodológico- indicadores UNESCO de cultura para el desarrollo. https://es.unesco.org/creativity/sites/creativity/files/digital-library/cdis/Iguldad%20de%20genero.pdf

Climate change is making it more difficult for people in the developing world to escape poverty and protect the natural resources they rely on for food and income. At the same time, tradition keeps too many women from fully participating in the development of their communities and the conservation of biodiversity.

In Mozambique and Tanzania, the CARE- WWF Alliance works with women and men in farming and fishing communities, their governments, and private sector partners to develop more just and sustainable food systems; with the strategy of empowering the poorest and most vulnerable women and their communities to (1) manage natural resources and adapt to climate change in ways that pull them out of poverty, and (2) shape local policies and institutions to promote sustainable development and ensure the conservation of biodiversity.

Capacity building is a common approach to promoting best practice adoption in both conservation and development sectors. CARE’s approach to Farmer Field and Business Schools (FFBS), prioritizing gender and equity, in Tanzania reaffirms the power of demonstration and illustrates how Training of Trainers (TOT) can accelerate uptake in a wider geography.

The Alliance’s 2016 baseline assessment in Nachingwea showed that fewer than one-third of farmers practiced even one climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technique. Rather, farmers still practiced traditional slash and burn agriculture to regularly open new fields and prepare the soil for production.

Yet competition for scarce, fertile land and our changing climate make this approach increasingly unsustainable—and even more so for women. Through Alliance FFBSs, farmers learn techniques like the use of crop rotation and improved seeds that are more tolerant to variable rainfall and diseases — that reduce the frequency with which farmers need to open new land while also producing higher yields. In the 2018 season, farmers adopting CSA practices and seeds on their own plots increased sesame production by more than half compared to those using traditional practices and local seeds harvested.

The Alliance has multiplied FFBS impact through TOT at two levels. The Alliance employs a TOT methodology to train both government extension agents and community paraprofessionals to facilitate day-to-day CSA mentoring and FFBS activities with community members. As the learning brief “Effective strategies for improving policy implementation and law enforcement at the community and district levels in Tanzania” explores in greater detail, a 2017 TOT for Nachingwea District Agricultural Officials and Ward Extension Officers also underlines how training influencers, in particular, can create the enabling conditions for wider best practice adoption.

In short, the FFBS model successfully simultaneously empowers women farmers and promotes adoption of CSA because it gives risk-averse farmers a low-risk environment in which to experiment. Through learning-by- doing, FFBS members both build their capacity for technical best practice and collective action. Importantly, through their collective labor, they also witness the tangible benefits of new approaches relative to traditional ones. Moreover, training others to implement the FFBS curriculum or to otherwise promote CSA increases the number of people who learn about CSA.

For another example of CARE-WWF Alliance strategies for empowering marginalized groups and addressing gender inequalities, please reference “A rights-based approach to community conservation” learning brief focusing on the Hariyo Ban project in Nepal.

Mainstreaming gender for sustainable soil management - Nomomente Institute

1. In your view, what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equality?

Healthy soils are crucial to supporting sustainable agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a number of other ecosystem services. In turn, sustainable soil use, management and conservation relies on an understanding of the critical roles that soil plays, as well as on an understanding of women’s role in agriculture and food security. 

Because women make up close to half of the global agricultural labour force, ensuring their equality in this realm is vital to sustainable soil use, management and conservation, as well as to meeting many of the Sustainable Development Goals. This means ensuring that women have equal access to opportunities for improving soil health, to land and secure land tenure, and to other resources, as well as addressing the particular constraints that women face. Attention must also be paid to how the intersectional identities of women (including women’s class, ethnicity, age, and status) impact on agricultural practices. 

2. What are the distinct roles for women, men, boys and girls in sustainable soil management?

While more rigid rules with respect to the roles of women, men, boys and girls in soil management do exist in some places, there are also differences in understanding in terms of the need for living soils to facilitate sustainable agriculture, as well as with respect to the importance of what we call the “soil village” in raising strong, healthy plants.

3. What are the main gender-based constraints, including unequal gender relations and discriminatory norms that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation? What practical solutions and approaches could help overcoming such barriers?

There are a number of gendered differences and gender-based constraints that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation.

• Women may have different knowledge concerning agriculture and land management. This includes traditional knowledge, and may be related to the differing roles of women and men in agricultural practices (for example, land preparation, sowing, pest management, harvesting). Women and men may also be responsible for growing different types of crops, and thus have different knowledge in this regard. 
• Women may face constraints with respect to landholding. Women often have smaller landholdings and less secure land tenure than men. These factors may impact their ability to control and make decisions concerning agriculture and soil management. Women may also have access to lower quality land than men.
• Women often lack access to resources. Women are likely to have lower income or other forms of capital than men. This may impact their ability to invest in agricultural improvements; to access agricultural technologies, equipment and technical information; to access agricultural inputs (organic or chemical); and to engage in longer-term land management activities (versus interventions with more immediate benefits).
• Women may have competing demands on their labour. Women often have a range of domestic duties that place constraints on their time, and may limit their ability to implement more time-consuming, labour-intensive agricultural practices.
• Women and children’s health suffer more in the absence of living soil. Women and children are more impacted by the lack of microorganisms in the soil in terms of gut health, and may suffer greater health consequences (including anxiety and depression) as a result.

4. How can the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation? Which interventions at policy and project/field level are of utmost priority? What are some potential entry points for success?

Given the significant role women play in the global agricultural labour force, promoting greater gender equality and empowering women can lead to improved soil management and conservation.

Possible interventions include:

• Improving soil health understanding and education for women and girls
• Increasing opportunities to learn from grandmothers and other elders, and listening to the traditional knowledge of women, particularly Indigenous women
• Paying greater attention to intersectionality and the multiple ways in which women might be disempowered
• Advocating for more equal land tenure
• Understanding the devastating impact of toxic soil inputs to women’s fertility, reproductive health and offspring

MAINSTREAMING GENDER FOR SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT.

WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE SOIL USE, MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION AND GENDER EQUALITY

Sustainable use of soil is the use, management and conservation of soil to meet the changing human needs of the present generation while at the same time ensuring that the soil can also meet the needs of the future generation. To achieve this, men, women, boy and girl have to be involved actively. For the soil use to be sustainable, soil has to be managed properly and its inherent qualities has to be conserved.

WHAT ARE THE DISTINCT ROLES FOR WOMEN, MEN, BOYS, AND GIRLS IN SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT

In the rural areas, women, men and boys play a prominent roles in farming activities from land clearing, tillage operations and other agronomic practices including fertilizer application while the girls are engage in domestic chores.  

WHAT ARE THE MAIN GENDER-BASED CONSTRAINTS?

The main gender-based constraints in sustainable soil management is the significant gender-based gap and inequalities in land ownership, secondly putting women behind in important discussions settings from the local to the global world, about the nature of the problems and possible solutions or coping strategies.

WHAT PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS AND APPROACHES COULD HELP OVERCOMING SUCH BARRIERS?

Women play vital roles in agricultural systems, thus they have good knowledge about plants and agricultural techniques that might help adaptation strategies. If women aren’t at the “table” when coping strategies and adaptation approaches are discussed, this knowledge won’t be represented. And the solutions include:

• To empower women and to broaden their exposure in sustainable soil management, conservation and food security.
•  Programs should strengthen, educate to build on the women’s knowledge and help create more awareness relating to soil management.
• To create awareness on the ability of women in order to expose them worldwide and for them to be partisans in decision making.
• Meeting Lands authority to enable women to have easy access to lands, so as to have maximum protection of the soil, and conserves it properly. 

HOW CAN THE PROMOTION OF GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT CONTRIBUTE TO SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION.

•  Promotion of gender equality will enhance the participation of women in sustainable soil management and conservation.
• If women are empowered, it will reduce the labor burden of rural women, making them to concentrate more on sustainable soil management and conservation. 
• It will make women have easy access to the land they farm.
• Promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is crucial for the achievement of a zero hunger world.

WHICH INTERVENTIONS AT POLICY AND PROJECT/FIELD LEVEL ARE OF UTMOST PRIORITY?

Policy interventions of utmost Priority include:  

• Eliminating discrimination against women in access to agricultural resources, education, extension and financial services, and labor markets.
• Investing in labor-saving and productivity-enhancing technologies and infrastructure to free women’s time for more productive activities; and
• Facilitating the participation of women in flexible, efficient agriculture to enable women to be aware of the economic importance of agriculture because it’s a source of gainful employment.

1. In your view, what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equality?

Unequal access to land, market and agriculture services to the different community members how has benefit from the farms it will directly effects their farm managements. Women in Sudan especially in the west of the country do most of the work in Agriculture; however, they don’t own the land. They cultivate small farm efficiently near the village or in the house. Providing access to land to women will aid them to accept new conservation package

2. What are the distinct roles for women, men, boys and girls in sustainable soil management?

Their roles will be defined according to their contribution in the livelihood income for the household. They complete each other’s women are look after the family doing cooking, cleaning, raising kids and as labor on the farm. Women could contribute in soil sustainability if they trained to increase the added value form the family waste. The residue from the food can be used as organic amendments to the soil if they now how compost it. Men, their role is to cultivate the land and sale the product and all the decisions relating to the farm managements are taken by them. Boys and girls go to school or stay to participate on the household income by different means according to the family financial status. Boys and girls can contribute and help the family in their spare time by engaging in small income work activity especially if they were closed to the city.  Extra income beside the farm income will decrease the over use of the land and help to be sustained.

3. What are the main gender-based constraints, including unequal gender relations and discriminatory norms that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation? What practical solutions and approaches could help overcoming such barriers?

The main constraints according to my experience are culture and the land production relationship. Where, at the western part of Sudan all the hard work on the farm, are taken by women while men are sale the product and take all the decision regarding the farm activities. At the northern and middle part the situation is completely different, women are not allowed to participate on farm activity is considered as men job. At Gezira scheme in Sudan farmers settlement is one of constrain where, some women refused to move to the farms where their husband and prefer to stay at the village. Due to these situation farmers will not be able to follow up their farms perfectly and some time they abounded it. Regarding the land production relationship, women are cultivating the farm but she has no rights all complete authority to sale the product husband will do that and even take all the decisions related to the farm activities. Men will receive all the services as the owner of the land but this will not grantee that he will use it at his farm.

The practical solutions and approaches which could help to overcome such barriers in my view are:

1. Increase the women awareness by their rights and help them to have their own income.
2. Help women to have their own groups such as societies to find means for product sales 
3. Training workshop for the farmers in waste management it will help them to get an added value from their waste especially food waste.
4. Provide agricultural service to how cultivated the land; in case of the women who cultivated the land insure that she receive such services.
5. Increase the extension services and pay more attention to the small farmer. By providing appropriate agricultural package.
6. Encourage land owner to invest his land in sustainable manner  
7. Create other source of incomes for women other than agriculture such as crafting and traditional foods making.

5. How can the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation? Which interventions at policy and project/field level are of utmost priority? What are some potential entry points for success?

The most important parameter is improving land tenure system to allow women own the land.

Although women do most of the activity in agriculture in the Western part of Sudan, marketing of the product is man Job. Therefore allow women to market her product will give her economical stability

Women need to have access to bank to get loan (without economical independence she can’t get fund from banks. (She has nothing as guarantee)

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential to contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation because they address underlying resource and knowledge inequities between women and men that affect soil management, land tenure, and a host of other related topics. CARE’s She Feeds the World programmatic framework has six identified interrelated areas of change to focus priority interventions: supporting women’s empowerment; increasing women’s access to and control of productive resources; enabling women’s access to inclusive markets; improving nutrition; promoting social protection; and, multiplying impact to enable change at scale.

Priority activities for women’s empowerment are building agency, changing relations, and transforming structures and these underpin systemic gaps in resources and capacities to sustainably manage soil. Beyond these activities, those that address access to, and control of productive resources are imperative because the ability to access and control productive assets and resources is vital for women and youth producers. It impacts their ability to engage in sustainable agriculture and markets, manage short term environmental shocks, and effectively cope with climate shifts. Women’s control over assets are also related to decision-making at home and in the rural economy, which affects their children’s wellbeing. She Feeds the World improves access to information, appropriate agricultural and productive resources, and assets, prioritizing land water, inputs, technology and information (including clean energy), and finance.

Land access, in general, is a priority topic because most land inheritance systems ensure that land is owned and controlled by men (FAO, 2011). As a result, women lack the opportunity to access land for production. Where land is communally owned, traditional leaders prioritize access for men because they do not value women as producers. In places where have families have land titles, men are dramatically more likely to be the sole title holders and as such women are unable to use the land as collateral to access loans for investment in production. Access to land is increasingly under threat as speculators and commercial producers spread their demand for land and water resources to new areas, while community natural resource management structures are mainly male-dominated, constraining women’s rights to natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide. The productive capacity of land that women can access is increasingly constrained due to soil-loos, over-production and desertification: a fifth of cropland has been so degraded it is no loner suitable for farming (Interaction, 2011). SFTW addresses this injustice through a multi-pronged process that includes gender and community dialogues on access to land, advocacy to influence policy on access and utilization of land for women, innovative approaches to titling and enabling women’s access and control of land, climate resilient agriculture approaches to promote increased soil quality and water retention and to regenerate degraded land, and landscape approaches for natural resource management and risk reduction.

With all the money invested in gender based projects mostly for women "impowerment" I have an underlying concern that should be addressed at the beginning. The entire women "impowerment" effort has an underlying current that all or at least most women are in an adversary  relationship with thier husbands. I find this hard to beleive as adversary relationships are very unpleasant to say the least and most people try to avoid them. Thus, I would be interested to know what percent of women are in an adverary relationship and in need of impowerment vs. what percent are in a colloborative relationship with their spouces and not in need of impowerment?   Also, since women are heavily involved with domestic chores, child care, meal preparation, etc. how much time and more imporant dietary energy does this consume, vs. how much time and energy do thay typically have to participate in economic activity? I think with the limited calories available to the family women would consume most of thier available calories with the domestic chores with very little time and effort available to engage in economic opportunities, either assisting the family in farming or some indepoendent economic activity. In addition if they become involved will this become a source of added antagism between spouces? Finally, if women become involved in independent economic activities, instead of assisting with the primary economic activity of the family, what will the impact be on total family well being? Would the family be better off concentrating on the primay economic effort even if lead by the husband? Shouldn't answering these questions be the precursor to an major effort at women "impowerment".

Please review the dietary energy webpages to see how limited available calories will impact on womens ability to become involed in economic activities in addition to thier domestic responsibilities. 

https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/calorie-energy-balan…;

https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/ethiopia-diet-analys…;

https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/affordability-of-imp…;

In your view what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equity?

In Micronesia management of soil and enhancement of soil fertility is key for food security of high volcanic and low coral islands. For instance, on low-lying islands, abandoned fields are more prone to water infiltration and soil ‘build-up’ through mulching and composting is the process that help reduce this threat. In some islands, taro patches are owned and managed by women.  Taro patches play an important cultural and social role, and in many islands, women are the guardians of these resources by working the patches to ensure appropriate drainage and soil quality. In other islands, where agroforestry is culturally executed by men, women play an important role in managing home gardens that provide vegetables to the household or local markets. Many times, these gardens require women to practices with active soil management by adding compost or seaweeds to maintain or re-establish soil nutrients.

What are the distinct roles for women, men, boys and girls in sustainable soil management?

For the Pacific region this is highly variable and dependent on the country, state or atoll and island. In cases were women are the custodian of taro patches, they also have a direct impact sediments runoff, since the taro patches system naturally traps sediments.

What are the main gender-based constraints, including unequal gender relations and discriminatory norms that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation? What practical solutions and approaches could help overcoming such barriers?

In some cases, the low participation in the decision-making process can impair the ability of women and youths to access trainings and information on appropriate methods for soil management. In other cases, access is limited because the time slots allocated to training and workshops are in conflict with women commitments to family and salaried jobs. Creation of active platforms for knowledge exchange and management, as well as replication of trainings and workshop at suitable times, can help improve women access to information and equally build their capacity in sustainable soil management. 

How can the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation? Which interventions at policy and project/field level are of utmost priority? What are some potential entry points for success?

Although women and youth are directly contributing to production of crops, playing a key role for households’ adaptation, they are generally not directly involved in land management decisions, which commonly involve adult men of the family or clan. However, increasing recognition of the importance of soil management for households’ gardens and agroforestry is leading to a greater engagement of women groups and youths in trainings for food security that includes aspects of soil and crop management. In the region, women groups and women led NGOs are active in implementing projects or providing training to women, men and youths for best practices for reducing soil erosion and sustainable soil management. In the north west Pacific, projects focusing on utilization of ecosystem-based adaptation practices (e.g. restoration of traditional taro patches, buffer strips, contour bunds, rain gardens, etc.) and production of compost for soil amendment, are targeting both women and men to increase food security. There are several examples from the Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau where women are leading transformational changes for long-term adaptation, specifically targeting soil erosion and quality for food and water security. For instance, in the Federated States of Micronesia, promotion of portable and normal dry litter piggeries, supported by farmers associations and women associations and groups, is allowing production of local compost from pig waste. This method reduces the threat of animal waste to water ways and human health, while enhancing soil quality. Women groups and NGOs are also implementing soil erosion control techniques, such as planting contour strips along slopes and restoring abandoned taro patches, which are natural sinks for sediments.

Due to the serious threat of climate change to food security, schools are inserting “learning gardens” in their curricula, while colleges are engaging and training young men and women on innovative agriculture techniques.

For the question of "In your view, what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equality?"

In Ethiopia sustainable soil use, management and conservation are a very important dialogue point because our livelihood is more related to the land (agriculture-crop production as food and as cash, -livestock production in pastoral or high landers, export is based on cash crop that generates the GDP highest share etc).

So; from gender perspective or mainstreaming gender issue is highly advocated to create responsive access or control to its betterment to present or future change of livelihood. My perspective is that all gender dimensions (female, male and youth) are responsible for diversified responsibility with the different workloads to conserve it; yet all are equally or with equality responsible since it will affect their life directly or indirectly with the tenure system or land-based institutional system.

The equality arises in responsiveness to conservation and management for its sustainability; yet at micro-level there will appear share of responsibility visa vis workload at household level.

1) In your view, what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equality?

The relation between sustainable soil use, soil management and soil conservation (including soil fertility and soil health) and gender equality is that more men are involved, when sustainable soil management practices (and agricultural management practices) are being introduced (in project workshops or demonstration meetings for European farmers[1]). Despite of trying to involve women as well as men, the fact is that women farmers are a minority in Europe, therefore they are also often a minority in project study site communities, which may make them, being a minority, less convenient to participate, but in missing these introductions, also their views, ideas and perspectives will not always be represented adequately and the women are less informed and less involved than men. The invited women however, seem to be interested in the sustainable management subject, as it was shown in the (SoilCare EU) project, although lower in number, in percentage the participation level of women was higher than compared to the percentage of invited men.[2]

2) What are the distinct roles for women, men, boys and girls in sustainable soil management?

In sustainable soil management the roles for women in the European case studies are -more or less- the same as for men, except that more men than women are into farming and forestry. Related to the non-sustainable soil management stakeholders, women are involved and especially interested in sustainable soil (and land) management, considering aspects as the health of the soil and the crops that are being produced now and in the future. In the EU project RECARE[3], a lot of interviews with stakeholders on the subject were held, and some interesting results were, that the women stakeholders tended to respect the soil for its possibilities, where the men tended to look how well the exploitation possibilities of the soil were; Women reminded us about the health of future generations with sustainable soil management, where men specifically mentioned terminology like efficiency related to crop production. These remarks are not significant in numbers, but several women from the case study sites were pointing more to the future health of the soil and considering the threats of their soils, where several men were more focussed on the economic possibilities and the way they could use the soil. There are of course also men with the conservation perspective and women with the production perspective, showing that these approaches are not necessarily gender based, but more gender related, because the men (and women) influence each other in their approach.

3) What are the main gender-based constraints, including unequal gender relations and discriminatory norms that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation?

A gender based constraint in soil management is juridical and/or cultural, when there are laws that discriminate on gender with regard to access to land ownership or inheritance or rules that discriminate on access to (agrarian) schools, jobs, loans, funds, buildings, or on salaries. Often the European laws and public rules are not (any more) discriminating on gender, but the practice still is, as often mentioned the “normal” situation, such as women have to do the household without payment, or women are thought not able or willing to run a farm. It contributes to soil degradation in the way that soil management misses the gender balance or better: the gender diversity, for a sustainable land management approach, but is a male dominated (more focus on the land use and its profits, despite of the soil threats), where a more future based, female minded approach (for healthy soils, its conservation and the importance of soil biodiversity, and preventing soil threats) could bring a better balance.  

What practical solutions and approaches could help overcoming such barriers?

To have a balance of women and men in sustainable soil management, women should be more attracted to this field and some gender related issues should become societal issues solved by juridical, institutional and practical flexible appointments (or rules). Which also shows that gender inequality is a bigger problem, but about sustainable soil, one can for example build a generous (digital) floor to exchange knowledge from the different gendered perspectives (economic growth and quality -biological, chemical and physical healthy soils-). And support for more women to become empowered for positions in sustainable farm management.

To maintain soil quality and soil biodiversity, and for reasons of human health and reproductivity, we should focus on more sustainable, biological solutions, solutions that could make the organic farming increase, instead of producing chemical fertilizers, insecticides and plastics, for temporary higher yields, losing soil quality in the meantime. For soil quality and human health, more strict norms are needed for amounts, type, and mixtures of chemicals for yield improvement, as well as for example, frequency of use.     

4) How can the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation? Which interventions at policy and project/field level are of utmost priority? What are some potential entry points for success?

Sustainable soil management and conservation courses on the internet, and through soil information exchange mobile phone applications[4] for everyone, where the future is designed with subjects that may attract women as well as men, (biodiversity in agriculture, natural fertilizer, combinations with new energy), both men and women are needed to make sustainable- or “organic” farming bigger. To gather more women in soil management and conservation, they should be attracted with issues of their interest, supplied with funds that help them to work on their ideas and offered support from women advisors that might be sensitive to their questions. Not to separate the world, but to make it more equal, since women are a minority in soil and agricultural management, they could use extra incentives, for example: Require involvement of women from applicants when distributing extra loans or subsidies to start a sustainable soil management or conservation practice, or an organic farm.