Female farmers to improve livelihoods with support of experienced peers

Olga Babayeva, a 52-year-old farmer from Samukh region, in northwestern Azerbaijan, is a well-recognized businesswoman in her community. Apart from being the biggest producer of vegetable seeds for onions, coriander, dill, radishes, and parsley, among others, she is also known for her strong support of women’s engagement in farming.

She was attracted to farm life as a young child, spending her summer holidays helping her parents plant vegetables. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a nineteen-year-old Olga became the first young female farmer in Fuzuli village when she started renting a 10-hectare plot to grow beetroot.

“But it was not that easy,“ says Olga with a smile, who now cultivates a total of 14 hectares.

For more than 30 years she has been active in agriculture beyond just growing, managing the vegetable seed cooperative Barakat (“blessing” in Azeri), with 1 400 villagers as members, as well as establishing the Samukh Seed and Vegetable Corporation that ensures laboratory testing for sorting and drying. Today, the corporation sells seeds at both national and foreign markets.

“In the beginning, I faced situations when a tractor driver (who was usually a man) would refuse to cultivate my land just because I was a woman, or officials at the local government body neglected my requests as they did not accept the fact that a woman can be engaged in farming professionally,” reminisces Olga. “‘Your place is in the kitchen,’ this is what women hear very often, ‘–not on the land.’”

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