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PepsiCo Foundation, CARE partner to tackle gender inequality in agriculture

05 Mar 2019, 11:29 am
Financial Nigeria
PepsiCo Foundation, CARE partner to tackle gender inequality in agriculture

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PepsiCo Foundation will provide an $18.2 million grant to help five million female farmers and their families around the world to increase their crop yields, incomes and access to nutrition.

A man and a woman on a farm. Photo credit: N. Palmer/ CCAFS/CIAT

The PepsiCo Foundation – the philanthropic arm of American food and beverage giant, PepsiCo – has announced a partnership with CARE – the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation fighting global poverty – to tackle gender inequality in the agriculture sector. According to a press statement issued by the Foundation on Monday, the partnership is part of a broader effort by PepsiCo to support a more sustainable food system by empowering women in its own agricultural supply chain, including through its Sustainable Farming Programme currently active in 38 countries.

Under the partnership agreement, PepsiCo Foundation will provide an $18.2 million grant to help five million female farmers and their families around the world to increase their crop yields, incomes and access to nutrition. The Foundation said women account for nearly half of all agricultural labour in developing countries and work as much as 13 hours more per week than men, often without training, proper tools, like seeds and fertilizers, and rights to their land. The support for the select group of women will be provided in the form of education, resources and economic support.

Research shows that if female farmers had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent, potentially reducing the number of hungry people in the world by up to 150 million.

As part of its advocacy, which focuses specially on working alongside women and girls, CARE has launched She Feeds the World, the largest food and nutrition security programme in its 70-year history. The programme is designed to benefit 50 million female farmers and their families in the developing world. The PepsiCo Foundation's investment makes the Foundation the largest private sector donor to the CARE initiative.

"As a business rooted in agriculture, PepsiCo recognizes the power of agriculture to lift people out of poverty and feed families," said Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO and The PepsiCo Foundation Chairman. "She Feeds the World will help millions of smallhold women farmers get the resources and training they need to increase their crop yields, access markets and gain more reliable sources of income.

PepsiCo and CARE are also launching a global campaign called "Closing the Crop Gap" to give women a platform to tell their own stories about the challenges they face in agriculture. This campaign spotlights five women farmers in India, Egypt, Guatemala, Poland and the United States with short-form videos created by female videographers from the same regions as the farmers whose stories they are sharing. Members of the public will be invited to vote for their favorite video, and in exchange, receive a credit for a kiva.org microloan that can be used to benefit other female entrepreneurs.

The videographer who receives the most votes will be invited to create an extended, three-part docuseries that explores the experiences of women in agriculture. Voting begins on March 7.

"We are thrilled to partner with The PepsiCo Foundation, which shares our belief that women farmers possess enormous potential to substantially improve family nutrition and reduce hunger. Grounded in 70 years of experience developing impactful and proven models, CARE's She Feeds the World is a bold approach that aims to scale what works," said Michelle Nunn, CARE's President and CEO. "We know that we cannot do this work without engaging forward-thinking private sector partners, like The PepsiCo Foundation, to catalyze systemic and lasting change."


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