World Grain - June 2021 - 52

FEATURE: BOUNTIFIELD LOOKS TO EXPAND ITS REACH
expanded the capacity and amount of food you can get to people. "
Spieldoch gave specific examples of how the organization is
making a difference. Its most recent successes include improving
the quality of cassava with post-harvest drying technologies
and providing sorghum threshing services to Kenyan farmers.
" We provide tools and training so Elhadji's village in
Senegal can save more food from their harvest and nourish
their community, " Spieldoch said. " We work with women like
Fatou, who uses our thresher and grinder as part of her thriving
business creating income generating food products like millet
flour or peanut paste. We partner with the African private sector
to manufacture and distribute our tools in the same economy
where they will be used. "
Accomplishing this mission isn't as simple as dropping off
tools in a village and training workers to use them, Kloeber
said. Even when tools are available in the market, end-users are
often left without after-market technical support, she said, noting
that Bountifield provides technical training for not only the
end-users but for other individuals in the community to maintain
technical resources that are locally available.
" There has to be an additional understanding of how to
maintain the tool, clean the tool and fix the tool, as well as
many other aspects of it, " she said.
A farmer with bags of freshly threshed sorghum.
Bountifield aids a female-dominated workforce in Africa
Bountifield International is a diverse
organization both in terms
of the makeup of its staff and
board of directors. The 11-person
staff, led by Alexandra Spieldoch,
chief executive officer, features
women and men from the United
States, the UK and as well as several
African countries. The governing
board members are also a
mix of men and women with diverse
backgrounds.
Although agriculture is generally
considered a male-dominated
occupation, in Africa women are
responsible for most postharvest
labor yet lack resources to help
make their work efficient.
" Our solutions support women
with resources they need to increase
their entrepreneurial skills
and create opportunities to expand
their own agribusinesses, "
Spieldoch said.
Spieldoch noted that a gender
divide exists in these African
52
countries, just like it does in most
parts of the world. Women account
for 60% of the agriculture
workforce, yet women have less
access to beneficial resources that
are often available to men, including
business education, technical
support, and financial capital.
" When you get into some of
the cash crops and larger market
opportunities, you will begin
to see men, " she said. " Women
are the ones shelling peanuts by
hand or what have you and they
also are the ones preparing meals
for their families, so anything we
can do to save women's time and
labor is critical. The tools that we
provide are the pathway to doing
that for them. "
On its website, Bountifield
cites a UN FAO study that found
if women around the world had
the same access to agricultural
resources as men, they could increase
farm yields by 20% to 30%,
feeding an additional 150 million
people a year.
In a similar inequitable situation
are Africa's youth, who are
three times more likely to be unemployed
than adults. That is an
important statistic considering Africa
is one of the youngest continents
in the world with 60% of its
population under the age of 25.
By comparison, only 33% of the
US population is in that age demographic.
According to projections,
Africa is the only region in
which this segment of the population
is growing, and that trend is
expected to continue in the coming
decades.
Because of limited job options,
much of sub-Saharan Africa's rural
youth population is migrating
to more urban areas in search of
economic opportunities, leaving
family farms and rural communities
vulnerable to an unstable future,
Spieldoch said.
June 2021 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - June 2021

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