Women and food sovereignty- 妇女与粮食主权
Women and food are inseparably linked. We cannot write about food sovereignty without addressing women's role in food production. In many situations women take the main responsibility for food production, processing, storage and cooking. Often they play a key role in its marketing as well.
粮食主权（Food Sovereignty）是指粮食生产者对自己的食品、农业、牧业、渔业系统所拥有的权利。粮食主权的实现意味着小农户们拥有自己的土地和资源，能够参与决策规划和使用本土资源，避开长距离运输，确保自己的家庭和社区有足够的食物。
粮食主权对小农户有什么影响？小农户如何了解全球农业的变化？又打算如何去应对？特别是妇女，她们在社会中扮演着不同的角色，如生产者、母亲和赡养家庭的人，这些变化又如何影响她们？她们是否拥有同等的权利来使用土地、水和森林产品，获得充足且营养丰富的食品呢?妇女及其家人是如何分配家庭消费和市场销售的粮食，又是如何平衡对食物和对金钱的需求的？
在全球经济危机正席卷而来的时候，粮食自给究竟应该从哪些尺度上展开？是家庭、社区，还是全国范围?农民和他们的组织有什么新策略来帮助获取粮食主权?目前有什么样的行动方案在支持农民实现这一目标?对大多数农民来说，要实现真正的粮食主权仍然有很长的路要走，在前进的路上还有哪些更大的挑战仍有待解决呢?
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3 - 4Food is a hot issue, and rightly so. Whereas 1.2 billion people eat too much, there are almost 900 million people suffering from hunger. Over the past year, the number of malnourished people has increased, due to climbing food prices and rising unemployment levels (from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in late 2009, according to estimates by the International Labour Organisation, ILO). Unfavourable weather conditions are aggravating the situation.
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5 - 9On "World Food Day", 16th October in 2007, FAO director-general Diouf said that our planet has enough food to provide adequate food for all, but tonight there are still 854 million men, women and children go to bed hungry. There should have been sufficient food to feed the world demand, however, where have those food gone to?
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10 - 13written by Michel PimbertMost of the world’s food is grown, collected and harvested by over 2.5 billion small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers and fisherfolk – more than half of whom are women. Women’s knowledge and labour play a key role in sustaining the many diverse, local food systems that still exist today throughout the world, particularly in developing countries.
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14 - 16written by Adam NorikaneAs in most parts of the world, women are the ones primarily responsible for household food security in Liberia. Although Liberia is blessed with an abundance of fertile land and forests, rural populations have few rights in decision-making. The strongest parties –primarily male illegal loggers– seize the most profitable opportunities. Within this context, development organisations are addressing women’s immediate food needs through group formation and training.
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17 - 18Of the over one billion undernourished people in the world today, 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. Three-quarters of the hungry live in rural areas and include farming families.
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19 - 20written by Laeticia JalilThe concept of food sovereignty gives visibility and recognition to the role of women in producing food and other agricultural goods. Getting food sovereignty onto the political agenda is very much related to the issue of women’s rights, particularly those of rural women. By organising political campaigns, the Brazilian Women Farmers’ Movement (Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas – MMC) is attempting to do just that. And in doing so, they demonstrate the important role of women farmers.
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21 - 22written by Bed Prasad KhatiwadaBed Prasad Khatiwada, a Nepalese horticulturalist, has received LEISA Magazine ever since he was a student, and has regularly used it as a source of information. After reading an article on plant clinics in issue 23.4, he wrote to the author of the article for some additional information. What he got was much more: successful plant clinics are now being implemented in several regions of Nepal.
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23 - 25written by Shen Shicai , Qian JieWomen play an essential role in animal production in the rural northwestern region of Yunnan province, China. However, women are often left out of extension activities and training opportunities. A recent project has found various ways to better target women farmers. By increasing their participation, as well as the professional training of women field workers, risks in livestock production were reduced and household economies improved. Women farmers also became more confident and aware of their rights as decision-makers on the farm.
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26 - 27Our inbox for articles about women and food sovereignty contained quite a few articles dealing with local and regional food markets. We have summarised some of them to give you an idea of the variety of marketing opportunities and constraints that women face. The link with food sovereignty is clear: food products and their prices on local markets determine the room for manoeuvre within households when it comes to choosing what you eat, and how to pay for other needs and services as well. Women in Ghana transform cassava into “gari” to get better prices for it. Women in Nepal even get inspiration from the market to imitate western food products they see there, because their children like them so much. Markets may also offer new opportunities, as shown by the experience of women’s groups growing organic vegetables in Armenia.
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28 - 29written by Florence Lubwama KiyimbaIntroducing new technologies to improve development is not as simple as it sounds. In Uganda, a zerograzing programme was initiated to improve the food sovereignty of rural women. By confining animals in a stall within the compound, access to land becomes less of an issue and women can feed them close to home. But women then need to spend energy on growing and processing forage to feed the animals. Introducing a forage chopper was expected to help solve this problem. However, this then set other mechanisms in motion.
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30 - 30written by Yao XiaonanA future of family farming - Highland barley is the main crop grown in the village of Hongpo, in the Yunling township (part of the Deqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the Chinese province of Yunan).
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31 - 32The national education curricula of many countries aim to prepare children for a “better life” in the city. They do not relate to their daily lives and do not recognise the important role that children play, nor their culture, values or context. Vol. 20.2 of LEISA Magazine published an article from Peru that showed the many interesting results that can be achieved by following an intercultural approach in the curriculum - linking education to culture and the environment. Five years on, these activities are not only continuing; they have also expanded considerably.
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