In Assaoufoué, Bongouanou, Côte d’Ivoire, locals are often struck by a wondrous sound as they pass by the tree-covered cassava fields on the outskirts of their village: the melodies of a makeshift women’s choir.
“We’re happy – that’s why we’re singing!”, says a smiling Florence Konin Ganza, one of the women who tend their plots and sing together.
Until recently, life for Florence and her companions was tough, due to prolonged periods of drought and increasingly degraded soils. Florence, who has six children and ten grandchildren, was struggling to put food on the table and send her youngest to school.
“It was hard even to eat,” she remembers.
Then something unusual happened. Representatives from the local Société de Développement des Forêts (Society for the Development of Forests/SODEFOR), supported by FAO and UNDP under the Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture (SCALA) programme, made Florence and the other women a proposition: Instead of planting more cassava, why not plant trees instead?
“They said, ‘You should plant some Acacia mangium’. And we thought – there’s no way we can do that. They’re going to try and steal our land from us!”
With around 85 percent of agricultural land in Côte d’Ivoire still held by men, this was a legitimate concern. And even if these men came in good faith, how were the women going to produce more with trees occupying some of the space where their crops should be growing?
Benefits of agroforestry
Deforestation linked to production of cash crops such as cocoa is one of the leading contributors to drought and desertification in Côte d’Ivoire. And as more land dries out, there comes an inexorable push deeper into the forest, exacerbating the situation.
But there is another way.
“We wanted to pilot agroforesty with cassava growing, commonly referred to as the Tonga system,” explains Innocent Gniza, FAO Coordinator for SCALA in Côte d’Ivoire. The theory behind this innovative system is that growing trees and crops together can build soil health and climate resilience... and much more.
“From an environmental perspective, it helps restore the forest cover. From an economic perspective, it increases production. And from a social perspective, we see a strong inclusion, particularly of women,” explains Gniza.
First, though, the project leads needed to reassure the women growers, which they did by getting buy-in from the local community, including the village chief. Guarantees were given to the women that their plots would not be taken from them and that they would receive support not only in growing their produce but also in processing it and getting it to market.
Even so, this relied on the soundness of the agroforestry system itself and the trees being planted. Effi Tano Ghislain, SODEFOR, outlines the rationale: “We chose Acacia mangium because it's a fast-growing legume that aids soil restoration. This helps to adapt... by restoring the forest cover while also creating income. This is sustainable agriculture!"
And it appears to be working.
Improved food security and incomes
“It’s better now than before,”says Florence. “We produce more cassava, we can send it off for processing, we can make attiéké (cassava couscous), we can sell it... Now I earn enough to eat and send the children to school.”
Kouamè Aya Marie France, who supports around 100 farmers through a local women’s association, agrees: “Those trees protect us and everything we’ve put into these fields... Because when there is shade, that protects the crops. It covers the plants and helps deliver a good harvest even if the rains don’t come.”
And it’s not just about quantity – the women believe the taste and nutritional value of the cassava are also better because there are no chemical inputs used. The fertilizer comes from the leaves of the trees themselves.
Upscaling a success story
The farmers benefitting from the SCALA-supported project in Bongouanou have shown that when assistance relating to land tenure, field practices and tools, processing, and marketing and distribution are offered to women, they can excel. So far, the project has supported 11 agroforestry plots covering around 30 hectares, with women representing more than 75 percent of the land holdings.
This inclusive, gender-responsive approach is at the heart of SCALA’s support to the government of Côte d’Ivoire, which encompasses technical inputs to the revision and implementation of its latest Nationally Determined Contribution (3.0) and contributions to drafting a National Adaptation Plan with strong gender components.
Leaning on policy signals from Côte d’Ivoire’s climate plans, the next step is to leverage evidence from successful pilots such as the one in Bongouanou to scale up gender-responsive activities in cassava, cashew and other value chains.
And, as we celebrate the International Year of the Woman Farmer, the message from Florence is clear:
“Women can do anything!”