"No Feminism, No Food Sovereignty”
Illustration photo: Tomb of Putroe Neng, a legendary female figure in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Indonesia.
Many studies have shown that women play an important role in agriculture and food security in developing countries. So to enable women to fulfill their potential in production, national and international authorities need to take policy steps such as increasing access to resources, technology, and information (especially market information).
Policy makers must improve women's ability to generate income. Affirmative policies are needed to encourage the optimization of women's roles in food as well as in politics.
This certainly has an impact on improving household food and nutrition security. Strategies must be aimed at increasing women's productivity both in paid work and in household production.
Women's welfare means family welfare; which of course includes the welfare of their children (Quisumbing, 1994).
In the issue of family food security, women are the ones who make decisions to choose food, process it hygienically, and choose household needs. Therefore, knowledge about healthy food and meeting nutritional needs, processing methods, and household needs is important for them. In fact, among international women activists, there is a credo: "No feminism, no food sovereignty".
Rohani, a disabled female painter in North Aceh, Indonesia.
This statement was echoed by the International Women's Assembly in 2017. Zubaidah Tambunan, a female farmer from Sumatra who attended the conference, also expressed this belief. She said: "Lack of education, lack of involvement of women in organizations and government, (farmers) women always experience discrimination both in the family and in society, injustice in decision-making, are common problems that occur everywhere".
In addition, women farmers are also often victims of criminalization in every land conflict. In fact, women farmers are always at the forefront of the struggle to defend land (https://spi.or.id/tak-ada-feminisme-tak-ada-kedaulatan-pangan-majelis-perempuan-internasional-ke-5-la-via-campesina/ accessed on November 20, 2021, at 23.05 WIB).
What is also interesting about Zubaidah's speech is her statement that "female farmers are the mothers of food sovereignty".
The potential of women in agricultural development is indeed very strategic. Even the contribution of women's income in rural areas to household income is very large. In farming households in Indonesia, most are women, wives or mothers, who are also involved in the agricultural sector.
However, in reality, the role of women in the agricultural sector is often marginalized due to the patriarchal culture that develops in society which causes the division of labor and salary levels to be unequal in the context of making women's lives difficult.
In relation to the role of women in agriculture, they are involved in heavy agricultural activities such as cultivating rice fields, as well as light agricultural activities such as cultivating agricultural yards (Priminingtyas & Yuliati, 2015).
Gayo female farmers are involved in land cultivation activities (on farm), processing agricultural products, to food distribution. They not only produce food, but are also the main responsible for fulfilling nutrition for all family members.
Various research results show that women are a determining factor in food security for their families, starting from the production process on agricultural land, marketing to providing food and being responsible for fulfilling family nutrition so that women have a very important contribution to family food security (Shamadiyah & Nasution, 2018).[]
