Articles by Mark Chenery

Below is a guest post from Malcolm Wren, campaign coordinator at ActionAid Australia.

There’s a mix of excitement and relief around the ActionAid office in Sydney this week.

Excitement because on Saturday morning, Polly Apio, a small scale farmer from eastern Uganda, and Harriet Gimbo, women’s rights advisor for ActionAid Uganda, landed in Sydney after the long, long trip from Africa, to help take the message of our Fertile Ground campaign to the Australian public.

Polly and the team. From left to right: Emily, Me, Polly, Harriet

And relief because they have finally arrived! There has been lots of to’ing and fro’ing, planning and visa issues that led to a delay in their travel plans (Polly and Harriet were supposed to be guests of honour at our recent debate at Australian National University). So, it was a lovely moment when I saw them come through the arrival gates.

This week was spent getting to know each other better and preparing for the presentations Polly and Harriet will be conducting throughout regional Australia.

Here in Sydney, we know all the stark facts and figures about hunger and the positive impact of supporting women farmers to feed themselves, their families and communities. But listening to Polly’s story, I couldn’t help but feel a new wave of inspiration and motivation wash over me.

Polly at home on her farm in eastern Uganda

Over the next two weeks we will be spreading the message that supporting farmers like Polly is one of the key ways governments can address the food crisis. Our ask is simple – join with Polly and ActionAid in urging Prime Minister Julia Gillard to use her position within the G20 group of the world’s richest nations to be champion for women farmers.

We’ll be meeting all sorts of people along the way – agriculture students, food sovereignty activists, sustainable farmers and, importantly, Australian women farmers who know full well the challenges of working on the land.

We’ll also be meeting two special women – Tina and Hannah – the winners of the ActionAid Hunger Busting Blogger competition who will travel to Africa next month to take part in a fortnight-long training and who will talking about issues of food security throughout the next 12 months.

So stay tuned – Polly has seen and experienced the devastating effects of hunger first hand but brings good news about a better future – and we’ll be telling stories of that future on this blog as we go along.

ActionAid Australia has launched a campaign calling on the Australian government to become a leader in agricultural aid by supporting women farmers who, if given a little support to bring their yields up to that of men, could produce enough food to lift at least 100 million people out of hunger.  Learn more about ActionAid Australia’s Fertile Ground campaign

Meet Polly. She’s a smallholder farmer from Uganda working to promote sustainable agriculture and the status of women farmers in her country.

Next week, ActionAid Australia will welcome Polly for a two-week speaking tour for rural communities across New South Wales and Victoria.

Polly is scheduled to arrive in Sydney on 18 June, and will travel to Orange, Bellingen and Armidale before finishing her trip in Melbourne (no public events) at the end of the month.

Polly (her full name is Ocola Apio Polly) comes to us from a small town in a drought-prone region of eastern Uganda, where she lives with her husband and 11 children. She grows oranges, groundnuts, cowpeas and cassava on 10 acres of family-owned land, which she uses to feed her family and make a living.

Polly is also an influential leader in her community, spearheading the creation of a co-op for women farmers that pools community resources to build up local food stocks.

Women farmers like Polly play a critical role in ending hunger around the world. According to an ActionAid report released last year, women farmers produce 60 to 80 percent of food in developing nations, though many are barred from owning farmland and are excluded from agricultural aid programs. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, closing the agriculture gender gap could reduce the number of hungry people by 12 – 17 percent worldwide. That’s roughly 100 million people.

ActionAid’s Fertile Ground campaign is aimed at supporting women farmers like Polly to protect food security in the most vulnerable communities. Here in Australia, ActionAid is calling on the government to make good on its $464.2m food security commitment under the G8′s L’Aquila Food Security Initiative.

ActionAid is also urging the Australian government to push for financial and political support for women farmers in the G20. During her time in Australia, Polly will show exactly why those food commitments are critical to smallholder farmers and their families.

So why not come to one of Polly’s talks and meet her in person. If you’re interested in coming along to any of the events, contact malcolm.wren@actionaid.org