"We want to change the narrative of rural women"

It is cramped in the bakery in the basement of the Haus der Bayerischen Landwirtschaft in Herrsching am Ammersee. The October sun has already set, and women farmers from Kenya, Zambia and Uganda, who have recently been invited by BBV-Landfrauen Internationale Zusammenarbeit (BBV-LIZ), a non-profit organisation of the Bavarian Farmers' Association, to attend a leadership training course, are standing in front of the work area, wearing white aprons. After a long day of seminars, they bake to relax. Hedgehog biscuits, that is butter biscuits with chocolate icing and sprinkles. Elke Sommer, who works here and guides the women through the baking process in English, decides not to translate the word "Streusel", but to say it in German with her Bavarian rolled "R". This causes amusement. On a mobile phone, one of the women from Kenya plays a cheerful song in Kiswahili and translates the singer's lines: "If there are problems in the country, call me, I'll come over" and she encourages some of the women to dance.

Unimpressed, Phassy Mmbone concentrates on spreading the biscuits. The 65-year-old farmer from Kakamega County in Western Kenya is not easily fazed. On her one-hectare farm in Kenya, she keeps dairy cows, goats, rabbits, chickens, fish and breeds worms and flies as animal feed. She also has honeybees and grows vegetables such as carrots. "I'm a passionate farmer," she says. In 2023, she was honoured as the best farmer of the year in her home country.

After her divorce, Mmbone raised five children on her own, two of them adopted, who live and work all over the world as lawyers, engineers and university lecturers. She is very proud of this. "I believe in supporting the family." Sometimes, she is also family for others, for example when she creates prospects for people with Aids and HIV, some of whom are rejected by their families, with an organisation she founded herself. Mmbone is also the coordinator of the Women Farmers Association of Kenya (WoFaAK) in Western Kenya, a Kenyan association with around 5,000 women farmers, in which they can exchange market information and farming methods and support each other. Among other things, Mmbone runs a group for people with disabilities there.

She is now spending two weeks in Herrsching on leadership training. "The training has a very good effect," says Mmbone. Important topics such as conflict resolution are addressed, as is the structuring of an organisation. "The support is not only on an organisational level, but also on a personal level. It's an individual test for each participant and everyone will come out with their own concepts."

Since 2023, BBV-LIZ has been inviting female farmers, mainly from Kenya but also from other African countries, to international leadership workshops in Herrsching. This time, 18 participants spend two weeks exchanging ideas about their work, role-playing, training their presentation skills and visiting farms run by Bavarian women farmers in the surrounding area. BBV-LIZ has been supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) since 2017 - initially via the Global Programme Green Innovation Centres in the Agriculture and Food Sector and since 2023 with grants from the Global Programme Strengthening Farmers' Organisations for Sustainable Agricultural Development. Behind this is the BMZ special initiative "Transformation of Agricultural and Food Systems" (SI AGER).

The central element of the BBV-LIZ project is the promotion of the Kenyan association WoFaAK, from which several representatives alongside Phassy Mmbone take part in the training in Herrsching. BBV-LIZ has played a key role in supporting the development of this association in Kenya since 2017, organising and funding training for members and elected volunteer representatives. BBV-LIZ trained them in how to represent their interests, increase their income and secure and improve nutrition for themselves and their families. Together with WoFaAK, BBV-LIZ also made an important contribution to local rural development. With the help of BBV-LIZ, WoFaAK was able to expand its organisation in 12 counties in Western and Central Kenya as well as at national level. "We have succeeded in making the women see the added value of their association and they realise that their voice is becoming stronger and stronger - at all levels, from the local member group to the national executive committee," says project manager Angelika Eberl.

BBV-LIZ also promoted the nationwide visibility of WoFaAK in Kenya and financed five episodes of the Kenyan television programme "Shamba Shape Up": In the reality show, in which smallholder farmers give important tips for more efficient farming, members of WoFaAK had the opportunity to present the organisation and its work. The educational programme, which has been broadcast several times and reaches an audience of millions, recognises and supports the role and tasks of women in agriculture.

After almost nine years of funding, the BBV-LIZ project will come to an end at the beginning of 2026. Project manager Eberl is pleased that WoFaAK is also politically relevant as an association. This is demonstrated by the fact that authorities at local and county level work together with the women farmers and that they are represented on committees and boards. "The women have recognised this asset and it is now up to them to take it further."

For Phassy Mmbone from Kenya, it is clear that the women farmers will continue to organise themselves. As WoFaAK's coordinator for Western Kenya, she wants to mobilise members even more and lead the association into the future. She works closely with the national leadership. The leadership training in Herrsching also provides her with important impulses.

During the farm visits in Bavaria, she was impressed by the clear division of tasks within the families. When she is back in Kenya, she wants to sit down with her children to develop a plan together on how she can open up her farm to tourists and how everyone can participate in their own way. "I want to reorganise myself," says Mmbone.

Project manager Angelika Eberl is delighted: "What I respect so much and what fascinates me is the hunger for knowledge, especially among the older women, who have had few educational opportunities and in some cases are receiving training for the first time in their lives."

The women have already been in Herrsching for a week - time to take stock. They bend over colourful cards in the seminar room, stand in front of pinboards and discuss what they have learned so far. One woman from each small group presents the results to the larger group. Conclusion: Teamwork and cohesion are particularly important. "Networking makes us a unit and helps us to have a voice as women," summarises a participant from Kenya. This is followed by praise from the group for her presentation: at first, she sat quietly in the group - within a few days she had blossomed and was now speaking freely in front of the others. "The training in Herrsching is a 'safe space'," explains Angelika Eberl. Here, the women can speak freely and there is a basis of trust. They receive feedback from the other participants and can grow from this. "The women can strengthen each other morally," says Eberl.

"I can apply what I learn here in all areas of life," confirms Esther Mweemba from Zambia. Be it with herself, her family, the village community or her organisation.

The 35-year-old farmer and mother of four is deputy chairwoman of the women's organisation Nkoka Women in Agro Business (NWAB), which has around 6,000 members. The association is also supported by the Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA) in organisational development as part of the Global Programme Strengthening Farmers' Organisations. The AHA assisted the organisation with registration, setting up a structure, the management level and formulating and lobbying for its own goals. "We want to change the narrative of rural women," says Esther. "We are not just there for domestic production, we want to make a business out of it, earn money, send our children to school. Our association wants to help women to further their financial education and be a network for exchange," says Esther.

“"We want to change the narrative of rural women"

Esther Mweemba, Deputy Chairperson NWAB Zambia

Esther knows from her own experience how important it is for women to support each other. When her husband had a stroke, their almost 200 pigs died of swine fever at the same time. She could only watch. She now mainly grows maize and gets support from women from other cooperatives who help her with the harvest using a tractor. "How the Bavarian rural women support each other, form friendships, learn from each other and carry each other - that's what we want to do in our association," says Mweemba.

Participant Jillian Acan from northern Uganda was also impressed by the Bavarian rural women. The 31-year-old farmer with 110 chickens is a member of the Uganda National Young Farmers Association (UNYFA). The association was strengthened by dlv-LandFrauen gGmbH, which is part of the Deutscher LandFrauenverband e.V. (dlv), with grants from the Global Programme Strengthening Farmers' Organisations in Advocacy and Leadership Skills. "It's great to see how the German rural women love their work and their farms," says Acan. During the weekend here in Bavaria, she visited farms with 160 cows and 200 goats. Photos on her mobile phone show her and the other women inspecting milking systems and feed troughs and climbing onto tractors. "When I go back to Uganda, I want to pass on the knowledge I have learnt here about animal nutrition and husbandry to the other rural women," she says. For example, how to better protect her own chickens from diseases by keeping them in a separate area.

Because learning is not a one-way street and to create a real exchange, some Bavarian rural women also travel to Kenya as part of the programme. There, they also visit farms, attend political events and network meetings and learn from the solidarity and courage of Kenyan women farmers to stand up for their cause.  

Bavarian rural woman Anita Weber travelled to meet them in 2024. The 58-year-old dairy farmer from Pähl in the Upper Bavarian district of Weilheim-Schongau accompanied a BBV-LIZ delegation along with other Bavarian women farmers. One highlight was the visit to the first WoFaAK members' rural women's day in Chuka Town in Tharaka Nithi County near Mount Kenya. Hundreds of women farmers from the region gathered there to discuss agricultural practices, market prices, health and insurance - an impressive sight, she says. "These women are incredible all-rounders," Weber says admiringly. "They do most of the farming in the fields and look after the families." A lot of the work is done by hand - "the contrasts are sometimes stark," she says, referring to access to agricultural machinery. Nevertheless, there are also many similarities: "Caring for the animals, for the family, what grows, what the weather is like and the joy of a good harvest."

Weber is still in regular contact with the Kenyan women farmers, usually via short message services including video calls. They then give each other tips on how to water calves or how to grow new types of mushrooms. "It's indeed love," says Weber.

“This is an aspect that is often neglected, but is extremely important to me: that people in this country get a better understanding of what development cooperation means."

Angelika Eberl, Project Manager BBV-LIZ

For project manager Angelika Eberl, this feedback effect of the commitment is key: "The rural women who visited Kenya are really ambassadors, they come home completely different. They are very active in their district organisation, they talk about it. This is an aspect that is often neglected, but is extremely important to me: that people in this country get a better understanding of what development cooperation means."

For future exchange programmes, she hopes that participants from partner countries such as Kenya will have to overcome fewer hurdles when entering Germany - especially if they are officially invited by the government. After all, three to four women had to stay at home during each training programme because their visas were refused.

One afternoon, two Bavarian rural women from the surrounding area come to the conference centre to exchange ideas with the visitors. Despite the pressure of deadlines on their farms, they are happy to take the time: "If I miss a day on the farm, it's not a deficit, but a gain," says Ursula Fiechtner, district farmer of the Bavarian Farmers' Association of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen. She appreciates the exchange of ideas with the women farmers from African countries. "You can take something back with you for yourself and your family and make some progress," says the 63-year-old farmer.

Before eating the hedgehog biscuits baked the night before, everyone sings a birthday song for two Kenyan participants. "I'm sweet 16," jokes one of them. Then Ursula Fiechtner and Maria Lidl, deputy district farmer of Weilheim-Schongau, and the women return to more serious topics. They talk about the issues rural women in Bavaria are facing - political participation, social security for female farmers in the event of divorce and retirement, farm succession, mental health and workload. These are all issues that also concern women farmers in Kenya, Zambia and Uganda. "It's difficult on your own," says Maria Lidl. "When you have an organisation behind you and other women want the same thing - the community strengthens you and helps you move forward."

“It also enhances our reputation in the region that we don't just think from door to door."

Ursula Fiechtner, District Farmer of the Bavarian Farmers' Association of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

Equally important is the relationship with the press and the public in order to network. Ursula Fiechtner has already been featured in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, among others. Once a month, she offers people with dementia and their relatives the opportunity to visit her farm. It is a "time-out" in the countryside with the smell of stables, petting animals and relaxing with coffee and cake. Fiechtner also rents out holiday flats.  

Kenyan women farmers have also stayed on her farm. A photo hanging on the wall of her home bears witness to this - the group on her balcony decorated with geraniums. "I told my holiday guest about the project today," she says as the appointment with the women comes to an end. "People are really surprised when we Upper Bavarian women work together with Kenya. That makes me happy because we are also underestimated ourselves. It also raises our profile in the region that we don't just think from door to door."

by Claudia Jordan