CARING FOR THE LAND

We call for a Care Income for all who do the work of protecting people, the land and the natural world...

As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment. For doing this fundamental caring work of society, unwaged and low-waged, we are impoverished and denied basic rights, including to the land we work.

Organising in self-help groups, women in Andhra Pradesh, India, are leading a massive community movement of natural farmers who regenerate the soil to grow healthy food and stop climate change. Scaling up internationally is crucial. A care income for all natural farmers would empower such movements, encourage all genders to contribute and to refuse work that pollutes. The subsidies now paid to poison soil, water and air, must be redirected to caring for people and the planet, starting in the Global South and working-class communities everywhere, especially Indigenous and other people of colour, who are hardest hit by the climate emergency. Find out more about our collaborations with Extinction Rebellion here. 

The Oxford Real Farming Conference in January 2023 opened with our workshop: A Care Income to Protect the Land, the People and the Natural World.

>>> A natural farming movement in Andhra Pradesh in India, spearheaded by women’s self-help groups is regenerating the soil, and if widely practised, can help stop global warming and even be key to reversing it.

Andhra Pradesh: The principles of Community Managed Natural Farming:

Powerpoint presentation by Solveig Francis. Click image to view in full.
In 2021, Global Women’s Strike supported the massive year-long farmers’ & farmworkers’ protest against the three farm laws aimed at handing over agriculture to corporations. In the process we heard about a remarkable women’s movement organized in Self-Help Groups which was leading a transformation to Natural Farming in the State of Andhra Pradesh. In November 2022 we sent a team (India, UK, US) to meet this movement and spread the word.

Key principles

• Women’s autonomy, control and ownership of their assets
• Access resources and services
• Increased decision-making in the family
• Zero tolerance of violence
• Raise the status of girls

Community managed natural farming in the drought-prone regions of Andhra Pradesh is helping soils to produce more, offering smallholder farmers decent livelihoods.

 

In November 2022, Solveig Francis visited Andhra Pradesh as part of a Global Women’s Strike delegation to meet the women’s self-help groups spearheading natural farming.

How women farmers in Andhra Pradesh are spearheading the transition to natural farming.

Illuminating seminar with soil microbiologist Walter Jehne, Vijay Kumar who heads RySS, Andhra Pradesh’s Farmer Empower Organisation, and US Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. How conventional chemical farming drives climate change and natural farming is crucial to regenerating the soil and the climate.

 

Natural Farming 9-principles poster

>>> Taking agroecology to a global scale through farmer-to-farmer online exchanges.

Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming is working with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) to scale up natural farming in many countries across the continent.

Click on the image to download the guide in full.

The Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Programme is a highly successful government-led initiative involving millions of farmers and eight million hectares of land in India. It revolves around nine key agroecological principles, including the use of indigenous seed, cover crops, keeping soil disturbance to a minimum and NO chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. It is spearheaded by women’s self-help groups.

 

>>> Land and human rights defenders, protecting life and livlihoods, in Thailand. 

The Community Women Human Rights Defenders Collective, part of the Global Women’s Strike network in Thailand, is comprised of grassroots women representing 19 different sectors who are defending family, community and the environment. They include Indigenous women, migrant and refugee women, disabled women, urban women from the slums, rural women farmers, women from the conflict zone in the Deep South, sex workers, garment workers, and women fighting against destruction of natural resources and the natural world. All work to protect life and livelihoods. The Collective demands a Care Income, and an end to poverty, inequality and State oppression in all forms. More info here

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>>> Latest News on climate justice... 

Taking Agroecology to scale: Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India

By Global Women's Strike | 18th May 2023

Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India, this new publication has been compiled by the Alliance for food sovereignty in Africa. Download a copy of it for free here below.

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GWS at XR’s The Big One, 4 days of action in Central London

By Global Women's Strike | 27th April 2023

Four days of action from 21 to 24 April brought together 60,000 people around Parliament to force the UK government to act on the climate emergency. On Friday – “Unite to Survive” day – diverse networks of mothers, grandmothers, other carers and people with disabilities spoke out on refusing poverty, the devaluing of caring and…

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Event this Friday – Join the Women’s Speak Out at XR’s The Big One

By Global Women's Strike | 19th April 2023

Friday 21 April, 1pm, Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA. XR’s The Big One – four days of actions 21-24 April to bring together 100,000 people around Parliament to get this government to act on the climate emergency. On Friday – “Unite to Survive” day – diverse networks of mothers, grandmothers, other carers and people with disabilities will…

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8 March: Andhra Pradesh Natural Farming comes to Kentish Town!

By Global Women's Strike | 24th February 2023

A Global Women’s Strike event for International Women’s Day 2023 Andhra Pradesh Natural Farming comes to Kentish Town! Wednesday 8 March, 5-7pm Kentish Town Library, 262-266 Kentish Town Road,London NW5 2AA     ALL WELCOME   SOLVEIG FRANCIS, based at Crossroads Women’s Centre, will report on her recent visit to the growing women-led farmers’ movement in Andhra Pradesh…

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Selma James in the Guardian: For peace in Haiti, first win the war on hunger

By Global Women's Strike | 20th January 2023

Your article on the Haiti crisis omits mention of the only Haitian government that people voted in by a landslide – twice. Headed by the former liberation theology priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, it uniquely focused on tackling poverty, supporting small farmers, building schools and hospitals, increasing the minimum wage and demanding justice…

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Selma James speaks at Oxford Real Farming Conference: A Care Income to Protect the Land, the People and the Natural World

By Global Women's Strike | 4th January 2023

Speakers: Selma James, Swati Renduchintala, Pranom Somwong, Dee Woods, Jyoti Fernandez. As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment. For doing this fundamental caring work of society, unwaged and low-waged, we are…

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Draft international petition: A care income for all caring work for people and planet

By Global Women's Strike | 3rd January 2023

Caring for others is the foundation of every society. Yet this work, done mostly by women, in the home, on the land and in the community, is devalued, unwaged or low waged, leading to poverty, dependence and endless work. The pandemic and above all the climate emergency have forced us to recognise that caring for and protecting people and the natural world must become the universal priority.

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Join us at Oxford Real Farming Conference, 4-6 Jan – Register now

By Global Women's Strike | 23rd December 2022

The Global Women’s Strike is speaking at two sessions of theOxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) 4-6 Jan 2023. We hope you can attend and tell others about the conference: three days of packed sessions, the first day online only, the following two in person & online. You can register for the online sessions HERE (free…

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Women and mothers of South Peasants Federation Thailand have said what a Care Income would mean to them as people who care for the family, the community, and the land:

By Global Women's Strike | 15th December 2022

A Care Income would mean:

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Climate Justice and the women’s natural farming movement in Andhra Pradesh, India

By Global Women's Strike | 27th October 2022

Dear Friends, Many of you will know that the Wages for Housework Campaign, which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike, and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has broadened its demand for financial recognition for caring work to include also the care and protection of the planet we all depend on. Recently, in the course of supporting…

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