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STORY: IFAD / SENEGAL WOMEN AGRIBUSINESS
TRT: 04:54
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 07 MARCH 2025, ROME, ITALY / 07 JULY 2024, NGOUDIANE, SENEGAL
07 JULY 2024, NGOUDIANE, SENEGAL
1. Med shot, Anta presenting on their You tube channel
2. Med shot, women recording a video
3. Close up, Anta talking to the camera
4. Close up, display of the camera recording the video
5. Various shots, Anta holding a camera recording a video of women harvesting
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“The idea for our YouTube channel, Zenith TV, was to publicize our activity and do marketing too.”
7. Various shots, Anta recording a video of women harvesting
8. Various shots, omen working the fields
9. Aerial shot, village
10. Wide shot, road with cars
11. Varius shots, women at the market
12. Widde shot, a boat at sea
13. SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“We have brothers here in the village who went over to Europe. But there are many people who died in the sea.”
14. Aerial shot, women walking
15. Wide shot, women of the project walking
16. Aerial shot, women working the fields
17. SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“Even before Agrijeune, people laughed at us and made fun of us when we were training.”
18. Various shots, women working the fields
19. SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“And us, young girls, if we do agriculture, we will remain poor.”
20. Close up, bucket full of harvested produce
07 MARCH 2025, ROME, ITALY
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Loise Waruguru Maina, Technical Expert, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
"Young rural women in Senegal face multiple challenges: they lack access to productive resources like land and finances. They have significantly higher illiteracy rates in some rural areas. They lack representation in rural institutions and lack formal training on business management and managing enterprise."
07 JULY 2024, NGOUDIANE, SENEGAL
22. Aerial shot, fields
23. Aerial shot, frontal view of the women working
24. Various shots, women harvesting
25. Close up, bucket filling up
26. Me shot, Anta and the other women of the project working the field
27. SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“Everyone knows that Africa has enough sun, land and abundant water. Why not stay here in your territory or here in Senegal to work the land because the land does not lie.”
28. Various shots, Anta recording a video of women harvesting
07 MARCH 2025, ROME, ITALY
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Loise Waruguru Maina, Technical Expert, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“The Agrijeune project is directly reaching 80,000 young people and creating over 8,000 decent jobs. If which 50 percent are for rural young women. And we are seeing great results to date, with increased entrepreneurial spirit amongst these young women, and increased incomes to not only meet their daily needs, but also to reinvest and expand their businesses.”
07 JULY 2024, NGOUDIANE, SENEGAL
30. Various shots, Anta recording a video of women harvesting
A group of young women in Senegal have successfully launched an agribusiness by combining their new skills in filmmaking and farming in their rural homeland.
Previously, like many young women, they were forced to migrate to the city for low-paid, menial jobs.
In Senegal, a third of women are unemployed, with even higher rates among young women. To address this, the International Fund for Agricultural Development has funded a project to provide rural youth (not just women) with agricultural training, enabling them to stay in their communities.
YouTube is not the first place you would expect to find a young Senegalese farmer like Anta, but she and her four friends s are now making a successful living cultivating vegetables in their home village of Ngoundiane, while growing their business online via social media.
SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“The idea for our YouTube channel, Zenith TV, was to publicize our activity and do marketing too.”
It’s a far cry from their lives three years ago when the girls had to drop out of school early and the only prospect for employment was casual work as housekeepers in the capital Dakar.
One in three rural women in Senegal are unemployed, even more in rural areas. While many young women head to the cities to look for domestic work, many of the men take a more dangerous route.
SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“We have brothers here in the village who went over to Europe. But there are many people who died in the sea.”
In 2022 the women joined the Agrijeune’s project, funded by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the African Development Bank and the Government of Senegal. It aims to provide training and loans to rural youth in Senegal so they can set up their own agribusinesses.
But their participation as women received a negative reaction in their community.
SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“Even before Agrijeune, people laughed at us and made fun of us when we were training.”
SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“And us, young girls, if we do agriculture, we will remain poor.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Loise Waruguru Maina, Technical Expert, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
"Young rural women in Senegal face multiple challenges: they lack access to productive resources like land and finances. They have significantly higher illiteracy rates in some rural areas. They lack representation in rural institutions and lack formal training on business management and managing enterprise."
But despite these challenges these young women are now a successful vegetable growing business, growing produce like peppers and tomatoes that they can sell in their communities.
As well as a loan to start up their business, they also received further training in computer science, specialising in horticulture and so the idea for the YouTube channel came about.
The channel has helped them market their products to a wider audience and improved their communication skills.
As a result, they have no plans to move back to the city or following their male counterparts abroad.
SOUNDBITE (French) Anta, Farmer and Youtuber:
“Everyone knows that Africa has enough sun, land and abundant water. Why not stay here in your territory or here in Senegal to work the land because the land does not lie.”
These women are just one example of how IFAD's work is giving young people a reason to stay and work in their rural communities.
SOUNDBITE (English) Loise Waruguru Maina, Technical Expert, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“The Agrijeune project is directly reaching 80,000 young people and creating over 8,000 decent jobs. If which 50 percent are for rural young women. And we are seeing great results to date, with increased entrepreneurial spirit amongst these young women, and increased incomes to not only meet their daily needs, but also to reinvest and expand their businesses.”
The cameras may only be a sideline, but these women are focusing on building their business both in the field and online.
Nearly half of the world’s 8.2 billion people live in the rural areas of developing countries, where hunger and poverty are entrenched. These regions are home to small-scale farmers who produce 70 per cent of the food consumed in low- and middle-income countries. This makes rural areas the ‘first mile’ for reducing poverty and inequality, ensuring stability and feeding the world.
