Rare Breeds: Young women pushing back socio-cultural barriers in ICT4Ag

Rare Breeds: Young women challenging assumptions regarding ICT fields

Last week (Thursday) was the International Girls in ICT Day. To commemorate the day many development organizations recounted tales of the increasing involvement in – and the use of – ICT by girls (and women) in their various development spheres. Many also used the avenue to highlight their own contributions to promoting the use of ICTs by girls/women and the increasing involvement of the other half of the society in the ICT fields – which are largely perceived as a male preserve.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, CTA, one of the highly visible international organizations in the agricultural development field, which focuses on the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific regions, used the spotlight beamed on Girls in ICT on the day to ‘’honour the women finalists and some (other) female participants of the YoBloCo Awards (blog competition organized (with)in the framework of CTA’s ARDYIS Project)”.

This honour was shown to these young women “to recognize their efforts and contribution in raising the youth voice in agriculture through their blogs”. They were 15 in all – with different nationalities that span across the 3 regions of the CTA’s focus i.e. the ACP region.

Among them is Kofo Durosinmi-Etti, a young woman whose blog and journey into agriculture I have found quite fascinating. With academic and professional backgrounds that have nothing, however remote, to do with agriculture, and “approximately 6 years in the Banking and Technology sector”; Kofo’s decision to actively engage in and combine the “posh” world of the Nigerian banking/management sector employee with the “dirty/unrefined” sphere of a farmer and agribusiness player is a case far from the norm – especially among young Nigerian women.