Tag Archives: woman

Kenyan Innovator Uses Solar And AI Tools To Help Farmers Tackle Climate Challenges

Posted on by
Reply

Climate change is increasingly threatening agriculture in Kenya, where farming remains the backbone of the economy and the primary source of income for millions of families. With up to 75 percent of the population relying on agriculture for their livelihoods, unpredictable weather patterns and declining soil productivity are putting growing pressure on rural communities.

Against this backdrop, Kenyan entrepreneur Maryanne Gichanga is using technology to help smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate and improve crop productivity.

Speaking ahead of the International Day of Clean Energy, observed annually on January 26, she described how innovations such as solar-powered sensors and artificial intelligence-driven satellite data are helping farmers better understand their soil conditions, crop health and local weather patterns.

Personal Experience Inspires Innovation

Gichanga’s interest in agricultural innovation is rooted in her own childhood experiences.

She grew up in a farming family and witnessed firsthand how climate change began affecting harvests and livelihoods.

“I grew up in a farming set-up. My parents are farmers. I witnessed a lot of harvests, but when climate change started happening, we could not understand what was happening,” she said.

When crop yields declined, the impact was felt across the entire household. Farming was the family’s main source of income, and poor harvests meant fewer opportunities, including difficulties paying for education.

Those experiences motivated her to search for solutions that could help farming families cope with climate uncertainty.

“I always wanted to offer solutions to my parents and other people from farming families,” she explained. “That is what inspired me to start my company and work with people who are like-minded to build technology that supports smallholder farmers.”

Technology Helping Farmers Make Better Decisions

Through her work, Gichanga provides farmers with access to data that was previously unavailable to many small-scale agricultural communities.

Solar-powered sensors placed in farmland monitor soil moisture and other environmental conditions. These devices are combined with satellite imagery and artificial intelligence tools that analyse crop growth and changing weather patterns.

The information helps farmers make better decisions about irrigation, planting schedules and soil management, improving both productivity and resilience to climate shocks.

Her work has been supported by Greenovations Africa, a programme backed by the United Nations that supports women entrepreneurs working on climate and sustainability solutions.

The initiative provides training, mentorship and seed funding to help early-stage businesses expand their impact.

Breaking Barriers In A Male-Dominated Field

Despite the success of her work, Gichanga says building a technology-focused agricultural company has not been easy.

Agriculture and technology sectors across many parts of Africa remain largely male dominated, and women often face skepticism about their leadership and technical expertise.

“In Africa, communities are quite patriarchal,” she said. “Trying to get into this male-dominated field is hard because people would rather work with a man.”

She noted that some people initially doubted that women could lead technological innovations in agriculture.

Over time, however, demonstrations of the technology and visible results helped build trust with farmers and communities.

Persistence, collaboration and a clear sense of purpose, she said, were essential in overcoming those obstacles.

“You cannot give up. Collaborate with the people you meet and eventually it will work out,” she added.

Transforming Lives Through Agricultural Innovation

For Gichanga, the most rewarding part of her work is seeing how improved farming practices directly change people’s lives.

Access to better data can increase crop yields, strengthen farmers’ bargaining power and help families achieve greater financial stability.

“When you empower farmers, their lives change,” she said.

She recalled moments when farmers who once struggled to buy seeds were eventually able to sell their harvest at better prices and regain control over their livelihoods.

Such progress, she said, reinforces the importance of continuing to develop solutions that strengthen rural economies.

Encouraging The Next Generation Of Women Innovators

Gichanga also hopes her journey will encourage more women and young people to pursue innovation in agriculture and climate action.

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: start, even if the path ahead seems uncertain.

“You will learn along the way, and there are many people who will support you financially or offer advice and training,” she said.

“There is no perfect time to start. You will never feel fully prepared. Just do it and don’t be scared.”

As climate change continues to reshape agricultural systems across Africa, innovators like Gichanga are demonstrating how technology and determination can help farmers adapt and build more resilient futures.

Nepal appoints first woman prime minister, as UN expresses solidarity amid crisis

Posted on by
Reply

Rewrite as per earlier instructions: Nepal’s former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed as Nepal’s first woman Prime Minister by President Ram Chandra Poudel who administered the oath of office on Saturday, in a ceremony attended by youth representatives, officials and foreign diplomats.

According to media reports, she has been tasked with organizing fresh elections within six months. She previously served as the only woman chief justice, leading the Supreme Court from 2016 to 2017.

“At this pivotal moment, the United Nations stands alongside the people of Nepal in their aspirations for peace, justice, transparency, accountability and progress,” said Hanna Singer Hamdy, UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, in a statement. She also recognised the contributions of the President, the Chief of Army Staff and ‘GenZ’ youth leaders, noting that their efforts “helped make this transition possible.”

The UN remains committed to working with the Government to support stability, human rights and sustainable development, the statement added. An inspiration for girls and women Children’s Fund UNICEF congratulated Ms. Karki, saying her appointment “is an inspiration for girls and women,” and highlighted the importance of placing children’s rights at the centre of Nepal’s recovery.

Similarly, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), gender equality agency UN Women, and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, expressed support for her leadership, emphasising inclusive governance, gender equality, and the protection of women and youth. Nepal army soldiers at the Supreme Court after the complex was set on fire by protesters.

Grave challenges

The appointment comes amid grave challenges. The unrest began Monday as a self-styled “Gen Z protest” against corruption, nepotism and social media restrictions. Security forces opened fire on crowds, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. Protesters stormed and torched key institutions, including the parliament, Supreme Court, federal and provincial government offices, and political party offices, while also targeting media outlets, schools, businesses and homes.

Jailbreaks occurred in several locations, and reports suggest some demonstrations may have been infiltrated by outside actors and groups, further complicating security. In response, the army assumed control of nationwide security late Tuesday, deploying troops across the Kathmandu Valley and imposing movement restrictions to stabilise the situation.

Children’s Fund UNICEF congratulated Ms. Karki, saying her appointment “is an inspiration for girls and women,” and highlighted the importance of placing children’s rights at the centre of Nepal’s recovery.

What does it mean for the husband when his wife keeps her own surname?

Posted on by
Reply

When a woman chooses not to take her husband’s surname after marriage, people perceive her husband as being higher in traits related to femininity and lower in traits related to masculinity. He is also perceived as having less power in the relationship. This is according to a study led by Rachael Robnett of the University of Nevada in the US. The research is published in Springer’s journal Sex Roles and is the first to examine whether people’s perceptions of a man’s personality vary depending on whether his wife adopts his surname or retains her own.

The tradition of women adopting their husbands’ surname after marriage is arguably one of the most widespread gender-role norms in Western cultures. In recent decades, it has gained attention from feminist scholars who want to understand why the surname tradition remains widely endorsed despite marked changes in the role that women play in society and in the labor force.

According to previous studies, women who violate the marital surname tradition are viewed differently from others. They are described in terms of instrumental traits that in a gendered society are typically assigned to men. These include having a higher status, yielding more power, being more self-focused, ambitious and assertive. These traits contrast with the expressive characteristics that are typically assigned to women, such as being more nurturing, kind and having less influence and power.

To date, researchers have not yet examined how a woman’s marital surname choice influences how others perceive her husband. To this end, Robnett and her colleagues carried out three studies in the US and UK. The first two studies showed that husbands whose wives keep their own surnames are often described through terms that are counter to the gender-typical personality traits and power framework used for men. They are described in more expressive than instrumental terms, and are seen to hold less power in a marriage.

“A woman’s marital surname choice therefore has implications for perceptions of her husband’s instrumentality, expressivity, and the distribution of power in the relationship,” says Robnett. “Our findings indicate that people extrapolate from marital surname choices to make more general inferences about a couple’s gender-typed personality traits.”

Results from the third study conducted by Robnett’s team suggest that people are not unanimous in how they think about such cases. People who firmly hold on to traditional gender roles and can be described as hostile sexists react particularly strongly to a man whose wife retains her surname because they see him as being disempowered.

“We know from prior research that people high in hostile sexism respond negatively to women who violate traditional gender roles,” says Robnett. “Our findings show that they also apply stereotypes to nontraditional women’s husbands.”

“This study joins several others in alluding to a link between traditions in heterosexual romantic relationships and power structures favoring men,” says Robnett. “The marital surname tradition is more than just a tradition. It reflects subtle gender-role norms and ideologies that often remain unquestioned despite privileging men.”