Niumi sees discrimination between men and women only too clearly in her country. In a village where most men have large tracts of land, Niumi has to share her small rice field with two other women. The land that they are sharing, even if the harvests are good, will barely feed their families for a month. Men also have first use of farm implements, such as tractors, meaning that women plant late, leading to poor harvests.

Niumi says that as farmers, women deserve the same access to resources as men, and this is why she attended the HungerFREE Women rally in the nearby town of Brikama Ba. “From Pakali to Fatato, if there are 5,000 women, only 2,000 of them have access to land. African women want to farm to drive hunger away but we don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the resources and implements. We cannot rely on axe and a hoe to bring progress.”

“If you are hungry and you don’t have food it lowers your dignity. Even If your child goes to school [if he is] hungry he will not be able to concentrate in class. African women want to farm to drive hunger away but we don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the resources and implements. We cannot rely on axe and a hoe to bring progress.”

• On rural Woman's day, 17th October, ActionAid The Gambia launched the HungerFREE Women cross-country caravan.We met with women farmers, chiefs, governors and local religious leaders to address the food crisis and the lack of women’s ownership of land.

Note: Hunger-related facts about the Gambia

1. The Gambia is ranked 155th out of the 177 countries listed on the UNDP’s Human Development Index.
2. Household food insecurity rose by 30-50% in 2006, and this is situation is getting worse with the current global food crisis.
3. Over 82 per cent of the population lives on less than US$2 a day.
4. Over half the population live below the national poverty line.
5. 75 per cent of all children under five suffer from iron deficiency anaemia.
6. Despite the United Nations’ promise to halve hunger by 2015, The Gambia has made progress of -0.45 in halving the proportion of undernourished people. The country is going backwards and, at the current rate, will not achieve the set Millenium Development Goals.