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Continuing our theme celebrating the International Year of the Woman Farmer for 2026, I would like to introduce you to another woman farmer, this time from Zambia.
Meet Sipiwe Lukama, called Sipi.
Sipi is a honey producer in the south of Zambia. She runs Kasenga Agro Solutions with help from her mom (pictured). The honey bee operation focuses on making the best quality raw honey in the country. Sipi has about 50 hives from which she collects honey and then processes it in her 'honey house'. Once processed, it is bottled and then delivered to local stores for retail sales. But producing honey is not all Sipi does.
At Kasenga Agro Solutions, her focus is also uplifting other rural women. She has implemented initiatives to partner with local women, to help share entrepreneurial skills, prioritizing skill development and alternative income generation. She's committed to sharing her knowledge with other women to help combat common challenges faced in the region that threaten sustainability and economic empowerment.
According to the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women make up over 70% of Zambia’s agricultural workforce, yet often have little access to the resources they need. Only about 15% of Zambian women own land in their own name, and fewer than 10% have access to formal credit or farming inputs.
If we add to this that only 60% of women in sub-Saharan Africa are literate, that means farming is often the only occupation left open to them. They are often not choosing to farm but doing so because of the lack of choices. In this way, Sipi's efforts to empower rural women to start their own honey producing farms and develop the business and financial acumen to excel at their business is very much needed and in line with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 5 sets out a historic undertaking to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030”. So in this way, Sipi is trailblazing a new form of empowerment for herself while also lifting up others along her way. This is just one of the ways that women farm differently than men; women frequently taut their desire to use their farm to educate, support and uplift others. In this way, they are closing the gender gap between female and male farmers.
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