Women Farmers, Rice Champions: How Science Is Transforming Rice Production in Babessi Cameroon

Members of the Babessi rice cooperative transplant seedlings using guided spacing lines — a technique introduced through AfricaRice/IRAD training to improve plant density and yield. (Credit: AfricaRice)

Across Africa, women make up nearly half of the agricultural workforce, yet they farm with a fraction of the land, finance, and tools available to men. In 2026 — the International Year of the Woman Farmer — Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) is spotlighting the women closing that gap, season by season, harvest by harvest. In Babessi, in Cameroon's North West Region, that story has a name: TCHICHA ABIBA.

TCHICHA ABIBA is a rice seed multiplier, processor, and President of her community's rice farmers' cooperative. Like many women in agrifood systems, she built her livelihood against the odds — limited access to quality seed, training, labor-saving tools, and finance long stood between her cooperative and its full potential. Her story is a familiar one across the continent, and it's exactly the gap AfricaRice's IYWF 2026 campaign, Women Farmers, Rice Champions, was designed to close.

Science Takes Root in the Paddy

Through AfricaRice/IRAD training in appropriate seed production techniques, access to the improved variety NERICA L56, and the introduction of mechanized equipment, ABIBA's cooperative has transformed how it farms. The rows of seedlings, planted in careful, even lines across the paddy, are a quiet but powerful illustration of a campaign message AfricaRice has put at the center of 2026: when women farmers gain equal access to resources, training, and technology, rice yields can rise by 20 to 30 percent — directly strengthening food security for their communities.

From Field to Seed Store

The cooperative gathers to sort and select quality seed by hand — a critical post-harvest step that determines the strength of next season's crop. (Credit: AfricaRice)

Empowering women goes beyond the field. AfricaRice's support for ABIBA's cooperative extends into post-harvest handling: seed sorting, quality control, and the processing skills that turn a harvest into reliable income. This full value-chain approach — from seedling to seed store to market — reflects AfricaRice's broader commitment to backing women not just as producers, but as entrepreneurs and decision-makers across the rice sector.

The results speak for themselves: higher income, reduced labor burden, and improved household food security for ABIBA and her family. But the impact doesn't stop at her farm gate. As her cooperative's yields and confidence grow, more women in Babessi are stepping into rice production and processing, and the value chain around them is growing stronger and more resilient.

Her story is proof that when science advances rights, justice, and action, empowered women transform agrifood systems for everyone.

Investing in Women Like ABIBA

Every dollar invested in women rice farmers carries a multiplier effect — better nutrition, more children in school, and more resilient communities. As the International Year of the Woman Farmer continues, AfricaRice invites governments, partners, and the public to look to Babessi as a model of what's possible: science-backed support, applied at the cooperative level, changing lives one rice field at a time.