00:02These trees are all hers.
00:05Last year, Afua Mea finally found her financial freedom.
00:11The 64-year-old farmer from Ivory Coast bought her own plantation of rubber trees.
00:20I am really independent and free because I know that what I am doing is for myself.
00:26And it's me who has done my thing so it's for myself.
00:29So really, I am free and I'm happy.
00:34Until she bought her own farm, Mea had worked on land inherited from her father.
00:40Yet most of the money went to her brothers, a problem not so unusual in the agricultural sector.
00:50There are other places where girls are not allowed to inherit land.
00:54And when that's the case in those places, it's difficult.
00:57In these areas, it's difficult and we have to...
01:00How can we solve this problem?
01:02Because we can't just leave these women like that.
01:05So now we have to move on to another phase of negotiation.
01:09Either we negotiate with the land owners, the village chiefs, the traditional leaders,
01:13or we negotiate with their husbands so that they give a small portion or a portion to their wives.
01:20Just 5% of women own agricultural land compared to 25% of men in Ivory Coast.
01:27But the interest in acquiring their own rubber tree plantations is rising.
01:32So much so that the country's main association is now offering subsidies to women farmers.
01:41As you know, Ivory Coast is an agricultural country producing coffee, cocoa, and rubber.
01:47So coffee and cocoa were the first choices.
01:50But more and more women are becoming interested in rubber cultivation.
01:54It is this observation that has led us since 2009 to include women in our development program at all levels.
02:02Meanwhile, Afua Mea is not planning to pass her land on to her son, but to her daughter.
02:08Thank you very much.
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