Aicha would not describe her profession as farming, and yet she is coaxing life out of a barren desert. The first thing she does each morning is feed the sheep and chickens dried alfalfa that she has grown, giving a bit of extra food to one ram that she is preparing for Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice. She then makes her family a breakfast of eggs, bread and dates, sourced from their plot of land and from women in her village. Returning to the backyard, Aicha then assesses what work needs to be done to continue cultivating these resources for her family.

Living in the Drâa-Tafilalet region of Morocco on the cusp of the Sahara, water is a valuable resource. A common expression is aman iman or “water is life” in Tashelhit, the Indigenous language of the region. Until recently, water spilled forth from the local terwa, a community-managed network of wells and trenches delivering water from the nearby Atlas Mountains. Due to an ongoing drought, Aicha carefully dispenses water from a plastic canister, which her son gathers from faraway sources, to hand irrigate green shoots of scallions, beets and turnips peeking through the hardened soil. On other days, she harvests alfalfa with a sickle or collects ripe dates from towering palms. Her work is often interrupted by customers for her business as a seamstress. Flowy cotton dresses are in demand, and perfect for the many tasks that women, like Aicha herself, undertake daily. 

Read more at: https://www.undp.org/blog/cultivating-resilience-womens-leadership-biodiversity-conservation