“My name is Mafija Begum. I started farming to earn money for my family because my husband was the only one earning an income in our family. I wanted to stand by his side and earn together.”

A partnership between USAID-funded Integrated Land and Resource Governance and PepsiCo in West Bengal is empowering women potato farmers like Mafija through sustainable farming practices that reduce emissions and increase resilience to climate impacts. At the same time, empowering farmers like Mafija increases household income and resilience while supporting PepsiCo’s and USAID’s climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments.

“People could not believe that women could be farmers. We decided we would show them that we can,” she says.