The rice industry, an illustration of female entrepreneurial success

After 6 years, the project to support women's entrepreneurship in the rice industry (PAEFFR) completed its activities in 2023. The results are very positive, and the sustainability of the project is assured by the local partners. 

The production, processing, and sale of rice are one of the most economically promising agricultural sectors in Benin. Very present in the industry, the women primarily and exclusively assume the rice processing activities (parboiling), for which they join together in communal cooperatives whose production and management they oversee. The CECI-Benin has been supporting female entrepreneurship in the sector since 2017 and works to improve the performance of partner structures in order  to economically empower women and help them reduce  the level of poverty in the country.   

The CECI is supporting the development of the six  member cooperatives of the project’s main partner, the 1,500-worker-strong Collines Union of Women Rice Parboilers (URFER-C). It is striving to increase their productivity, competitiveness, and yields. We help to modernize their equipment, optimize their production and distribution processes, facilitate their access to financial credits, and improve their governance and financial and administrative management, most notably with the support of Canadian volunteers. 

Thanks to these advances, the partner organizations professionalize, gain credibility, and access larger markets. 

Since the start of the project, the quantity of parboiled rice sold every year by the partner structures has multiplied by more than 10, attaining 335 tons in 2022. 

With the CECI’s support, these changes have also transformed the traditional financial management  of the partner structures, which now rely on a computerized system and improved administrative, accounting, and financial procedures. 

Redesigned techniques and infrastructures

This year, a fifth communal processing centre was built in Savalou. Connected to four irrigation sites, these infrastructures have meant that the women parboilers have more modern and environmentally friendly means of production and are less impacted by variations in rainfall. Their yields and production quality subsequently improve.

More autonomy for women parboilers

Beyond the technical tools, we also facilitate access by women parboilers to functional literacy. Able to read and write in French, they can now look up information, communicate, plan, and monitor their activities more easily, which improves the organization and governance of the cooperatives. This literacy has gone beyond the professional framework and given them more autonomy in their personal lives, building their confidence in themselves and their ability to take initiative. 
Some 532 people, of whom 506 are women rice parboilers, have received literacy training.

“ALL OF THESE ACTIONS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO BUILDING TODAY, IN THIS REGION OF BENIN, A PRIME EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP” 
– excerpt from “Les femmes étuveuses dans l’attente d’un marché sécurisé,” 24h au Bénin

An environment conducive to equality

Faithful to our values, we also work to sustainably transform the societal environment in which Beninese women live and to reduce inequality between women and men. The men in the rice industry are especially targeted. We want to make them allies and we do this by promoting positive masculinity. The changes in perception generated, combined with a stronger leadership by the women involved in the project, enable these women to be better represented in the industry’s consultation frameworks and participate more in political dialogue to defend their interests. They no longer fear expressing their ideas or presenting their arguments, in both a professional context and a personal one (village meetings, families, etc.). This represents a major evolution in gender dynamics in Benin.  

In 2023, in the mixed production structures supported by the project, 37 percent of the positions on 
the decision-making bodies were occupied by women, some of whom held strategic functions, such as president, treasurer, or secretary.  In 2017, women only occupied  
25 percent of these positions. 

"TODAY, THE FEAR OF JUDGMENT, THE FEAR OF SPEAKING... ALL THAT HAS BEEN BLOWN AWAY. WE SPEAK UP BEFORE ANY AUDIENCE, EVEN THE AUTHORITIES. [...] WE ARE NOT THE SAME AS WE WERE  FOUR YEARS AGO "
Cyprienne DOSSOU, commune of Glazoué

The project supporting women entrepreneurship in the rice sector (PAEFFR) in Benin, was implemented with the financial support of Global Affairs Canada.