This documentary was screened last year in Lahore as part of “An Acre for Every Woman” campaign started by Najma Sadeque under the Green Economics Initiative, Shirkat Gah in 2005.
Still not complete, it was viewed with several of my other documentary-shorts and how-to films on environment and green economics through a women’s perspective.
I made this film based on Najma Sadeque’s work and research over the last 7 years – the script for the film is also written by her. “An Acre for Every Woman” is a soft campaign started by the Green Economics Initiative.
It explains why an acre is the ideal area for a rural woman based on actual output of all indigenous vegetables and fruit, in the recommended mix under purely organic techniques and agro-forestry. It not only makes the rural woman and her entire extended family completely self-sufficient, it can also make her capable of being an independent entrepreneur.
Excerpt from the review ‘An acre for every woman launched’ in Pakistan Today 14 Dec., 2011
“ Najma Sadeque, head of Green Economics Initiative, spoke about the need to bring back the concept of “commons” where the community could grow food for their own needs. She introduced the concepts of Matka Gardening, Seed Bombing, organic gardening and showed films on how to plant trees. The documentaries were prepared by independent environmental filmmaker Deneb Sumbul, who captured the traditional way of planting trees as well as how to plant in pots, for those who lived in the cities. The campaign is not just targeted at women. In fact the idea is that women borrow or rent one acre for their families’ usage of growing food and then land given to their husbands or male relatives to grow food for commercial sale so that the family has enough for its own usage and also enough to sale.“
Excerpt from an article “Empowering Women for Agricultural Development” published in Pakistan Observer – April 2nd 2011
“Filmmaker Deneb Sumbul’s documentary, ‘A woman’s harvest’ highlighted the hardships of a rural woman as she gets very little amount as a pay of her hard work on farm. While the short film ‘Mini farming’ was a guide to sow home grown vegetables – a feasible solution to hike in food prices.”
“A Woman’s Harvest” was also screened in Karachi in March 2011 by Green
Economics Initiative in a Small scale agro-forestry & urban food security Workshop on small-scale agro-forestry and home-based organic food-growing in urban areas. This programme was specially designed by Najma Sadeque (Director SG GreenEconomics) for teachers, educationists, women professionals, NGOs and CBOs. The event was attended by about 200 participants including about 110 teachers from various schools, public and private as well as others from civil society. Professor Anita Ghulamali, Managing Director of Sindh Education Foundation was the chief guest.
For both these films, I had to scour the country-side or suburbs to find women working in the fields. That’s not so hard to find except to film them is another matter. It’s a heavily segregated culture. In the interior as well as in farming outskirts of the city, the men are particularly wary of cameras shooting their women and would usually come charging. However once they’d see a female of the species holding a film camera –they’d stop short. It was their hesitation that made it easier to get permission to film their womenfolk. The women were obliging, even flattered but the men were unsure whether to be upset or not.
Very recently, “Why, An Acre for Every Woman” was shown by Najma Sadeque at a seminar “Where are land reforms on political agenda of Pakistan?” organised by SCOPE Pakistan, National Peasants Coalition of 
Pakistan-Pakistan Kisan Sangat (NPCP-PKS), in collaboration with International Land Coalition (ILC) on 8 November 2012, in Islamabad.
The film is undergoing some finishing touches and will soon be ready for screening along with other docu-shorts. Interested women’s groups may contact Najma Sadeque, Director, Green Economics Initiative, Shirkat Gah at the following e:mail address : greenecon.sg@gmail.com
An Activist's Scene 