Zimbabwe’s Women Cotton Farmers Stitch More Value From Their White Gold

Women cotton farmers in Zimbabwe’s Shamva district are turning to sewing and collective savings to diversify their incomes and adapt to a changing climate. Making school uniforms and taking clothing orders, they are creating earning opportunities beyond the crop they call their “white gold”.

For Brenda Dzuda, cotton is “white gold” that helps support her household in a community where, she says, women have few alternatives for earning a living.
But the 48-year-old widow who farms four…