by Rachel Hill with contributions from Abigail Rumsey, Claire Curry, Emily Palmer and Léna Durocher-Granger.
For over a century countries globally have celebrated International Women’s Day as a day to reflect on the role of women in society. In honor of International Women’s Day 2014 we are giving a special focus to women in agriculture.
Female farmers account for around 40% of the agricultural work force in parts of the developing world. Despite this, women face severe constraints in accessing agricultural resources and markets. This ‘gender gap’ reduces their productivity and their contribution to food security. Reducing the gender gap in agriculture and increasing women’s access to resources such as land, seed and water, and to education, technologies and markets will significantly help to lift rural communities out of poverty and reduce food insecurity.
Mind the gap
In developing countries, women are playing an increasingly prominent role in agriculture, now making up 43% of the agricultural labour force on average. The following graph shows how the numbers of women in agriculture have increased around the word since 1980.
It has been recognized that women are producing 60-80% of the food in most developing countries, but less than 2% of land is owned by women. Women often bear the brunt of managing both agricultural production and providing social protection services to family members and to vulnerable people in their community. The agricultural roles of women may vary between regions, however there is one thing that many women in developing countries have in common and that is lower access to resources such as inputs, extension services, credit and to markets for their produce. Women are also underrepresented in policy-making processes and laws and therefore, their needs, interests and constraints are not reflected. Evidence shows that if women were given the same agricultural resources as men they would achieve the same yields. The current yield gap between males and females in agriculture is around 20-30%. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimate that closing the yield gap will lift 150 million people out of hunger and out of the estimated 925 million people undernourished this would make a significant contribution to global food security.