Women are the backbone of global agriculture, producing over half of the world’s food while leading up to 80% in many developing regions. Because their health and economic agency are directly tied to household nutrition and community-level climate resilience, sustainable food systems rely on dismantling structural inequities to empower women.
Why Food System Resilience Relies on Women
- Production and Labor: Women are the primary architects of food systems—from crop cultivation and seed management to processing and marketing.
- Nutritional Gatekeepers: When women control income and assets, household dietary diversity improves and poverty declines, significantly boosting intergenerational resilience against shocks.
- Vulnerability to Shocks:Despite their contributions, women represent a disproportionate share of the world’s food insecure. They are heavily burdened by climate changes and economic crises due to restricted resources.
Key Systemic Barriers
- Land Rights: Women account for less than 15% of agricultural landholders globally, severely limiting their access to credit and collateral.
- Resource Disparity: Women generally have less access to agricultural inputs, modern technology, and financial services.
- Marginalized Labor: Women are more heavily concentrated in informal, insecure, and poorly remunerated nodes of the food value chain.
Pathways for Transformation
Transforming agrifood systems requires moving beyond treating women merely as beneficiaries to recognizing them as primary agents of change.
- Economic and Financial Inclusion: Expanding targeted micro-finance, information services, and tailored agricultural education.
- Policy and Land Reform: Promoting gender-responsive policies that secure women’s land ownership and user rights.
- Investing in Female Leadership: Engaging male allies and fostering community-level decision-making to build climate-resilient agrifood networks.
To explore further, you can read more about how Investing in Women is the key to resilient food systems via the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform.
Would you like to know more about.
