The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, officially launched the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, a designation made by the United Nations General Assembly. The initiative was presented during the 39th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (LARC39) in Brasília and aims to raise awareness of the critical role women play in agrifood systems. It seeks to highlight the structural challenges they face, promote transformative public policies, mobilize strategic investments, and strengthen partnerships to close persistent gender gaps in the sector.
Women play an essential role in agrifood systems across Latin America and the Caribbean, representing 36 percent of the workforce. Their participation is particularly strong in non-agricultural segments, with 71 percent working in food processing, distribution, and marketing. Despite their contributions, structural inequalities limit their economic autonomy and productivity. Rural women often face restricted access to land tenure, financial services, and technology, and they bear a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic and care work.
These disparities are reflected in food security outcomes. In 2022, women experienced higher rates of hunger than men in the region, with a gender gap in moderate or severe food insecurity reaching 9.1 percentage points. The gap had widened sharply in 2021 due in part to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is further compounded by climate change, as increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, negatively affect agricultural productivity and exacerbate challenges for rural women.
During the conference, ministers of agriculture from across Latin America and the Caribbean highlighted both progress and ongoing challenges in empowering women farmers through public policies and investments. The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 will serve as a platform to promote national, regional, and global actions aimed at integrating gender equality into agrifood policies, mobilizing public and private investments, and expanding women’s access to land, financing, technology, and essential services.
The event included remarks from key regional leaders, including FAO Assistant Director-General Rene Orellana Halkyer; Fernanda Machiaveli, Brazilian Vice Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming; María Fernanda Rivera, Guatemalan Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food; Martha Carvajalino, Colombian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Lisa Jawahir, Saint Lucian Minister of Agriculture; and María Ignacia Fernández, Chilean Minister of Agriculture. Representatives of rural workers’ organizations, including Vânia Marques of CONTAG and Soraya Suárez of the Parliamentary Fronts Against Hunger, also participated, emphasizing the importance of grassroots engagement in promoting women’s empowerment in agrifood systems.
