The United Nations-designated International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 is drawing global attention to the vital yet often overlooked contributions women make across agrifood systems, from production and processing to trade and innovation. In an interview with FAO Newsroom, FAO gender experts emphasized that the term “woman farmer” includes a wide range of women working throughout agrifood value chains, including smallholder and family farmers, fishers, pastoralists, foresters, processors, traders, beekeepers, rural entrepreneurs, agricultural scientists, and traditional knowledge holders. The initiative aims to recognize this diversity and highlight the central role women play in food security, nutrition, and rural livelihoods worldwide.
Women account for around 41 percent of the global agrifood workforce, and in many regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, agrifood systems are a major source of livelihood for the majority of working women. Despite their essential contributions across production, value addition, distribution, and trade, much of women’s work remains undercounted and undervalued. FAO experts stressed that women are indispensable not only to household food security and nutrition but also to economic resilience and the functioning of rural economies.
The article explains that women farmers continue to face deep structural barriers that limit their productivity, income, and decision-making power. These include discriminatory land tenure and inheritance systems, weak legal protections, and limited access to land, natural resources, credit, inputs, technologies, markets, and financial services. Women are also more likely to be concentrated in low-paid, informal, part-time, and insecure work. Social norms further restrict their participation in leadership, training, agricultural extension services, and community decision-making, while the heavy burden of unpaid care and domestic work reduces the time and energy they can devote to productive or entrepreneurial activities.
FAO notes that progress in closing gender gaps in agrifood systems has largely stalled over the past decade due to entrenched social norms, underinvestment in gender-responsive policies and programmes, slow legal reform, weak implementation, and a lack of quality sex-, age-, and gender-disaggregated data. Climate change has also worsened these inequalities by increasing women’s workloads and reducing productivity. For example, FAO cited evidence showing that each day of extreme heat can reduce the total value of crops produced by women farmers by 3 percent relative to men, while limited access to land, finance, climate information, and technology further weakens women’s ability to adapt.
The article highlights that the benefits of closing gender gaps in agrifood systems would be substantial. FAO estimates that reducing disparities in employment, education, and income could eliminate 52 percent of the food insecurity gap, while closing gender gaps in farm productivity and wages could raise global GDP by US$1 trillion and reduce food insecurity for 45 million people. Excluding women from policies, investments, and leadership spaces not only undermines agricultural productivity and food security but also weakens rural development, economic growth, and the overall resilience of agrifood systems.
FAO says it is working to address these inequalities through gender-responsive policy-making, data and evidence generation, capacity development, partnerships, and advocacy. Its efforts include advancing high-level policy dialogue, promoting the rollout of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition, supporting the Commit to Grow Equality initiative, and implementing targeted programmes on land rights, finance, climate resilience, and leadership. These actions are intended to create more inclusive and effective agrifood systems that better recognize and support women’s contributions.
During the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, FAO plans to lead global campaigns and events to raise awareness of women farmers’ roles, mobilize political commitment, and encourage policy action and investment. The organization will focus on generating evidence, promoting gender-responsive laws and policies, strengthening women’s leadership and participation in decision-making, and building partnerships to support women’s empowerment in agrifood systems. FAO emphasizes that the International Year should serve not as a one-time celebration but as a catalyst for long-term change, backed by sustained investment, accountability, stronger data systems, and continued support for women-led organizations well beyond 2026.
