Exploring Women's Notable Impact on Agricultural Productivity

The impact of women in agriculture is profound and diverse, influencing different elements of agricultural production, food security, rural economies, and sustainable development.

Significant Contributions Of Rural Women

Women on small farms form the backbone of subsistence agriculture. They produce a large share of the world's food, especially in underdeveloped countries.

Data from the International Labour Organization shows that women account for 41% of the global agricultural workforce, with higher proportions in poorer nations. In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of women are employed in agriculture.

Rural women offer significant contributions to agriculture on a daily basis, whether they are preparing fields, sowing seeds, or nurturing and harvesting crops.

As stewards of their farms, they also contribute significantly to sustainable land and natural resource management, as well as climate resilience. As primary caretakers, they are responsible for a significant amount of informal and unpaid work, including the majority of home responsibilities.

All of these efforts have a significant impact on their family and community's food security, nutrition, and overall well-being.

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Challenges For Women

Despite their crucial role, female farmers frequently lack equitable access to opportunities and assets such as tools, funding, markets, and education.

They also have little, if any, say in decisions about household spending and the land where they work.

Rural women are concentrated in low-skilled, low-productive, and low- or unpaid employment with long working hours, terrible working conditions, and minimal social protection. They are more likely to work as unpaid contributing family members, which implies their effort goes mostly unnoticed or undervalued.

They are primarily active in the informal rural economy and are far less likely than males to work in rural wage employment, both agricultural and non-agricultural.

When rural women work for pay, they are more likely to be employed in part-time, seasonal, and time- and labor-intensive jobs.

Rural women have less access than men to productive resources. There is a gender imbalance for various assets and services, including land, improved seeds and fertilizers, livestock, tension, and financial services.

Women also have fewer opportunities for education and training, which may hinder their ability to accept new technologies as easily as men.

These inequities place women at a substantial disadvantage, preventing them from developing resilience and realizing their full potential.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, due to the problems they confront, women-run farms produce 20-30% less than male-run farms.

If women had equal access to resources as men, agricultural productivity in developing nations would grow by 2.5 to 4%, while the number of undernourished people around the globe would fall by around 12-17%.

Another big impediment is land ownership. Women account for less than 15% of global landowners. This means that most female farmers are unable to decide what they cultivate, how they grow it, or whether to buy or sell land.

They also have less control over how household money is spent, preventing them from investing in their farms or purchasing productive inputs such as goats or tools if they wish to.

Addressing gender inequality and prioritizing decent work for rural women would result in economic and social improvements for everyone.

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