Closing the persistent gender gap in agriculture could boost the global GDP by one trillion dollars and reduce food insecurity for 45 million people, according to estimates highlighted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The warning came as the agency launched a new global initiative to address systemic barriers faced by female agricultural workers.
The FAO yesterday unveiled The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, a worldwide campaign aimed at recognizing the essential, yet often undervalued, contributions of women to global agrifood systems. The initiative seeks to galvanize international efforts to tackle deep-rooted gender disparities.
Designated by the UN General Assembly in 2024, the observance will spotlight the challenges confronting women farmers and push for policy reforms and increased investment to advance gender equality. The FAO will coordinate the year”s activities alongside its Rome-based counterparts, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Women constitute a significant portion of the global agricultural workforce, with agrifood systems employing 40 percent of working women in 2021, a figure nearly equal to that of men. They play a vital role across the entire value chain, from production to trade, and are central to household nutrition.
Despite their crucial role, women in the sector often face more precarious working conditions, which are frequently informal, low-paid, and labor-intensive. They encounter systemic obstacles, including limited access to land, finance, technology, education, and decision-making processes.
During the launch ceremony, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero noted that progress on women’s empowerment in agrifood systems has stagnated over the last decade. He stressed that the observance must go beyond celebration to promote legal and policy actions that grant women equal rights to land, finance, technology, and markets.
The event was co-organized by Jordan and Ireland, with remarks from FAO Regional Goodwill Ambassador Princess Basma bint Ali and Maria Dunne, an Assistant Secretary-General at Ireland’s Department of Agriculture.
FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol emphasized that the goal is to “turn commitment into practice, and practice into measurable impact,” ensuring the needs of women farmers remain a priority well beyond 2026.
The term “woman farmer” encompasses diverse roles, including smallholder producers, agricultural laborers, fish workers, pastoralists, traders, and rural entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, including Indigenous, refugee, and displaced communities.
Recent FAO reports underscore the scale of these inequalities. Key findings reveal that a 24 percent gender gap in land productivity exists even on farms of the same size. Furthermore, women in the sector are disproportionately affected by climate change, with a 1° C increase in long-term temperatures associated with a 34 percent income reduction for female-headed households compared to male-headed ones.
Economically, women engaged in wage employment in agrifood systems earn just 78 cents for every dollar men earn. Analysis also indicates that reducing gender disparities in employment, education, and income could close the food insecurity gap-which is consistently higher among women-by 52 percent.