Gender Equity in Agriculture: Essential for Food Security, Resilience, and Justice

Why Gender Equity in Agriculture Matters

Agriculture feeds the world, sustains rural economies, and shapes landscapes. Yet across regions and production systems, it remains deeply unequal. Women play a central role in agriculture — as farmers, workers, processors, traders, and caretakers of land and seed — but their contributions are systematically undervalued, constrained, and under-supported.

Gender inequity in agriculture is not only a social injustice. It is a structural barrier to food security, climate resilience, economic development, and sustainable land management. Achieving gender equity is therefore not a “social add-on” to agricultural development; it is a core requirement for systems that are productive, resilient, and fair.

Women’s Invisible Central Role in Agriculture

In many parts of the world, women produce a substantial share of food crops, manage household nutrition, preserve seed diversity, and steward natural resources. They are often responsible for labor-intensive tasks such as planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, and marketing — while also carrying a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work.

Despite this central role, women are frequently not recognized as farmers in their own right. They are less likely to hold land titles, access credit, receive extension services, or participate in farmer organizations and decision-making bodies. Their labor sustains agricultural systems, yet the benefits and power within those systems are unequally distributed.

This invisibility is not accidental. It is the result of deeply embedded social norms, legal barriers, and institutional biases that shape who controls resources and whose knowledge counts.

Structural Inequality Limits Agricultural Potential

Gender inequity directly constrains agricultural performance. When women farmers lack access to land, inputs, finance, technology, and training, productivity suffers. Studies consistently show that when women have the same access to resources as men, farm yields increase, household incomes rise, and food security improves.

The issue is not capacity, but opportunity. Women farmers often operate on smaller plots, with poorer soils, fewer inputs, and higher labor demands. Extension services and agricultural innovations are frequently designed for male farmers, ignoring women’s crops, schedules, and constraints. Financial systems may require land titles or collateral that women are less likely to possess.

These structural disadvantages create a cycle in which women work harder for lower returns, reinforcing poverty and limiting broader development outcomes.

Gender Equity and Food Security

Gender equity is closely linked to food security and nutrition. Women play a central role in deciding what crops are grown, how food is prepared, and how income is spent. When women have greater control over resources and income, households are more likely to invest in diverse diets, education, and health.

Conversely, gender inequality undermines food systems. It limits crop diversity, reduces resilience to shocks, and increases vulnerability to hunger — particularly during crises. Empowering women in agriculture is therefore one of the most effective ways to improve nutritional outcomes and reduce poverty.

Gender, Climate Change, and Resilience

Climate change is intensifying existing inequalities in agriculture. Women often farm more marginal land, rely more heavily on rain-fed systems, and have fewer resources to adapt to climate shocks. At the same time, they possess critical knowledge about local ecosystems, seed selection, water management, and coping strategies.

Excluding women from climate decision-making weakens adaptation efforts. Gender-blind climate and agricultural policies risk reinforcing vulnerability rather than reducing it. By contrast, gender-equitable approaches strengthen resilience by ensuring that solutions reflect the realities, knowledge, and needs of all farmers.

Gender equity is therefore central to climate-smart and regenerative agriculture — not only as a matter of fairness, but as a condition for effective adaptation and mitigation.

Beyond Access: Power, Voice, and Agency

Achieving gender equity requires more than providing women with inputs or training. It requires addressing power and agency. Who makes decisions about land use? Who controls income? Who speaks in producer organizations, cooperatives, and policy forums?

Without voice and leadership, gains in access can be fragile. Sustainable change depends on transforming norms, institutions, and governance structures so that women can influence decisions at household, community, and system levels.

This includes recognizing women as rights-holders, supporting collective action, protecting labor rights, and addressing gender-based violence and discrimination that limit participation in agriculture.

Why Action Cannot Be Delayed

The costs of gender inequity are cumulative. Lost productivity, persistent poverty, degraded landscapes, and fragile food systems compound over time. In a world facing climate change, population growth, and rising food demand, continuing to marginalize half of the agricultural workforce is both inefficient and unjust.

Change takes time. Legal reforms, shifts in norms, and institutional transformation do not happen overnight. Delaying action means locking in inequities that will be harder — and more costly — to reverse in the future.

Toward Gender-Equitable Agricultural Systems

Gender-equitable agriculture requires intentional design. Policies, investments, and programs must explicitly address gender differences in access, roles, risks, and power. Data must be disaggregated. Women’s knowledge must be valued. Men must be engaged as allies in transforming norms and responsibilities.

Crucially, gender equity must be integrated across the food system — from production to markets, from climate finance to governance — rather than treated as a separate or secondary objective.

Conclusion: Equity as a Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

Gender equity in agriculture is not only about fairness for women. It is about unlocking the full potential of agricultural systems to feed people, sustain livelihoods, and steward the planet. Systems that exclude, undervalue, or constrain women are inherently less resilient and less sustainable.

Achieving gender equity is therefore a strategic, moral, and practical imperative. The future of agriculture — and the food systems it supports — depends on it.

Additional Resources

• International Institute for Sustainable Development — How to Improve Gender Equality in Agriculture: Investment in Agriculture Policy

• Beyond the ‘gender gap’ in agriculture: Africa's Green Revolution and gendered rural transformation in Rwanda

• Global Agriculture — Women in Agriculture

• Women’s empowerment and gender equity in agriculture: A different perspective from Southeast Asia

About the Sustainable Agriculture Network

The Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) is a global impact network transforming agriculture into a force for good — healing and nourishing our extraordinary planet. Together with 37 member organizations across more than 120 countries, SAN advances sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient farming systems that empower communities and restore nature.

Through radical collaboration, SAN connects farmers, businesses, researchers, and civil society to co-create solutions that tackle the world’s most pressing challenges — from climate change and biodiversity loss to social inequity. Our network’s collective efforts have already helped transform over 40 million hectares of farmland, driving measurable progress toward regenerative and inclusive food systems.

Rooted in integrity, inclusivity, curiosity, empathy, adaptability, and evidence-based action, SAN leads with both urgency and hope. We envision a future where agriculture heals, communities thrive, and nature flourishes.

Learn more at www.sustainableagriculture.eco