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COMMUNITY VOICE: Small Farmers, Big Solutions
Women and Agriculture
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) works to make women in developing countries an integral part of alleviating global poverty. In this video from ICRW, David Kauck, a senior gender and agriculture specialist, explains why it's important to invest in women farmers.
Investing in women farmers promises to yield a double dividend: better food security and greater economic growth. More than three decades of work on women and agriculture at the International Center for Research on Women suggests that improving women's access to resources, technology, markets and property rights will increase farm productivity, raise income and improve household nutrition.
From fetching water and feeding livestock to sowing crops and selling vegetables, women's contributions to agriculture are innumerable. But they often go unrecognized, and few of the world's women farmers are paid for their labor. Meanwhile, their ability to own land, access credit and buy farm equipment--all of which help them be economically successful--is limited.
But there is a way forward. For instance, by giving women the ability to have their own savings accounts, they are better poised to buy valuable resources such as seeds and fertilizer to increase their agricultural productivity. And by including women in agricultural training programs, they can learn innovative farming techniques that save time and money.