The United Nations declared 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer
(IYWF 2026). The Year highlights the vital roles women farmers play in shaping and
sustaining agrifood systems. Despite their essential contributions, their efforts often
are unrecognized and undervalued. Women are active across many areas of agrifood
systems, from crop and livestock production, to fisheries, forestry, and aquaculture to off-
farm activities such as processing, value addition, distribution and trade. Yet, they continue
to face significant barriers, including limited access to and control over productive
resources such as land and other natural resources, technology, and finance. These
constraints not only limit their productivity, but also hinder their potential to contribute to
food security, rural development and economic growth.
Women farmers play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,
including those related to ending hunger, eradicating extreme poverty, empowering women
and ensuring the sustainable use of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. To advance
the interests and opportunities of women farmers, the International Year of the Woman
Farmer calls on governments, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders
to increase opportunities, gender-responsive policy making and direct investments to
empower women farmers across agrifood systems.
The International Year of the Woman Farmer aims to build awareness of the multiple and
essential roles that women farmers play in agriculture, to showcase actions that help close
the gender gap and to guide and encourage policies and investments that promote gender
equality and the empowerment of women farmers. The overarching goal is to ensure that
women farmers have the opportunities and support they need to thrive in agrifood value
chains and rural economies.
Amid global agrifood system challenges, such as hunger, malnutrition, extreme weather
events, the depletion of natural resources and economic crises, the International Year of
the Woman Farmer (IYWF) 2026 highlights and raises awareness of the vital economic,
social and developmental contributions of women farmers.
Women farmers play a key role in ensuring food security, improving nutrition and
eradicating poverty. They contribute across all areas of agrifood systems, engaging in crop
production, forestry, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as in processing, value
addition, distribution, and trade.
Empowering women farmers in agrifood systems can enhance the well-being of
women and their households, reduce hunger, boost incomes and economic growth, and
strengthen the resilience of populations. Yet, despite their critical role, women farmers
continue to face systemic barriers to land, resources, services, technology and
decision-making. The IYWF 2026 aims to build global awareness of the significant
contribution of women farmers and to call for increased investment in their
empowerment. It advocates for greater research, capacity development and the use of
innovative practices and technologies. The Year also aims to strengthen science-policy
interaction, empower stakeholders to take action, and to foster new partnerships while
strengthening existing ones.
Everyone has a role to play – from governments, the private sector, international
organizations, and civil society, to academia and the general public, including youth.
Together, we must recognize, value, and support the indispensable role of women farmers,
especially those most vulnerable to extreme poverty.
Empowered women, transforming agrifood systems
Quick facts
1. In 2021, women made up 41% of the global agrifood workforce—almost equal to men—yet rural women disproportionately face precarious jobs, poor working conditions, and limited rights.
2. Women farmers typically work on smaller plots of land than men. Even when they manage farms of the same size, the gender gap in land productivity is 24%.
3. Each day of extreme high temperatures reduces the total value of crops produced by women farmers by 3% relative to men.
4. Women engaged in wage employment in agrifood systems earn 78 cents for every dollar that men earn.
5. Closing the gender gaps in farm productivity and wages could raise global gross domestic product by USD 1 trillion and reduce food insecurity for 45 million people.
6. Women farmers’ high unpaid care work burden undermines their labor-market participation, economic empowerment, and physical and mental wellbeing. The unpaid care work performed by women and girls contributes at least USD 10.8 trillion to the global economy annually.
7. The prevalence of food insecurity is consistently higher among women than men globally and across regions. Reducing gender disparities in employment, education, and income could eliminate 52% of the food insecurity gap.
8. Empowering rural women through targeted development interventions could raise incomes for 58 million more people and boost resilience for 235 million—yet this potential remains largely untapped.
Key messages
1. Agrifood systems are a major employer of women globally. In many countries, agrifood systems are a more important source of livelihood for women than for men.
2. Women play crucial roles across agrifood systems and are essential to household food security and nutrition. They play vital roles throughout the farming and food value chain, contributing to food production, agricultural work and post-harvest activities, as well as performing critical care work that helps sustain agrifood systems and rural communities.
3. Despite their essential role in agrifood systems, women farmers face more precarious working conditions, heavier workloads, and unequal access to resources. Their roles are often marginalized, and their working conditions are typically worse than men’s – irregular, informal, part-time, low-waged, labour-intensive and thus vulnerable.
4. Women farmers throughout value chains face persistent gaps in access to land, services, capital, inputs, education, and technology, and in the face of extreme heat, extreme precipitation and droughts, women increase their work burden more than men.
5. Securing women’s land rights strengthens agrifood systems and rural development and helps communities to thrive. Women remain behind in securing access, management, and ownership of land, and face discrimination or inadequate legal protection in these areas. Enhancing women’s land rights boosts their empowerment, investment capacity, sustainability, and resilience, while improving access to services, reducing gender-based violence, and strengthening bargaining power.
6. Women’s empowerment is a key area of investment for rural development, prosperity and environmental protection, and critical to accelerating the transition to more sustainable agrifood systems. Empowering women farmers can enhance the well-being of women and their households, reduce hunger, increase dietary diversity, boost incomes and economies, and strengthen the resilience of populations.
7. Rural young women frequently face specific challenges in accessing resources due to generational and gendered power dynamics, as well as structural, economic, social and spatial constraints. Greater unpaid and domestic care responsibilities contribute to keeping young women out of education, employment and training.
Take action
• Stay informed. Learn more about women farmers and their essential roles in agrifood
systems, rural economies and building resilience to shocks and stressors.
• Support women-led local markets. Support local markets and women-led agrifood
enterprises by purchasing their products and promoting them.
• Spread the word! Share stories and amplify the voices of women farmers on social
media and in your networks using #IYWF2026 throughout 2026 and beyond.
• Advocate for just, equitable and sustainable agrifood systems. Acknowledge the
challenges women farmers face across value chains, and advocate for just, equitable
and sustainable agrifood systems.
• Promote storytelling and mentorship. Support initiatives that share stories, promote
mentorship and strengthen intergenerational turnover and knowledge transfer among
women in agriculture.
Source and photos:
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
https://www.fao.org/woman-farmer-2026/en
