Quote of the Day
“Women have always worked in agrifood systems. It is time that we made agrifood systems work for women.” — Qu Dongyu
Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), made this statement in April 2023, following the release of a major report examining women’s experiences in agriculture and food production.
There is a woman somewhere who has spent most of her life working on a farm.
She knows when to plant, when to harvest and which crops grow best on her land.
She has helped feed her family, paid school fees from the proceeds of her harvests and contributed to the local economy.
Yet when decisions are made about agricultural development, nobody asks for her opinion.
Perhaps she cannot obtain a loan because she does not have land registered in her name.
Perhaps she attends community meetings but rarely gets an opportunity to speak.
Perhaps everyone recognizes how hardworking she is, but nobody considers her a leader.
Does any of this sound familiar?
We often praise women for their sacrifices. We celebrate their strength, their patience and their ability to keep families going through difficult times.
But appreciation and fairness are not the same thing.
Telling someone that their work is valuable means little if they are consistently excluded from the opportunities that could improve their lives.
A woman who grows food should have a fair opportunity to own land, access financing, receive agricultural training and participate in decisions affecting her livelihood.
Not because she is a woman who deserves special treatment, but because she is a person whose work, knowledge and rights matter.
Perhaps we should spend less time telling women how strong they are and more time asking why they must struggle so hard to access opportunities others take for granted.
Source: FAO — The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (2023).
Did You Know?
Women help feed the world, but many still struggle to access the resources they need to farm.
Think about the last time you visited a market.
Who was selling the vegetables? Who was arranging the baskets of tomatoes, beans or plantains?
In many African communities, women are a familiar presence in food markets. But their involvement often begins long before the food reaches the market.
They cultivate crops, harvest produce, process food and transport goods for sale.
Today, October 15, is the International Day of Rural Women, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007 to recognize rural women’s contributions to agriculture, food security and poverty reduction.
There is a reason this recognition matters.
According to the FAO’s 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer campaign, women accounted for approximately 42% of the global agrifood workforce in 2023.
Yet women working for wages in agrifood systems earn, on average, just 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Women farmers also face disadvantages in accessing land, financing, technology and agricultural training.
Consider what this can mean for a small-scale farmer in Cameroon.
She may know how to grow a profitable crop but struggle to expand because she cannot obtain a loan.
She may have farmed family land for decades without having secure rights to it.
And when agricultural support programmes are introduced, she may not have the information or connections needed to benefit.
These are not simply women’s problems.
When farmers cannot access the resources they need, families, communities and local economies can suffer.
The United Nations has also declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer, drawing attention to these inequalities and the need for practical change.
Recognizing women’s contributions is a good beginning. Ensuring they have fair opportunities to succeed is what makes that recognition meaningful.
Sources: United Nations — International Day of Rural Women · FAO — International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026.
For Discussion
In our communities, do women who work in agriculture have the same opportunities as men to own land, obtain loans and participate in important decisions?
And when we celebrate hardworking women, are we also doing enough to address the difficulties they face?
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