FAO estimates that closing the gender gap in agricultural productivity and the wage gap in agrifood employment would increase global gross domestic product by 1 percent (or almost USD 1 trillion). This would reduce global food insecurity by about 2 percentage points, reducing the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.Addressing gender gaps in agrifood systems helps to improve the well-being of women and their households, reduce hunger, boost income generation and strengthen the resilience of communities and the system as a whole.

BACKGROUND

Women's work in agrifood systems

In 2019, 36 percent of working women and 38 percent of working men worked in agrifood systems.35 In many countries, however, agrifood systems are a greater source of livelihoods for women than for men. In South Asia, 71 percent of women work in agrifood systems compared to 47 percent of men.35

However, women working in agricultural production tend to do so under very unfavourable conditions. They often work without pay on family farms or as casual labourers in agriculture. In land productivity on farms of the same size managed by men and women there is a gender gap of 24 percent and women earn on average 18.4 percent less than men in waged employment in agriculture.37

Women's access to assets, services and resourcesWomen's access to assets, productive resources and services critical to agrifood systems – such as land, inputs, agricultural extension services, finance, information, education andtechnology – remains lower than that of men. However, the gender gap in mobile Internetaccess in low- and middle-income countries narrowed from 25 percent to 16 percentbetween 2017 and 2021, and the gap narrowed from 9 to 6 percentage points in terms ofaccess to bank accounts. The percentage of men with ownership or secure tenure rightsto agricultural land is twice that of women in more than 40 percent of the countries thathave reported data on the proportion of women landowners.37

Capacity for action, standards and policiesDiscriminatory social standards in agrifood systems create power imbalances between men and women and limit the choices available to women, who are generally more involved in unpaid care and domestic work. These standards often restrict women's mobility and limit their opportunities for engaging in non-domestic work and market activities and their access to assets and income.It is estimated that if half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions focused on empowering women, this would significantly increase the incomes of 58 million people and increase the resilience of 235 million additional people.37

37 FAO. (2023). The status of women in agrifood systems. Rome. (https://doi.org/10.4060/cc5343en).

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