This book will highlight the day-to-day challenges faced by women smallholders in regions such as Africa, Asia and South America, whilst also considering how key stakeholders across the agri-food supply chain can support, empower and sufficiently compensate women smallholder farmers for their contribution to agriculture.
There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers across the world, of which a suggested 60-80% are women. Despite this overwhelming majority, women smallholders remain largely unsupported and their contribution to agriculture is often devalued because of their sex.
Women and smallholder farming: Addressing global inequities in agriculture provides a comprehensive overview of the main obstacles and challenges women smallholders continue to face, such as restricted access to markets and education, as well as a lack of control over assets and property rights.
The book also assesses the impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers in different regions around the world, including Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In highlighting these issues, the book considers how key stakeholders across the agri-food supply chain can support, empower and sufficiently compensate women smallholder farmers for their contribution to agriculture.
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the key challenges encountered by women smallholder farmers, such as restricted access to markets and technical training programmes
- Addresses the critical role of women smallholder farmers to the success of global agricultural production
- Includes a selection of case studies which highlight the development of programmes to aid women smallholder farmers in crop and livestock production
Part 1 Women smallholders and global agricultural production
1.The role of women smallholder farmers in achieving global food security: an
overview: Nicoline de Haan, Gender Platform Director - CGIAR, Kenya;
2.Women smallholder farmers and the achievement of the UN Sustainable
Development Goals: Rhiannon Pyburn, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, The
Netherlands;
3.The adoption of climate change mitigation strategies by women smallholder
farmers: Margaret Alston, Monash University and University of Newcastle,
Australia;
Part 2 Sociocultural factors and their effects on women smallholder farmers
4.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Africa:
Brenda Boonabaana, Makerere University, Uganda;
5.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Asia:
Nozomi Kawarazuka, International Potato Centre (CIP), Vietnam;
6.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Latin
America: Janet Momsen, University of California-Davis, USA;
7.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Middle
East: Dina Najjar, ICARDA, Lebanon;
Part 3 Gender negotiations for women smallholders
8.Rebranding and reconstructing masculinity in agriculture: an overview:
Angie Carter, Michigan Tech, USA;
9.Sexuality and women smallholders: Prisca Pfammatter, Kanton Basel-Stadt,
Switzerland;
10.Negotiating the intersection of gender and race in agriculture: Hannah
Whitley, Penn State University, USA;
11.Agriculture, power and gender-based violence: the case of women
smallholders in Malawi: Veronica Kaitano, Independent Gender Consultant,
Malawi;
12.The impact of migration on women smallholders: the case of Ghana: Jemima
Baada, University of British Columbia, Canada;
Part 4 Facilitating access to resources and technology
13.Addressing gender inequities in accessing extension and advisory services:
Kathleen Colverson, Arati Joshi, and Fallon Y Riaño J, University of Florida,
USA; and Steven Franzel, Independent Consultant, USA;
14.Women smallholders and technology: facilitating access to improve farm
productivity and profitability: Girma Gezimu Gebre, Ritsumeikan University,
Japan;
15.Gender-transformative approaches/programmes: role and benefits for women
smallholders: Rhiannon Pyburn, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, The
Netherlands;
16.Financial support initiatives for women smallholders: access and
availability: M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh;
17.Approaches to strengthen womens land rights and tenure security through
agricultural programming: Krista Jacobs, Caitlin Kieran, Tatiana Gumucio and
Nayna Jhaveri, Landesa, USA;
18.Supporting women smallholder farmers: the role of the public and private
sectors: Margaret Alston, Monash University and University of Newcastle,
Australia;
Part 5 Case studies
19.Women smallholder farmers and water resource management: Stephanie
Buechler, Penn State University, USA;
20.Women smallholder farmers growing horticultural crops: Francis Denisse
McClean, Zamorano University, Honduras;
21.Women smallholder farmers growing beverage crops: Alissa Bilfield,
University of Washington, USA;
22.Enhancing gender equality in agroforestry systems: Marlène Elias,
Bioversity International, Italy; Gloria Adeyiga, Bangor University, UK, World
Agroforestry (ICRAF), Kenya and Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG),
Ghana; Elisabeth Simelton, Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency, Sweden; Yovita Ivanova, Bioversity International, Peru; Ana Maria
Paez Valencia, Bioversity International, Costa Rica; Barbara Vinceti,
Bioversity International, Italy; Tim Pagella, Bangor University, United
Kingdom;
23.Supporting women smallholders involved in pig farming: Rosemirta Birungi,
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya;
24.Supporting women smallholders involved in poultry farming: Brigitte
Bagnol, International Rural Poultry Centre, Mozambique;
Dr Carolyn Sachs is Professor Emerita of Rural Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. She serves on an expert panel to the United Nations Programme on Gender, Water and Sanitation and is involved in several extension and outreach programmes, including the Pennsylvania Womens Agricultural Network (PAWAgN), in which she provides agricultural, entrepreneurship and leadership training.
Dr Paige Castellanos is Senior Manager of Gender Justice and Inclusion at Oxfam America, USA. Before moving into her new role in 2022, Dr Castellanos was previously Director for the Gender Equity through Agriculture Research and Education (GEARE) Initiative at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. From 2016-2019, Dr Castellanos acted as Project Manager for the Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Honduras a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve womens participation in the horticulture value chain in Honduras.
