The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) organized a regional launch of the FAO report on “The status of women in agrifood systems” on October 9, 2023, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The report, a first of its kind since 2010, provides a comprehensive understanding of women working across the value chain in agrifood systems. It reviews gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems by comprehensively using new data and evidence. The report highlights that globally, 36% of working women are employed in agrifood systems. In South Asia, 71% of working women are engaged in agrifood systems, many of them as informal workers. In India, more than 90% of the workforce is in the informal sector with over 50% of these workers being women.

“Women and girls living in rural areas represent over a quarter of the population in our region. Rural women play critical roles across the value chains. They are also entrepreneurs and traders and work as wage earners in both the farm and non-farm sectors. Despite some notable progress in recent years, millions of rural women and girls continue to face the multiple disadvantages of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and gender-based discrimination,” shares Takayuki Hagiwara, FAO Representative in India during his opening remarks. 

The launch was attended by Prof Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, Takayuki Hagiwara, FAO Representative in India, Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director, Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, FAO along with senior dignitaries from SEWA, grassroots women leaders and other relevant stakeholders.

Presenting the key findings of the report, Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director, Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, FAO, highlighted that “Unlocking women’s empowerment isn’t just about their rights and their well-being —it's a catalyst for boosting family income, ensuring food security, enhancing resilience and maximizing productivity. In India, and everywhere, it is critical to transform agrifood systems so they can start working better for women.”

Reema Nanavaty from SEWA shared, “SEWA is thankful to NITI Aayog, Government of India and FAO for the launch of the Report today, especially with SEWA and its millions of members and women engaged in the food systems in the Global South. The reality of these women workers in the agrifood system is that - what they grow, they do not eat and what they eat, they do not grow. Organizing women in the agrifood system will help fill this gap, ensure fair returns for the farmers, eliminate middlemen, generate dignified employment opportunities for women and ensure food and nutrition security to rural households”.

Women’s equality in agrifood systems could boost the global economy by $1 trillion, and reduce food insecurity by 45 million. Incremental adjustments and transformative changes are necessary for address the severity of global food insecurity. Creating gender equality is a transformational change necessary to ensure a meaningful impact on not only agrifood systems, but climate change, health, and economic growth.

The report suggests recommendations for donors, policymakers, non-state actors, and other stakeholders to strengthen investments, policies, and strategies to support women within agrifood systems and their broader impact on families, communities, societies, and economies.  The report quantitatively illustrates the substantial enhancements that the global community could achieve in terms of GDP growth, food security, higher income levels, and improved resilience by closing gender gaps and empowering women in agrifood systems. It offers concrete, tangible, and empirical evidence on gender inequalities in agrifood systems and solutions to address them. 

Access full report: The status of women in agrifood systems