First Global Conference on Women in Agriculture (GCWA)

Abstract

The First Global Conference on Women in Agriculture (GCWA), organized in New Delhi on March 13–15 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), was supported through the Gender in Agriculture Partnership (GAP) of the multi-stakeholder Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). This landmark event was the outcome of 2 years of intensive partnership building among the many organizations involved in GFAR, including the CGIAR (Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research Centers), FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) and the Regional Fora. The Conference attracted 760 participants from 50 countries, including Ministers, World Food Prize laureates, representatives of agricultural research, extension and education institutions, gender experts, non-governmental organizations and farmers’ groups, who rallied in Delhi to call for collective action and investment to put the needs of women farmers at the centre of agricultural thinking and practice. Despite the fact that they comprise around half of the world’s agricultural workforce, women are often not even recognized as farmers and face widespread restrictions on decision making about the basic resource for production i.e. land; access to productivity-enhancing inputs such as credit, fertilizer, improved seeds and extension; and control over the produce resulting from their labour and other investment. For example, whereas women do 75 % of the agricultural work in Cameroon they own less than 10 % of the land. Women’s ability to produce enough food is further hampered by the physically exhausting labor and drudgery associated with farming practices that have remained unchanged for generations. By failing to close the gender gap, the world is paying very dearly. For example, according to a recent FAO report, by opening up women’s access to the resources required to produce, process and market food products, yields on women’s farms could be increased by 20 to 30 %. This would raise total agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 % and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100 to 150 million. A further example from Cote d’Ivoire highlights the impact of increasing women’s income on child health and nutrition. It shows that the improvement in child health and nutrition achieved by a US$10 increase in women’s income would require a $110 increase in men’s income. The first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, once said, “in order to awaken the people, it is the women who have to be awakened. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves.” Participants at the GCWA recognized that, 17 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had identified key obstacles to the advancement of women in the world, gross inequalities still hamper development. National mechanisms for gender equality are facing major challenges in implementing their mandates, including inadequate resources, political marginalization of their activities and weak capacities for coordination, monitoring