Women Farmers Feed the World
The International Year of the Woman Farmer Honors Women’s Role in Agriculture
Women are indispensable to the farms and food systems that sustain the world, but their access to land, financing, agricultural training, technology, and positions of influence often falls far short of their contribution.
That disparity is receiving special attention in 2026, which the United Nations has designated the International Year of the Woman Farmer. The observance recognizes women’s contributions throughout agrifood systems—from growing and harvesting crops to processing and trading food—while calling for policies and investment to address barriers involving land tenure, finance, technology, education, and decision-making.
A 2026 compilation from Worldmetrics brings together 106 statistics on women in agriculture. The figures portray a striking contradiction: Women perform a substantial share of the work required to feed the world, particularly in developing regions, but often have considerably less access to the resources that can make farming more productive and profitable.
Women Farmers by Worldmetrics Numbers
Women constitute 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural workforce. In South Asia, they account for 43% of agricultural workers.
An estimated seven out of 10 smallholder women farmers in the developing world are responsible for producing food for their households.
Only 12% of women in low-income countries have access to agricultural credit. This stands in sharp contrast to women's substantial participation in agricultural labor and illustrates one of the financial barriers confronting women farmers.
Land ownership varies widely: In South Asia, 12% of women own land compared with 35% in Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa, 30% of women have secure land tenure.
Women account for less than one-third of agricultural students globally.
Access to technology represents another potential gender divide. Worldmetrics reports that just one-quarter of women working in agriculture use digital tools for farming.
The productivity gap between women- and men-managed farms of equal size is 24%, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It attributes this gap to inequalities that include women's less secure land tenure and more limited access to credit, training, and decision-making.
Women agricultural wage workers earn 82 cents for every $1 earned by men. The pay gap persists alongside the farm productivity gap, according to FAO's The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems.
FAO estimates that closing gender gaps in farm productivity and agricultural wages could raise global gross domestic product by nearly $1 trillion, or about 1%.
Closing those same gender gaps could reduce the number of food-insecure people worldwide by 45 million.
FAO estimates that if half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions focused on women's empowerment, the incomes of an additional 58 million people could increase. Such programs could also improve the resilience of another 235 million people.
The numbers help explain why the International Year of the Woman Farmer is about more than recognition. FAO argues that improving women's access to land, finance, technology, education, and decision-making can increase agricultural productivity, strengthen resilience to climate change, reduce hunger, and help create more sustainable agrifood systems.
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