Celebrating Rural Women’s Day: Stories of empowerment, entrepreneurship and resilience from the fields
This week, we celebrated Rural Women’s Day (15 October) – an important opportunity to mark women’s valuable contribution to agriculture. The UN states that women make up, on average, over 40% of the agricultural labour force. In some countries in Africa and Asia, this figure is much higher. In Ghana, for example, women produce 70%…
Empowering the next generation of scientists: CABI in Pakistan provides internships for agricultural students
CABI’s centre in Pakistan is helping to foster the next generation of scientists interested in securing greater food security in the world by offering internships for agricultural students at its biological control laboratories in Rawalpindi. Thirty-one entomology and plant pathology students from Pakistan’s top agricultural universities are taking part in ongoing research projects, fieldwork, data…
Overcoming social norms to boost women farmers’ access to agricultural advisory services
On International Women’s Day, we must celebrate women’s progress in agriculture. Women are embracing agricultural services and training. They are empowering themselves and becoming skilled farmers in their own right, writes Sandra Phelps, Gender Manager, CABI.
The climate crisis disproportionately affects women and girls. We need to act on climate change and gender!
The climate crisis does not affect everyone equally. Women and girls are more likely to experience the greatest impacts of climate change. According to the UN Environment Programme, for example, 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. And in an article from 2022, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of…
Women are not just farmers’ wives: overcoming stereotypes of women in agriculture
For International Women’s Day, CABI’s Gender Coordinator, Bethel Terefe, looks at why women are often not considered farmers in their own right, despite the significant contribution they make to agriculture. I was recently listening to a farmer focus group in Ghana. It became clear that few attendees saw the women as farmers, not even the…
“Through the gender lens, invisible women farmers can finally be seen”
In support of SDG5: Gender Equality, CABI ensures that a gender lens is applied in all of our work. CABI’s goal is to create opportunities for women in agriculture by investing in inclusive economic growth. Our work encourages more food production and trade, while considering how women can share the benefits of growth. This year…
Boosting socio-economic gender equity for smallholder potato farmers in Pakistan
Conventional farming systems in Pakistan deprive smallholder potato farmers (both men and women) of the fair and equitable social and financial gains they deserve as a result of social, marketing, and technical challenges.
CABI podcast
Welcome to the CABI podcast, a series dedicated to agricultural science and how it can improve lives and address the challenges faced by people around the world.
Social norms: why women farmers might not be getting ahead despite development support
On International Women’s Day, Bethel Terefe, Gender Coordinator, CABI takes a look at gender-related social norms and how they affect women’s futures in agriculture. Women play an important role in agriculture. Although they rarely control decision-making on family farms, women constitute 43% of the global agricultural workforce and are an undeniable asset to the sector.
How does gender and age affect smallholder access to agricultural advice?
Male or female, young or old – how do demographics affect the ability of smallholder farmers to access agricultural advice? This was the subject of a working paper published about the CABI-led project, Gender and the Legume Alliance (GALA).