The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Women produce 60-80 percent of the world’s food, and women are inherently better stewards of the environment than men. Or are they? Although frequently repeated, many such “truths” about women in agriculture are increasingly being debunked.
The myth of the noble and responsible rural woman still permeates many development initiatives. Within this narrative, all rural women have unwittingly been appointed the caretakers of not only the household, but also farms and landscapes. This persistent discourse leaves women shouldering an unreasonable share of responsibility, and its misconceptions results in ineffective and, at times, counter-productive efforts to increase gender equity in agriculture.
The millions of women engaged in agriculture across the globe are a heterogeneous group with vastly different realities, opportunities and challenges. Today, their roles are changing as part of the constantly evolving social, environmental, cultural and economic contexts they live in. This complexity makes it challenging to design and implement interventions to improve gender equity in agriculture.
Yet, doing just so—increasing equity—is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable intensification of agriculture, concludes a recent synthesis of three years of gender research carried out by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).
Read more
Related News
Nairobi, 26 January 2023 – Climate change is making it harder to grow enough nutritious food, but a unique programme is training African scientists in harnessing a cutting-edge…
Peat Education, why is it Important? The peat ecosystem in the Kubu Raya Regency is a natural resource that plays an important role in people's livelihoods. Unfortunately, peat ecosystems are…