To mark the International Year of the Women Farmer, we are highlighting the vital role women play in our food production. Your donation to the women’s fund helps to make resources for women farmers accessible and break down key barriers.
80% work, 15% land
Women feed the world: they are responsible for up to 80% of our food supply. Women cultivate fields, produce and preserve seeds, protect ecosystems and sell the harvest at the market. They often do all this alongside domestic duties and raising children – yet they are frequently denied access to resources, knowledge and a political voice. One striking example: only 15 per cent of all people worldwide who hold land rights are women.
Gender equality thanks to agroecology
SWISSAID works on the ground to eliminate this systemic inequality in agriculture. In our projects, we focus on agroecology, an approach that aims to achieve a socially and environmentally sustainable agriculture.
Production costs are low with agroecology. It also protects the environment, delivers stable yields in the long term and is relatively simple to learn – making it an accessible, low-risk and affordable way for women farmers to secure food for their families, achieve economic autonomy and participate in their communities.
Together with local partner organisations, we strengthen women farmers’ knowledge of sustainable agriculture, organise courses on agroecological methods or bookkeeping skills, and support women’s networks so they can connect with each other.
Find out more below through the women we work with by clicking on the relevant country.
Empowering women, eradicating hunger
The latest UN report on food crises shows: hunger is on the rise and affecting an increasing number of countries. There is no way around it if we are to reverse this negative trend: women farmers must be given fair access to resources, land and knowledge. If this were to happen, women could lift a further 150 million people out of hunger.
