Food


Chapter 1 GLOBAL GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK Chapter 4: Water


Energy


Women in agriculture and rural areas have one thing in common across regions: they have less access than men to productive resources and opportunities. The gender gap exists for many assets, inputs and services, including land, livestock, labour, education, extension and financial services, and technology. It imposes costs not only on women themselves, but on the agriculture sector, the broader economy and society as a whole. Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the agriculture sector


Chapter 2


and for society. If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%. This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4%, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17%.


State of Food and Agriculture. Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development (FAO 2011)


Gender aspects of agricultural production and food (in)security


Globally, food production systems are under stress and are largely unsustainable in their present form. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned that the current dominant model of food production cannot meet the food security challenges of the 21st century and that food production systems need to become more sustainable, inclusive and resilient (FAO 2015a; FAO, IFAD and WFP 2015; FAO 2015c). The negative environmental impacts of current agricultural practices include soil erosion and damaged soil structure; altered food web structure and function; contamination of the atmosphere, soil, groundwater and surface waters; deforestation to meet new needs for farmland; nitrogen and phosphorous losses to the ocean and inland water bodies, resulting in algal blooms and reduced fishery resources and biodiversity; greenhouse gas emissions; disrupted marine food webs; and unsustainable water use (UNEP 2012).


Gender inequality is one of the main reasons the “agricultural sector is underperforming in many countries” (FAO 2011). In a study of three Sub-Saharan African countries, “unconditional” and “conditional” values were calculated for the gender gap in agricultural productivity. The unconditional gender gap is the difference in the value of output per hectare between women and men farmers; the conditional gender


gap takes into account the plot areas farmed and agroclimatic conditions (UN Women, UNDP-UNEP PEI and World Bank 2015). (The conditional gender gap in these countries is even wider than the unconditional gender gap). Closing the gender gaps will result in increases in GDP, in crop productions, and poverty alleviation (Table 2.1.1).


In addition to increased productivity and income for both women and men, closing the gender gap in agriculture can generate a range of other social and economic benefits (FAO 2011). For example, women spend a larger share of their income on children’s nutrition, health and education than men (UN Women, UNDP-UNEP PEI and World Bank 2015; World Bank and ONE 2014).


Global climate change undermines efforts to produce high-quality, nutritious food. A recent modelling study predicts that it could have substantial future dietary health effects, and that these could exceed other climate-related health impacts (Springmann et al. 2016). At the same time, much of the food currently grown for human consumption is never eaten, with significant economic, social and environmental effects (WRI 2016; IMECHE 2013; FAO 2013; Tran-Thanh 2013). Sustainable Development Goal 12 (“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”) includes a specific food waste reduction target: “by 2030, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and


Table 2.1.1: Estimated increases in crop production, GDP, and number of people lifted out of poverty that could be obtained by closing the gender gap in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda


Country Malawi 30


Tanzania Uganda


Unconditional gender gap %


28 16 13


 In crop production (%)


7.3 2.1 2.8


 In total GDP (US$ million)


100 105 67


 In poverty (people) 238,000


80,000; + 80,000 better nourished 119,000


Source: UN Women, UNDP-UNEP PEI and World Bank (2015)


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