What Is the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026?
The United Nations has declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF 2026). Led by the FAO, the year puts a spotlight on the women who grow, harvest, process, and trade our food, and who rarely get the credit for it. The goal is straightforward: raise awareness of what women farmers do, name the barriers they face, and push for real changes in policy and investment. If you want to understand why women in agriculture matter, this is the year to pay attention.
Who Are Women Farmers?
Women farmers are every woman working in agrifood systems, at any point in the chain. She might plant and weed a small plot. She might run a dairy, sort produce for market, or manage a family farm’s finances. Women make up a large share of the people who keep food on our plates, often while running a household at the same time.
Why Women Farmers Are Central to Food Security
Food security and women farmers are tied together more closely than most people realize. When women earn from their work, more of that money goes toward children’s food, health, and schooling. That shapes nutrition for a whole family. Women farmers also build economic resilience in rural areas, spreading income and steadying communities when harvests or prices swing. Support a woman farmer, and the benefit rarely stops with her.
The Challenges Women Farmers Face
Financial Inclusion for Women Farmers
Money is often the first wall. Research from IFPRI shows that women farmers struggle to reach basic financial tools, held back by weak rural infrastructure, patchy connectivity, and long-standing gender inequality. Without a bank account, credit, or insurance, it is hard to manage risk or invest in a better crop.
Land Tenure and Access to Resources
Many women farm land they do not legally own. Without secure land rights, they cannot use it as collateral, plan for the long term, or make decisions about how it is used. Land tenure shapes almost everything else.
Limited Access to Services and Education
Training, extension advice, quality seed, and market information often reach men first. That gap in access to services and education keeps women a step behind, even when they do the same work.
Women Farmers and Natural Resource Management
Women do a lot of the quiet work that keeps land healthy, protecting biodiversity and managing water, soil, and forests. IFPRI’s Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index and its Living Labs approach show what changes when women help govern these resources. Their empowerment lifts household welfare, strengthens group action, and leads to more sustainable and fairer agrifood systems.
What the Year Aims to Achieve
IYWF 2026 wants to move past awareness into action. It calls for policies and investment that empower women in agrifood systems, and for better coordination between the many groups already working on this. The message is simple: fix the gaps in land, finance, and services, and women farmers will do the rest.
How to Learn More and Get Involved
Change close to home matters too. At Terna Trust, the same belief in empowering people through knowledge runs through our grassroots social work and our volunteering programmes and it shapes how we support skilled careers in fields like nursing and allied health sciences. Whether it is a woman farmer or a young nurse, giving people the right tools is what helps a community stand on its own.
If you want to go deeper on women in agriculture, these FAO and IFPRI resources are a good place to start:
- The status of women in agrifood systems
- Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at FAO
- Commit to Grow Equality
- Gender-Lex
Conclusion
Women farmers already do the work. What they often lack is a fair share of the land, money, and support that would let that work pay off. The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 is a chance to change that, one policy and one investment at a time. When women in agriculture get the same tools as everyone else, families eat better, rural economies hold steadier, and farming gets more sustainable. Terna Trust stands with the women who feed us, and this year is a good moment to stand a little louder.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a United Nations observance, led by the FAO, that runs through 2026 to recognize women farmers, highlight the barriers they face, and push for policies and investment that support them.
Women farmers are central to food security and nutrition. When women earn from farming, more income goes toward children's food, health, and education, which strengthens whole families and rural economies.
The main barriers are limited financial inclusion, insecure land tenure, and unequal access to training, services, and market information. These gaps hold women back even when they do the same work as men.
Learn about the issues through FAO and IFPRI resources, back organizations working on gender equality in farming, and support policies that give women secure land rights and access to credit and training.
IYWF 2026 is short for the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026.
Let's celebrate the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026. Empowered women, transforming agrifood systems.