International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026: Empowering Women to Drive Africa’s Rice Future

Farmers during field day in a rice field in Madagascar. (Credit: AfricaRice)

Across Africa, women are the backbone of agriculture and food systems — from planting and harvesting to processing and marketing. This is even perceptible in sub-Saharan Africa: for every 4 working women, 3 earn their living from agriculture and food, and nearly 1 in every 2 workers in agrifood systems is a woman. Yet, their contributions have too often gone unrecognized, and persistent structural barriers continue to limit their access to resources, technology, and decision-making opportunities. With these persistent challenges, the United Nations has declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF 2026) — a global call to action to support rural women and unlock their potential to transform agrifood systems, food security, and community resilience. 

Women comprise a significant share of the global agricultural workforce — about 40 percent of working women are employed in agrifood systems worldwide — but they frequently work under precarious and informal conditions with limited access to land, finance, technology, training, and services. Closing gender inequalities could significantly improve food security: equalizing agricultural productivity and wages between men and women could raise global GDP by USD 1 trillion and reduce food insecurity for 45 million people, according to FAO. 

Women in Rice Systems: Central Yet Undervalued 

In Africa’s rice sector, women play indispensable roles at every stage of the value chain. They perform essential tasks such as transplanting, weeding, harvesting, threshing, pounding, parboiling, processing, and trading — while also managing household nutrition and family wellbeing. Despite this central role, women often have less access than men to critical productive resources and services, including quality seed, fertilizers, credit, extension services, and market opportunity. 

“Women make up roughly half of Africa’s agricultural workforce and are key players in rice farming, yet they lack equal access to land, finance, inputs, and technology. Closing these gender gaps through equitable land rights, tailored finance, and gender-responsive policies could unlock productivity and help meet the continent’s rising rice demand.” explained Gaudiose Mujawamariya, Gender focal point at AfricaRice. 

Recognizing these realities, Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) has long integrated gender considerations into its research and development work. AfricaRice’s gender strategy ensures that innovations and technologies are designed and delivered with women’s needs, perspectives, and priorities in mind. For example, women farmers have been actively involved in Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) trials, providing feedback that helped shape the development of improved rice varieties such as NERICA, which are valued for traits important to women — like shorter maturity duration that provides food earlier in the season. 

AfricaRice also focuses on technologies that help reduce drudgery and improve efficiency, benefiting women who often bear the burden of labor-intensive post-harvest tasks. Innovations such as the Grain quality Enhancer (GEM) parboiling system, locally adapted small mechanical weeders, and improved fertiseeders have been widely adopted by male and female farmers alike, but they provide relief to women by saving time and labor while improving productivity and product quality.

Women learning how to use the GEM parboiling system during a practical session. (Credit: AfricaRice)

AfricaRice’s Continued Commitment 

As part of its commitment to gender equality and inclusive agricultural development, AfricaRice is intensifying efforts to integrate gender-responsive approaches across all programs — from rice breeding and seed systems to policy research and value chain development. By ensuring that women are engaged as innovators, practitioners, leaders, and decision-makers, AfricaRice aims to help build more equitable and resilient rice systems across Africa. 

AfricaRice places women farmers at the heart of rice innovation by engaging them as co-designers of research priorities and technology evaluation, promoting labor-saving tools that reduce drudgery, and expanding their access to training, markets, and extension services. Working closely with national and regional partners, AfricaRice also integrates gender perspectives into policy dialogue and program design. These efforts reflect AfricaRice’s belief that empowering women farmers is essential to advancing continental rice self-sufficiency, food security, and sustainable development. 

As the IYWF 2026 unfolds, AfricaRice will continue to champion gender equality in agrifood systems, ensuring that the voices, innovations, and leadership of women farmers are not only heard but acted upon across Africa.