Sustainable mechanization can help reduce women smallholder farmers’ time and labor burden while increasing farm productivity and building resilience. However, the reality is that most agricultural innovations and technologies do not cater to women’s needs or preferences and are primarily designed for middle-income male farmers. While the adoption of mechanization in Bangladesh is rapidly increasing, women smallholder farmers face sociocultural constraints that can make operating machines difficult.

Persistent gender and social inequities undermine agri-food systems’ potential to contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. Systems thinking recognizes the interconnectedness and complexity of agri-food systems, emphasizing the need to consider various interrelated components and their dynamic interactions and highlights the need for integrated and transformative strategies that target multiple levels of the agri-food systems, from local to global.

Bangladesh’s water management shifted toward a decentralized system in the 1990s, with more power to community, including the water management groups (WMGs). Empirical evidence, however, suggests unequal access to water among women and marginalized populations. To zoom into this, we reviewed studies published after 2000 to synthesize evidence on access to water among women and marginalized people, their recognition and representation in institutions, and barriers to those, in Bangladesh.

IFPRI is participating in the 2023 annual CGIAR Gender Research Conference. This conference is co-hosted by the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and will take place in New Delhi, India, on October 9-12, 2023.

Smallholder farmers often lack documented land rights to serve as collateral for formal loans, and their livelihoods are inextricably linked to increasingly variable weather conditions. Resulting credit and risk constraints prevent them from making potentially profitable investments in their farms. We implemented a randomized evaluation of the impacts of KhetScore, an innovative credit scoring methodology that uses digital technologies to unlock credit and insurance for smallholders including landless farmers in Odisha, a state in eastern India.

Cashew is one of the cash crops mostly grown by smallholder farmers in Tanzania. It provides a major source of rural employment and income. Women provide 90% of labor in small-scale cashew processing and largely sell to the domestic market. However, women face constraints in increasing the productivity and profitability of small processing operations. This study assesses the effectiveness of an intervention that provided equipment and training to women’s cashew processing groups (WCPGs) in the Mtwara and Lindi regions, implemented by the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO).

Plenary presentation on “Fail to Scale: The persistent Problem of Technology Transfer and Possible Solutions Based on Key Agroecological Principles” – delivered on October 11th. This communication occurred during the 20th International Scientific Day of INRGREF in Tunis, Tunisia “Sustainable Ecosystem Management for Agroecological Transition and Food Security” (10-11 October 2023).

There has been considerable debate on how to develop gender-equitable agri-food innovations. Much of the debate is on whether gender-accommodative approaches (GAAs) and the more-recent gendertransformative approaches (GTAs) can work and how. Evidence on best pathways for gender-equitable agri-food innovations is limited. Livestock contributes to animalsource foods and to progress toward gender-equitable agri-food systems.

Nepal’s agriculture sector is facing various challenges including, amongst others, inadequate infrastructures, investment, labor shortage, climate-induced changes, and weak agriculture governance mechanisms. With the increase in migration trends among males, the ‘left behinds’ in the mid-hills of Nepal, are mostly women, middle-aged men, and the elderly. Due to the massive decline in the labor force, arable land is left fallow, ultimately affecting food security.

The urgency of India’s food system transformation is more pronounced than ever. Despite high economic growth and rising per capita incomes, approximately 194 million people in India remain undernourished and there is a high prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly among women and children under 5 years. Agri-food systems in India employ more than 50% of the workforce and engage nearly 82% of smallholder farmers. Therefore, ensuring inclusive growth and reduced poverty necessitates new and enhanced livelihood and employment opportunities in the agri-food sector.

Women’s leadership of smallholder households is a major component of women’s empowerment. Approaches to understanding women’s empowerment in Southeast Asian countries require nuance due to the lack of independently managed plots by male and female spouses. We present an approach that allows detailed insights into women’s leadership of activities and the extent to which male and female spouses disagree about leadership.

Smallholder women farmers in the eastern Indian state of Odisha play a crucial role in the management of goat and backyard poultry. However, they face significant challenges due to fodder shortages, which adversely affect their livelihoods. This abstract highlights the efforts of Heifer International in addressing the fodder scarcity through sustainable farming practices, with a particular focus on smallholder women farmers in Odisha.