“Women hold the future of agriculture.”
Depending on where this is said, it can attract applause or scepticism. Beyond rhetoric, the more relevant question is whether our agri-food systems allow this statement to become reality.
Across Nigeria and many African countries, agriculture is woven into women’s daily lives. We all know a mother, aunt, cousin, or sister engaged in some form of agricultural activity from backyard poultry and vegetable gardening to small-scale agro-processing, aggregation, or informal trading. Women are present across value chains, from production to retail. Their labour sustains households and, collectively, underpins national food systems.
Yet when conversations about women’s inclusion arise, the question “What more do women need?” remains.
Data from the World Bank challenge common assumptions. Contrary to the claim that women provide 60–80% of agricultural labour in Africa, surveys show the average is closer to 40%, and in Nigeria, it is approximately 37%. The point is not to diminish women’s role, but to sharpen the conversation: women’s contribution is significant, yet their productivity and influence are constrained by structural barriers rather than capacity gaps.
Women do not need persuasion about agriculture’s productivity. They generate its economic value. The deeper issue is not whether women are present in agriculture, but whether their voices shape the rules governing systems and markets.
Participation Without Power
Women’s labour contributions are substantial, but their representation in formal decision-making remains limited. They are often underrepresented in cooperative leadership, producer associations, investment committees, and policy dialogues. This disconnect between lived realities and institutional responses undermines effectiveness.
When women farmers face disease outbreaks, input quality challenges, volatile markets, or constrained access to finance, these issues are often discussed about them rather than with them. Interventions can miss critical design insights: timing of extension services, affordability of inputs, repayment structures aligned with cash flow cycles, and training formats that accommodate unpaid care responsibilities.
Studies in the Journal of Applied Agricultural Economics and Policy Analysis show that cooperative membership significantly improves women’s empowerment outcomes in Nigeria, increasing access to networks, information, and collective bargaining power.
Inclusion is not simply fairness; it is a systems efficiency issue. When a significant segment of the production base lacks decision-making power, resource allocation becomes suboptimal. This is an economic imperative.
The Non-Linear Path
For many women, enterprise growth does not follow a linear trajectory. Gender norms shape opportunities in visible and subtle ways. A woman may pause or slow professional advancement during motherhood while absorbing disproportionate unpaid care responsibilities, while a man may intensify efforts to increase earning capacity when embracing fatherhood.
Economic pressures can push women into smallholder farming or micro-enterprises as supplementary income streams. What initially appears flexible can reveal structural constraints: limited capital, restricted market linkages, and minimal mentorship support.
For some women, agriculture is a strategic choice. For others, it is the most accessible economic option. In both cases, ambition exists. What differs is the structural support available to convert effort into scale.
Evidence from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture shows that addressing constraints through improved inputs, extension services, and market access leads to measurable increases in productivity and income among Nigerian female farmers. Without mentorship, tailored finance, market exposure, and leadership pathways, many women remain concentrated in low-margin segments of value chains.
Give to Gain: A Systems Lens
The theme “Give to Gain” challenges us to rethink reciprocity in development ecosystems. If women are to gain income, enterprise resilience, and leadership influence, institutions must give more than symbolic recognition or quotas.
Giving means investing in practical, market-oriented knowledge systems responsive to women’s constraints. It means designing mentorship structures that move beyond one-off training toward sustained accompaniment. It requires financial products aligned with real production cycles. It demands intentional pathways for women to transition from participants to decision-makers within cooperatives, agribusinesses, and policy platforms.
It also means building structures with women, not merely for them.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that if women had equal access to productive resources, yields on their farms could increase by 20–30%, raising overall agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4%.
When we give women access to technical knowledge, they gain productivity. When we give them platforms to lead, systems gain accountability. When we give them mentorship, markets gain stronger enterprises. Returns ripple across households, communities, and value chains.
From Beneficiaries to Leaders
Framing women primarily as beneficiaries, while well-intentioned, reinforces passivity. Women in agri-food systems are economic actors operating within constraints. The shift required is from assistance to agency. Leadership is reflected in who negotiates prices, who influences input standards, who shapes cooperative governance, and who participates in policy formulation.
Where women gain structured support and leadership opportunities, effects extend beyond income. Household nutrition improves, reinvestment in education increases, and community resilience strengthens. These are predictable multipliers.
The Future of Agriculture
So, do women hold the future of agriculture?
A more precise framing: agriculture’s future depends on whether women are enabled to lead within it. Celebrating participation is not enough. We must interrogate programme design, financing models, institutional frameworks, and governance structures. Are they neutral, or do they exclude? Are women’s voices amplified where decisions are made, or only where labour is required?
The question is no longer whether women are capable of holding the future of agriculture.
The question is whether we are prepared to enable them to do so.
So now I ask you: Are you truly enabling women to hold the future of agriculture?
By Latifah Abdulkarim, Programme Lead at Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited