The UN’s Food and Agriculture (FAO), says gender inequalities in food and agriculture are costing the world over one trillion dollars, noting that leveling the playing field for women working in the sectors can bring growth and help feed millions.
Over one third of the world’s working women are employed in agrifood systems, which include the production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as related activities from food storage, transportation and processing to distribution.
But in a new report published on Thursday, FAO says that gender inequalities such as less access for women to knowledge and resources, and a higher unpaid care burden, account for a 24 per cent gap in productivity between women and men farmers on farms of equal size.
Women employees in the agricultural sector are also paid nearly 20 per cent less than their male counterparts.
