The global challenge
Women and young people have the potential to play an important role in the future of agriculture. Although women rarely control decision-making on family farms, they already constitute 43% of the global agricultural workforce. And while young people might look to the cities for careers, their ambition and drive makes them an undeniable asset to farming. The hurdles they face are real. Women often find it harder than men to access agricultural information to generate incomes from farming. Opportunities in rural areas are limited for young people as they often have little access to farming finance, information and land. So we must break down the barriers to employment, pursuing goals such as SDG 5: Gender Equality.
SDG 5: Gender Equality seeks to empower all women and girls. Women and young people have the potential to play an important role in the future of agriculture.
CABI envisions a world in which women, youth and marginalized communities are included in agriculture, and become key to: ensuring equity; increasing participation in agribusiness and reducing youth unemployment; promoting livelihood improvement; increasing production; and reducing poverty.
Our action
CABI’s goal is to create opportunities for women and young people in agriculture by investing in inclusive economic growth. Our work encourages more food production and trade, while considering how women and young people can share the benefits of growth.
Examples of our work
Our Skills for Farms project provided training courses in kitchen gardening for women and youth between 16 and 35 years old in Pakistan. After sharing our expertise in development communication and extension and value chains and trade, a third of women interviewed had translated kitchen gardening into incomes through the sale of vegetables they grew.
By working with a broad network of partners, we help to deliver tailored technical information using different channels of communication to women and young people about how they can overcome agricultural and environmental challenges.
