The world turns its attention to women farmers: 2026 will be their year, declares the UN

International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026

 

Agustín Codazzi, Cesar. December 12, 2025. On December 4, 2025, the official launch of the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF) 2026 took place at the Sheikh Zayed Centre, FAO headquarters in Rome. The Year was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly with the aim of highlighting the crucial roles played by women farmers around the world in agrifood systems, as well as their contributions to food security, household nutrition, and poverty eradication. FAO launches International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 to accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems.

According to FAO, women farmers “work in diverse roles throughout agrifood systems and come from all backgrounds: young and older women, Indigenous women, women in local communities, women with disabilities, and refugee and displaced women. They are small producers, peasants, agricultural laborers, fishers and fish workers, beekeepers, pastoralists, processors, traders, women in agricultural sciences, rural entrepreneurs, holders of traditional knowledge, and more, whether in formal or informal jobs, with or without land ownership.” Therefore, with the proclamation of IYWF 2026, the intention is not only to highlight their importance in this activity, but also to bring attention to the persistent gaps linked to the limited participation of rural women in technical training, agricultural extension services, and the adoption of new technologies—thus inhibiting increases in productivity and income from women’s work in this sector.

For these reasons, at AGROSAVIA we applaud and join the motives behind this global declaration, since in previous years and within different work teams we have been incorporating a gender perspective into activities related to corporate endeavors, such as the implementation of the 2025 goals-and-results framework research project, participatory validation of productive reconversion practices with an agroecological approach in agrifood systems in the municipality of San Juan del Cesar, La Guajira, led by Researcher Clara Rúa from the Motilonia Research Center. In this project, participatory research was conducted with rural women with the objective of “Analyzing women’s participation in agrifood systems and the contribution of these systems to their economic autonomy.” The project facilitated improved access for the women of the ACAGUATERRATO association to technology transfer and knowledge management in topics such as agroecology, empowerment, and natural resource management. It also raised awareness on gender-based violence and helped strengthen women’s bargaining power through the implementation of two farmers’ markets that demonstrated opportunities for women to directly generate income through the sale of products from their agrifood systems, processed foods, and handicrafts—showing how this strategy contributes to their economic autonomy.

Researcher Rúa notes that some preliminary results of the study highlight the need to:

Implement literacy programs for adult women and men in rural areas to enable documentation and record-keeping of production-related costs and income.

Examine care roles and responsibilities and the potential for equitable distribution of tasks between rural men and women.

Train and support entrepreneurial, empowerment, and marketing processes for primary and processed products led by rural women.

Encourage and support farmers’ markets through institutional backing.

Develop technological innovations for sustainable agricultural and livestock production within the context of Family, Peasant, Ethnic, and Community Agriculture (FPECA).

It is important to recall that the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026) was also inaugurated for 2026, where women pastoralists are part of the initiative. At AGROSAVIA, we have joined the regional working group through Pastoraméricas, contributing by highlighting the role of women—specifically in Wayuu Indigenous communities—in livestock and small ruminant herding activities in La Guajira.