Women feed much of the world – producing as much as 80 per cent of food in developing countries. They make up well over half the agricultural workforce in Africa and about half in Asia. Yet their labour remains one of the most undervalued and underfunded assets in the global economy.
These women farmers, who sustain local food systems, tend to cultivate small plots of land that yield on average 24 per cent less than those farmed by men. This is not a reflection of skill or effort but of structural inequality. Women have far less access to land rights, credit, technology, extension services and markets. When they do receive equal resources, their farms perform just as well – and often more sustainably – than men’s.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), closing the productivity and wage gaps between women and men working in agrifood systems could add nearly $1 trillion (€870 billion) to global GDP and make 45 million more people food secure. Yet, as the climate crisis accelerates, women smallholder farmers are paying the price of global underinvestment.
A recent FAO study found that female-headed rural households in low- and middle-income countries lose about $53 billion (€46 billion) more each year than male-headed households due to heat stress and floods combined. That is not only a loss of livelihoods but of education, nutrition and opportunity. Rural women are absorbing the risks that the financial system has failed to price – or to mitigate.
READ MORE
As the world prepares for Cop30, it is time for a reckoning on how climate finance is deployed. The UN Environment Programme estimates that international public adaptation finance flows to developing countries increased to $28 billion in 2022. Yet only a tiny fraction of this reaches the small-scale food producers who are most exposed to climate shocks and who hold the key to food security for billions.
To change course, climate finance must become far more agile, inclusive and locally directed. We must move resources to where resilience is actually built: in communities, cooperatives and particularly women-led organisations.
A practical step would be for governments and development finance institutions to set ambitious targets for adaptation finance that flows directly to locally-led, women-centred structures, with results-based contracts that pay for measurable outcomes – higher yields, increased incomes, or reduced losses from droughts and floods.
Equally vital is ensuring women’s equal access to the basics of production — land, capital, training and technology. Research shows that equalising these inputs could raise household incomes by 20 to 30 per cent in developing countries. Closing the agricultural inputs gap for women could also reduce carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to those produced by the entire global aviation industry.
The social return on investment is even greater. Women reinvest up to 90 per cent of their income into their families and communities, compared with about 35 per cent for men. Every dollar invested in a woman farmer therefore multiplies through improved nutrition, education and community wellbeing.
These gains are not theoretical. Across India’s Maharashtra state, women’s self-help groups supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have turned fallow land into bamboo plantations. This initiative secured land ownership for women, strengthened their voice in family decision-making and created sustainable incomes. Similar results have been seen in Niger, Rwanda and Guatemala, where women-led adaptation initiatives deliver higher economic and environmental returns than top-down projects.
Despite this clear evidence, just 0.8 per cent of global climate finance currently reaches small-scale food producers, and even less than that directly supports women’s organisations. This imbalance is not just inequitable – it is inefficient. Investing in women’s farming is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost ways to strengthen resilience, enhance food security and foster stability in fragile regions.
This is also a matter of justice. Climate change is deepening existing inequalities, threatening to reverse decades of progress on poverty reduction and women’s empowerment. If the world is serious about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and meeting the Paris Agreement’s adaptation targets, climate finance must correct this bias.
Far from being marginal actors, women smallholders are the foundation of rural economies. They are innovators, early adopters of sustainable practices and stewards of biodiversity. Supporting their leadership is not charity – it is the smartest way to secure global food systems for the future and build more stable, prosperous societies.
The world already depends on women to feed it. Investing in them is the most effective way to to secure global food systems for the future and build more stable, prosperous societies. It is time we directed our financing to recognise this fact.
Mary Robinson is co-founder of Project Dandelion and former president of Ireland. Álvaro Lario is president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
