Women, Land and Agriculture

Overview

Women’s role in food production and agribusiness in developing countries is assuming greater importance due to economic crisis, armed conflict, natural disaster, and diseases including AIDS. Global market forces marginalise many small producers, and exert pressure on governments to accept new technologies such as genetically modified crops. Articles in this collection assert that women’s contribution to global agricultural production for food and for profit remains largely unacknowledged and undervalued, and that their ability to farm is constrained by lack of control over land, agricultural inputs, and credit. Until gender equality becomes a reality, global food security and sustainable development cannot be achieved. Writers include Ann Whitehead, Shoba Arun, and Cecilia Sardenberg, Ana Alice Costa and Elizete Passos.