Women and Smallholder Farming

Dr Carolyn Sachs is Professor Emerita of Rural Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. She serves on an expert panel to the United Nations Programme on Gender, Water and Sanitation and is involved in several extension and outreach programmes, including the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network (PAWAgN), in which she provides agricultural, entrepreneurship and leadership training. Emerita Professor Sachs has held previous positions as Visiting Professor at Charles Sturt University, Australia and Visiting Professor at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome, Italy. She has published widely on gender and agriculture, contributing books, chapters and journal articles, and in 2020, she co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture with Dr Paige Castellanos and other notable researchers. Dr Paige Castellanos is Senior Manager of Gender Justice and Inclusion at Oxfam America, USA. Before moving into her new role in 2022, Dr Castellanos was previously Director for the Gender Equity through Agriculture Research and Education (GEARE) Initiative at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. From 2016-2019, Dr Castellanos acted as Project Manager for the Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Honduras – a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve women’s participation in the horticulture value chain in Honduras. She has published widely on gender, empowerment and agriculture and co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture alongside Emerita Professor Carolyn Sachs and other notable researchers in 2020. Margaret Alston is Professor of Social Work at the University of Newcastle, Australia and Emerita Professor at Monash University, Australia. She has published widely in the field of gender, disaster, rurality and social work/ Brenda Boonabaana is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, agriculture and sustainable development; qualitative and participatory methods in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a PhD from the University of Otago in New Zealand. She cares about gender equality, women empowerment, food security and ecological integrity. Dr Janet Momsen is Emerita Professor of Geography at the University of California Davis, USA. Dr Momsen's research focusses on women and agricultural development and she has carried out field research in Brazil, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico, Bangladesh and Hungary. Dr Momsen is also co-editor of Routledge's Handbook of Gender and Development. Dina Najjar is an internationally experienced Gender Scientist and Anthropologist with proficiency in interdisciplinary research related to gender and sustainability, technologies, climate change adaptation, migration, and learning. Dr Angie Carter is a rural sociologist studying rural food justice and agricultural change in the US Midwest. She serves on the board of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network and is currently an associate professor of environmental/energy justice in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. Prisca Pfammatter is a PhD student at the Geographic Institute of the University of Bern and the Rural Sociology Chair of Wageningen University. Veronica is a gender expert with over 20+ years’ practice. She has in the past managed partner organisations under the women’s empowerment programme promoting gender equality at Hivos Foundation and has also worked with other International organisations like World Vision, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), UN volunteer and for UNFPA. She has working experience in sub-Saharan Africa. Veronica is a trainer of trainers in outcome harvesting and gender mainstreaming and is confident in participatory programme/project development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, human rights activism (prevention of sexual and gender based violence), action research and capacity building of partner agencies. She currently works as the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion technical advisor at World Relief for International Programs. Dr Jemima Nomunume Baada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. She completed her PhD in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, at Western University. Jemima's research examines the intersections of gender, climate change, migration, development and health among rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa. She is particularly interested in how the lives of rural dwellers and low-income communities, particularly women and smallholder farmers, are affected by the above-mentioned phenomena. Dr Krista Jacobs is a development economist with 15+ years of experience in research and program management in rural development issues that include agriculture, nutrition, food security and land tenure. She has developed and advised on research methods to assess women’s land rights; designed and conducted gender-responsive, mixed-methods research and evaluation on land tenure; advised agricultural projects on gender integration; and strengthened civil society organizations’ monitoring and evaluation capacity in East and Southern Africa. Margaret Alston is Professor of Social Work at the University of Newcastle, Australia and Emerita Professor at Monash University, Australia. She has published widely in the field of gender, disaster, rurality and social work/ Francis Denisse McLean-Rodríguez is a Professor and project coordinator for the Postgraduate Program at Zamorano University in Honduras. She has 15 years of experience working in sustainable agricultural development projects. Between 2022 and 2023 she coordinated the Women in Agriculture Network project as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) WomenProsper Challenge, building a network of over 500 members in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Part 1 Women smallholders and global agricultural production



1.The role of women smallholder farmers in achieving global food security: an overview: Nicoline de Haan, Gender Platform Director - CGIAR, Kenya;
2.The role of women smallholders in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Rhiannon Pyburn, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands;
3.The adoption of climate change mitigation strategies by women smallholder farmers: Margaret Alston, Monash University and University of Newcastle, Australia;

Part 2 Sociocultural factors and their effects on women smallholder farmers



4.Challenges facing women smallholder farmers: an overview: Sabin Bieri, University of Bern, Switzerland;
5.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Africa: Brenda Boonabaana, Makerere University, Uganda;
6.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Asia: Nozomi Kawarazuka, International Potato Centre (CIP), Vietnam;
7.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Latin America: Janet Momsen, University of California-Davis, USA;
8.The impact of sociocultural factors on women smallholder farmers: Middle East: Dina Najjar, ICARDA, Lebanon;

Part 3 Gender negotiations for women smallholders



9.The role and influence of care work responsibilities on agricultural production: Paige Castellanos, Oxfam, USA;
10.Confronting masculinities and patriarchal gender norms in agriculture: an overview: Angie Carter, Michigan Tech, USA;
11.Sexuality and women smallholders: Prisca Pfammatter, Kanton Basel-Stadt, Switzerland;
12.Negotiating the intersection of gender and race in agriculture: Hannah Whitley, Penn State University, USA;
13.Agriculture, power and gender-based violence: Veronica Kaitano, Independent Gender Consultant, Malawi;
14.The impact of migration on women smallholders: Jemima Baada, University of British Columbia, Canada;

Part 4 Facilitating access to resources and technology



15.Challenges facing women smallholder farmers: access to markets: Margaret Adesugba, Newcastle University, UK;
16.Improving access of women smallholders to technical training and extension programmes: Kathleen Colverson, University of Florida, USA;
17.Women smallholders and technology: facilitating access to improve farm productivity and profitability: Girma Gezimu Gebre, Ritsumeikan University, Japan;
18.Gender-transformative approaches/programmes: role and benefits for women smallholders: Rhiannon Pyburn, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands;
19.Financial support initiatives for women smallholders: access and availability: M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh;
20.Challenges facing women smallholder farmers: land tenure/land rights: Krista Jacobs, Landesa, USA;
21.Supporting women smallholder farmers: the role of the public and private sectors: Margaret Alston, Monash University and University of Newcastle, Australia;
22.Supporting women smallholder farmers: the establishment of women empowerment programmes: Janelle Larson, Penn State University, USA;

Part 5 Case studies



23.Women smallholder farmers and water resource management: Stephanie Buechler, Penn State University, USA;
24.Women smallholder farmers growing horticultural crops: Francis Denisse McClean, Zamorano University, Honduras;
25.Women smallholder farmers growing beverage crops: Alissa Bilfield, University of Washington, USA;
26.Women smallholder farmers growing roots, tubers and pulses: Linley Chiwona-Karltun, Swedish Unviersity of Life Sciences, Sweden;
27.Women smallholder farmers growing oil bearing crops: Hudu Zakaria, University of Development Studies, Ghana;
28.Women smallholder farmers and agroforestry systems: Marlène Elias, Bioversity International, Italy;
29.Supporting women smallholders involved in pig farming: Rosemirta Birungi, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya;
30.Supporting women smallholders involved in poultry farming: Brigitte Bagnol, International Rural Poultry Centre, Mozambique;