Focus on women and ICTs in Agriculture

In most developing countries due to rural-urban migration, rural communities are losing young people and agriculture is robbed of the needed workforce. The result has been that many smallholder farms have more women and girls remaining on the farms providing bulk of the labour force.

Advances in agricultural innovation are important to support rural livelihoods and are poised to support the role of women in our food systems. Furthermore, the digital revolution has changed the way we work and offers opportunities when implemented fairly.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in particular have the potential to contribute to women’s empowerment, provided that some conditions are met. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recently identified 7 success factors to empowering rural women through ICTs.

In the month of March, the International Women’s Day and the sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63 -2019) are key events that allows us on the reflection on ‘social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls”.

Next month (on the 25th of April 2019), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will further commemorate the International Girls in ICT Day. This edition of the e-Agriculture Newsletter brings together FAO’s efforts in promoting technologies, ICTs and women in agriculture by highlighting opinion pieces on the subject, projects involving women and publications related to women, girls and ICTs .