Women are central to agrifood systems as farmers, workers and consumers. Yet, despite their many contributions, they continue to face structural barriers that limit their productivity, earnings and opportunities. 

The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 was declared by the UN to highlight the essential roles women play across agrifood systems, from production to trade, while often going unrecognised. Data plays a crucial part in this recognition. Women worldwide account for 42 percent of the agrifood systems workforce and in many countries, agrifood systems are a more important source of livelihood for women than for men. 

To ensure that existing gender inequalities become more visible and measurable, the Statistics Division (ESS) and the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division (ESP) have worked together to implement the FAOSTAT gender in agrifood systems domain - a new global platform in FAOSTAT that brings together harmonised, sex-disaggregated data across key dimensions of agrifood systems, including employment, access to resources, education and food security. 

As well as contributing to agricultural and off-farm activities, women perform critical unpaid care and domestic work that helps sustain agrifood systems and rural communities.  

However, they face persistent gaps in access to land, services, capital, inputs, education and technology. This new domain seeks to monitor these long-standing gaps through gender statistics. 

Veronica Boero (ESS) explained, "Until now, gender-related data have often been fragmented across sources and limited in scope, particularly in areas such as access to assets, social norms and food security. By consolidating and harmonising these indicators, the domain strengthens the evidence base needed for monitoring gender equality and designing effective policies." 

Although data availability has improved in some areas, the coverage of this data remains uneven. Important dimensions such as women's empowerment, time use and access to productive assets continue to only be available in a limited number of countries, which restricts the scope for comprehensive gender analysis. 

One of the key challenges identified in FAO's recent brief on gender indicators is that these persistent gaps limit the ability to design evidence-based policies tailored to women’s specific needs. 

This new domain is a way to provide data in a structured, multidimensional framework that responds to the need for a comprehensive approach to gender statistics. 

It covers five key areas: economic participation and incomes, assets and services, education, agency and social institutions, and food security and nutrition. 

José Rosero Moncayo, Director of ESS and Chief Statistician, said, "Together, these dimensions reflect the complexity of inequalities between women and men and the interaction of different constraints. In this way, it transforms complex data into a useful tool for analysis, monitoring and decision-making." 

Overall, better sex-disaggregated data enables more informed and inclusive policymaking.  

Erdgin Mane (ESP) explained, "It helps identify structural barriers that women face, assess the effectiveness of interventions, and prioritise resources where they are most needed", he continued, "Improving gender data leads to better development outcomes by supporting policies that enhance productivity, strengthen food security, and promote more equitable and resilient agrifood systems." 

This initiative is a key contribution to the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 and FAO’s commitments under the Commit to Grow Equality initiative. Benjamin Davis, Director of ESP, explained, "By providing a stronger evidence base on inequalities between women and men, the FAOSTAT gender domain supports countries in designing and monitoring gender-responsive policies and in tracking progress towards SDGs 2 and 5." 

For example, this data allows governments to identify gaps in women’s access to resources or employment quality and target their interventions accordingly.  

Of course, policy outcomes will depend on broader enabling conditions and the collaboration between many actors. Veronica further explained that collaboration is essential. "National statistical offices provide  primary data and play a key role in ensuring quality and relevance. Partnerships with research institutions and international organizations help harmonise methodologies, fill data gaps and strengthen analytical capacity." 

Together, each of these collaborations helps ensure that the data is both robust and comparable and can be widely used and translated into policy impact. 

There is hope that this initiative will improve the availability and use of gender data in agrifood systems.  

"Over time, it should help countries better monitor inequalities, design more effective interventions, and integrate sex disaggregated information more systematically into agricultural and rural development strategies", said José. 

"Ultimately, the goal is to contribute to more inclusive, productive, and resilient agrifood systems that work for both women and men ", Benjamin added.