THE annual celebration of International Women’s Day saw humanitarian and development organisations turn their attention to women in leadership, and how we might achieve a gender-equal future in this Covid-19 world. Given that agriculture is the major occupation of women who work in Pakistan, we need to consider the state of leadership by women in this sector, and how a women-led transformation of the food system might help development.

From the multidimensional concept of food security promoted in the 2010s, we have moved in the 2020s to focusing on the whole system in which food is produced, stored, transported, marketed, purchased and consumed, and the effects of this on our environment and society. This allows a more nuanced consideration of the role of women when it comes to food. Pre-existing obligations to implement women’s right to adequate food under international agreements have been recently highlighted as an area for urgent change. This year the UN secretary general is running a Global Food Systems Summit, designed to garner views and find solutions from every type of stakeholder, including women.

In Pakistan, 68 per cent of the female labour force participation is in agriculture. Women are involved in seed sowing, weeding and harvesting, managing livestock, dairy and egg production, kitchen gardening, food preservation, making dung cakes and other tasks. Despite their contribution, however, most of them work unpaid, while 19pc are receiving monetary compensation, but almost all of this is informal work. The burden of unpaid agricultural work is often seen as an innate responsibility of women, or as a necessary contribution to family livelihood efforts, or as being adequately recompensed by in-kind benefits such as wheat, or even as repayment of debt. But this only means that women’s contributions to the food system remain unrecognised and unacknowledged.

Women in agriculture deserve greater recognition.

Women in Pakistan are culturally held responsible for preparing cooked food in the home, and for feeding young children an appropriate and adequate diet by whatever means they can. However, women are often not very involved in the purchase of food ingredients, the sale of primary produce, or the sale and purchase of land, livestock and other assets related to food production. They have limited mobility. Key decision points are thus missing the contribution of women’s knowledge and understanding, whether it is about the growth and development of children, the management of livestock, or good recipes for Pakistan’s famous fruit and vegetables. Women, in turn, are missing the benefits of being involved in these decisions.

Leadership involves decision-making. This usually requires not only experience and control of assets like money, livestock and land, but access to data, technology and innovations, and education and training to understand how these can be used. Only 2pc women are reported in Pakistan to own any land independently, while another 2pc own it jointly with men. Religious and legal rights of women to inheritance of land ownership and tenure are routinely ignored.

Similarly, the historical and continued exclusion of more girls than boys from education in Pakistan has an enormous spillover to unbalanced leadership, and the gender divide in literacy just keeps women in a powerless position from which they cannot easily contribute to significantly improving their and their families’ economic conditions. Lack of experience at leading becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in which women are not often offered leadership positions.

The last 12 months have shown that our food system lacks resilience. Pakistan has faced a desert locust invasion, a rain and flood emergency, and Covid-19. Soon, a new drought is predicted. Disruptions to the food system have roll-on effects down the track on livelihoods, food security, nutrition and the overall economy.

The changing climate is largely outside Pakistan’s control. Yet we can still do some important things. We can better address the needs of women working in agriculture and recognise them as farmers and food producers who should be getting bank accounts, loans, land access, extension services, subsidies, equipment and training to increase the quality and quantity of their production. We should recognise women in agriculture as deserving of social protection and insurance schemes, not just because they are women, but because they are livelihood earners and business entrepreneurs. And we should put women on decision-making committees, boards and commissions that are connected with agriculture.

Recognising the contributions of women as food producers and food makers, making better policies to meet their needs, and actively supporting their journey as leaders in the agriculture sector, can help break through some barriers in the food system and increase productivity. Better health and nutrition, and a better economy, are possible when we give equality to women.

The writer is first policy officer, FAO.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2021