Women Farmers: Enhancing Rights, Recognition and Productivity

The book derives from a meeting of more than 120 scientists, politicians and practitioners from 34 countries - people of very diverse backgrounds - who came together to discuss the extent of gains made by rural women after 25 years of increasingly gendered development. It was a time to ask whether agricultural interventions (projects or policies) initiated, funded and implemented in the name of women’s development had made any difference? The general conclusion was: yes. But, neither as much as needed, nor as sustainable as hoped for. Research reported in this volume shows that women do not automatically gain from development interventions even if they were explicitly singled out for attention, and gains for women in one area of their life can entail losses in another.