2.1 The Changing Face of
Farmers
The face of the farmer has been changing over the past 30
years to reflect rural demographics as well as evolving gender
and generational dynamics. Global population is expected to
increase to 9 billion by 2050, with youth aged 15-24 accounting
for about 14% of this total. Most will be born in developing
countries in Africa and Asia, where more than half of the
population still live in rural areas (FAO, CTA, IFAD, 2014).
Women in developing countries produce 80% of household
food (World Bank, 2014) and play a key role in household
food security (Meinzen-Dick et al., 2011). Women and youth
can thus be considered “the farmers of tomorrow,” as men
increasingly seek paid work away from the farm.
Within the context of 2SCALE, women and youth are
important economic actors at the grassroots level and in
value chains. They play a critical role in ABCs, because they
are heavily involved in growing food and cash crops and
caring for livestock or processing, thus contributing to family
business and to the sector. However, women and youth
remain largely invisible, including through major indicators:
e.g., as lead producers of the target crop, women account for
only 36% of the 516,000 smallholder farmers reached, and as
owner/managers of SMEs, they represent 28% of the 1,350
SMEs supported. But beyond these numbers, 2SCALE reaches
many more women: it also supports women who are hardly
acknowledged or rewarded for their work, such as unpaid
family labor or women farmers registered under the name of
their husband.
2.2 Gender-Specific Constraints
Faced by Women
Gender roles are the social and behavioral norms considered
socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in a specific
culture. They differ widely between cultures and over time
(WHO, 2009).
Age and gender are key factors defining a person’s
opportunities in life. Women often face challenges and
constraints that prevent them from fulfilling their roles in
ABCs and in value chains. As farmers, they tend to grow
on less acreage than men and have less access to resources
such as land, which usually belongs to their male relatives;
women also have less access to improved seeds and other
inputs, water, equipment, and labor, which they have to hire.
Women face barriers to joining farmer groups or cooperatives,
often because they lack information about the group, their
husbands do not want them to join, or member fees are too
high. As a result, they are excluded from services offered by
farmer organizations and, at the same time, from program-
supported capacity-building activities. This also applies
to financial products (input credit and trade credit) and
innovations (Terrillon, 2014).
Women are often excluded from market opportunities and
from benefits of commercial crop production, limiting
their ability to contribute to family income. They have less
education, less exposure to networks and information, and
lower self-confidence. Finally, they are predominantly
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