The Importance of Women in Agriculture
Why is the use of technology in agriculture so crucial, particularly for women? And what must be done to improve women farmers' access to technology? Come read our blog to find out!
Women play a vital role in agriculture across the globe, whether by farming or handling and managing exports.
At least half of the world’s farmers are women, but the numbers start to change slightly when opportunities in training, capital, equipment, and land access show up. Even more vital to these women employed in agriculture is access to modern technologies that improve their ability to connect, learn, and trade online. It is thus critical that women engage with these technologies, understand them, and take advantage of all the available platforms to meet new clients and build new partnerships.
While the needs may vary from country to country, awareness about designing, building, and adapting agricultural technologies with the woman farmer in mind is certainly an approach that can be applied universally. In low-income countries, the first step involves improving access to mobile phones for women, as well as promoting the e-commerce apps and platforms that are already available. In places where women already have access, more should be done to involve women in the use, design, and management of these services.
Millions of women worldwide already use the Internet to market and sell their produce, but more needs to be done to get women on B2B platforms where they can take advantage of innovations in blockchain technology for sales, accounting, customer relations management, and smart contracts.
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Another crucial area where women would need access is the knowledge and training they need to add value to their produce. For this, more investment needs to be made in the training and use of the technology and machines required to transform produce into products that can be exported for higher revenue.
There’s a very good case for improving things on the ground, but with exciting new innovations in AgTech, there’s an even loftier incentive to look up to the clouds to solve everything from planting, harvesting, storage and selling. Women can utilize data and artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce labor in the farming process and increase output. Some of these AgTech startups are opening up access by offering fintech solutions and security online in areas where women may have had difficulty getting insurance for failed crops, investment to buy seed, low credit scores that harmed their ability to get loans or early payments to keep them afloat.
With all of the opportunities available, there has arguably never been a better time to be a woman in agriculture, but things can get better from here. More than anything, the role of women in agriculture should be defined not by how many of them till the soil, but by how they use technology to transform the way they farm and improve the overall agricultural experience.
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