How Businesses Can Help Build a Gender-Inclusive Agritech Ecosystem

Agriculture’s role in societies and the struggle of its workers often diverge. Around the world, farmers must grapple with global economic turmoil and threats from climate change, and women farmers bear even heavier burdens due to a lack of access and opportunities. With the integration of technologies into agriculture, the sector faces new challenges. How can businesses contribute to building a gender-inclusive agritech ecosystem?

Women and Technologies in Agriculture

Agriculture spins the economic wheel by fulfilling our need for food and developing other economic activities around it. Women contribute significantly to agricultural labor, reaching 98% in several Asia-Pacific countries.

Despite their role, women face challenges in opportunities and welfare. For instance, data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that women make up only 15% of landowners globally. The lack of autonomy over land leads to less power in land management, reduced productivity, and minimum wages.

As the global population grows, the sector must implement methods to address the increasing demand with minimal environmental and social impacts. Agricultural technology, abbreviated agritech, offers a potential pathway by integrating technologies into agricultural practices. Using satellite imagery to evaluate land conditions is one example of agritech innovation.

However, most women farmers lack access to tools and opportunities for upskilling, making it harder for them to adapt to new technologies and fully participate in agritech innovations. For instance, women only represent 25% of agritech users despite making up 50% of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bridging this gap requires developing a gender-inclusive approach to agritech.

Gender-Inclusive Agritech for Business

In an insight report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) defines gender-inclusive agritech as an approach to creating accessible and usable digital solutions for women. This approach offers training for digital tool usage and builds supportive environments where technologies can enhance women’s role in agricultural decision-making.

Governments and development organizations have mostly been the primary implementors of gender-inclusive agritech to push women’s empowerment. However, the WEF report finds that there is a business case for investing in gender-inclusive agritech.

New trends indicate that increasing services for women farmers can be more economically viable. More women are taking up roles in agriculture as cultivators, entrepreneurs, and laborers, highlighting the need for women-specific agritech solutions. Integrating gender inclusivity in agritech services can also boost businesses’ credibility and impact with investors and consumers.

Furthermore, interviews with stakeholders from the agritech ecosystem reveal a perception shift that recognizes women farmers as a high-potential market segment for agritech services. Women are deemed better borrowers than their male counterparts, valuable to agritech brands entering rural areas, and more responsive to training and capacity-building efforts from the private sector.

Collaboration Is Key

Businesses have a massive role and responsibility in advancing sustainable development, including gender inclusion. Together with governments and civil society, businesses must collaborate to adopt and scale up gender-inclusive approaches in agriculture for widespread impacts. The report recommends five aspects businesses should focus on to streamline gender-inclusive agritech solutions:

Product: Craft agritech solutions tailored to the unique needs and challenges of end-users, including women.
Price: Ensure that solutions are affordable and accessible to women farmers to catalyze adoption.
Promotion: Promote agritech solutions effectively through channels that women farmers conventionally associate with and celebrate successful adoption.
Place: Ensure that agritech solutions are accessible in the locations and channels that overcome mobility barriers.
People: Engage and empower the number of women in frontline roles to effectively engage and support women farmers while also building their capacities.

Read the full report here.

Kresentia Madina

Reporter at Green Network Asia | Website | + posts

Madina is the Assistant Manager of Stakeholder Engagement at Green Network Asia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Universitas Indonesia. As part of the GNA In-House Team, she supports the organization's multi-stakeholder engagement across international organizations, governments, businesses, civil society, and grassroots communities through digital publications, events, capacity building, and research.