16 Days of Agroecology for International Rural Women’s Day

To achieve food sovereignty, women smallholder farmers must unite and transition toward an agroecological economy. Women in agriculture remain marginalized. Men are still widely regarded as the owners of land and agriculture, while women’s intellectual and physical labor goes unrecognized.

Both women and men are forced to migrate from their hometowns to urban areas in search of work, leaving behind their natural resources and agricultural livelihoods. Yet rural women landless farmers, Adivasi women, cattle and sheep herder sare the true stewards of our food systems.

Environmental pollution, genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides, climate change, and hybrid seed dependency are destroying our staple crops: rice and small millets.

Let us unite women to reclaim our food systems. Let us recognize and celebrate their role.

Let us observe International Rural Women’s Day with action and solidarity.