Agritech for Women Farmers 2024

Barriers to gender- inclusive agricultural technologies1 Women face demand-side barriers, and technology providers face supply-side challenges, both limiting technology access and gender inclusivity in agritech. The journey towards achieving gender inclusivity within the agriculture technologies sector is fraught with challenges. Women face a myriad of obstacles when it comes to accessing and using technology despite their contribution to agricultural production. These barriers not only limit their participation but also curtail the sector’s overall growth and potential. Broadly, these barriers can be categorized into 1) demand-side challenges – challenges that women farmers face because of existing sociocultural and financial dynamics – and 2) supply-side challenges – challenges that technology solution providers face while serving women farmers (Figure 2). Demand-side challenges for women farmers in accessing technology and supply-side challenges for providers in serving themFIGURE 2 Sociocultural barriers Women face significant sociocultural barriers that pr event them fr om using technology . These include per ceptions about gender r oles and biases, restrictions on mobility , and safety and security concer ns. Limited access to resources Limited access to r esour ces r estrict women fr om adopting technologies. Some of the critical r esour ces that inhibit agritech adoption include land, finance, mobile phones and formal identification. Literacy barriers Literacy challenges r estrict the awar eness and confidence of women when it comes to using agritech. Besides education, digital literacy is also low among women farmers. Access to gender -disaggr egated data Demand-side challenges Supply-side challenges High initial cost of acquisition Underr epresentation in leadership and field r olesThe design of agritech for women requir es a better understanding of the challenges and needs of women farmers. However , historic gender - disaggr egated data is not easily available, while new data is expensive Serving women farmers may have an initial upfr ont customer acquisition cost that may be higher than for acquiring their male counterparts. This is because of sociocultural barriers and other mobility-r elated r estrictions that women may face. Women ar e often underr epresented in both leadership r oles in technology companies and field r oles for delivering agritech. While the former limits intentional design for women, the latter limits targeted delivery of agritech. Source: World Economic Forum Agritech for Women Farmers: A Business Case for Inclusive Growth 9