Gender equity and food system transformation

Photo: Prasad

Women invest ten times more than men towards child health, education and nutrition. A rise in their empowerment is positively associated with agricultural productivity and household nutrition outcomes; Women's milk cooperative, Kalimpong, West Bengal

Abstract: Women’s contribution is immense throughout the rapidly transforming food systems—right from production to providing nutrition. Existing research suggests that inequity within the food systems operates through differentiated access to land, labour, capital, information and technology between men and women. As a way forward, several strategies such as providing access to land, extension services and group membership to reduce inequities within the food systems is suggested, with nuanced context-based research and gender-specific metrics in policy and programme designs.

The author is Assistant Professor, Centre of Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, vidyav@iima.ac.in. The article may be cited as Vemireddy V. 2021. Gender equity and food system transformation, Geography and You, 21(147): 26-31


Term Power

What is ...

It is the second Sustainable Development Goal, set by the United Nations in 2015 that aims to provide food and humanitarian relief to the most at-risk regions. A profound change in the global food and agriculture system is needed to achieve this. Increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable food production is crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger.

This can be defined as a process to increase the bioavailability and the concentration of nutrients in crops through both conventional plant breeding and recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering).

Brix measurement can be taken in a hand-held device that determines pure sucrose content in water. The Brix scale is used to measure sugar content in substances such as soft drinks, fruit juices and tomato concentrates.

Farmers who operate under structural constraints such as access to sub-optimal amounts of resources, technology and markets are collectively called smallholder farmers. Smallholdings are those farms with a low asset base and operating in less than 2 hectares of cropland.

The Codex Alimentarius, or "Food Code" is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Commission, also known as CAC, is the central part of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme and was established by FAO and WHO to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade.

CSA is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries--that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change.

A sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain—from input supply and production of crops, livestock, fish, and other agricultural commodities to transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling, and preparation of foods to consumption and disposal as also enabling policy environments and cultural norms around food.

This is an international nomenclature for the classification of products. It allows participating countries to classify traded goods on a common basis for customs purposes. At the international level, the Harmonized System (HS) for classifying goods is a six-digit code system.

It is about rebuilding agriculture through science and providing the know-how to governments about environmental governance and rule of law, transforming the finance and economic sectors and leveraging the power of digital technologies. ||