There is a wide gender gap in the agriculture sector where women are in disadvantaged positions with regard to access and control of resources and services, participation and decision making domains of agriculture. This was highlighted by a report of assessment of the implementation, accountability of gender and youth mainstreaming strategy in agriculture 2019-2025 presented by Rwanda Development Organization (RDO) in partnership with UN Women and Association of Female Journalists (ARFEM). Statistics show that 63 per cent of working females are in agriculture related occupations, as compared to 43 percent among males. However, according to the report, 65.7 percent of these women are exclusively in subsistence agriculture where these women grow crops for their households or are employed rather than practicing market-oriented agriculture. According to the assessment, the gaps are caused by lack of policy dialogue, limited or lack of access to market, inadequate access to finance, and lack of technology, among others. Inaccessibility to quality inputs like the access and use of fertilizers was also highlighted where the report shows that only 28 per cent of females are spending on buying fertilizers compared to 41 percent among male, only 10 per cent of female heads are spending on organic fertilizers as compared to 14 per cent of male. Aurore Agasaro, a farmer from Nyagatare District, said that most women in agriculture do not know how to transition from subsistence to market-oriented agriculture, attributing the issue to limited knowledge about the opportunities in the sector. “We see very many women farmers yet it is hard to find them in the levels of supply chain or market or exports, and doing agriculture that is generating high income for them.” “There is a need for continued sensitisation of women farmers and the best channel of communication should be decentralizing dialogues right to the community level and using the experiences of other women who are doing well in the agriculture sectors so they can be set as role models” she said. Addressing the issue Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, said that the government is putting in place different strategies to address these issues. “We are putting in place strategies like easy access to finance for instance we are especially helping women in vegetables and fruits agriculture and we hope that by the end of 2025 when reviewing the strategy we will be able to have made some significant efforts,” he said. Ngabitsinze added that also by working with the local community in sensitization about these issues is key to solving the inequality. Fatou Lo, UN Women Representative in Rwanda said that the policies in place are effective however the methodology being used to carry out these strategies are the ones that are failing the women farmers. “The findings are not new and it is unfortunate because we are seeing that the good policies are not being implemented due to different issues, however this is a shared responsibility between partners and by working together we can solve these issues,” she added. The report recommends strengthening the capacity of local Governments to undertake public discussion in order to address the issues, introducing innovative approaches such as gender score cards in agriculture to ensure greater accountability and organizing periodic policy dialogue sessions to share experience and lessons about the challenges, among others. Egidie Bibio Ingabire, Chairperson of ARFEM said that as the media it is their responsibility to continue advocating for these women in agriculture who are still behind, so their issues can be addressed and see that change is happening.
