ActionAid has asked governments to focus more on women’s rights in the fight against hunger, in light of International Women’s Day on March 8th.

The organization released a statement saying that women’s access and control of resources plays a crucial role in fighting hunger worldwide, as the majority of the billion hungry people around the world are in fact women.

ActionAid says women are responsible for approximately 60 to 80 per cent of food production in developing countries.

However due to a lack of access to credit and equipment, women actually own less than 2 per cent of land in the world and rural women in Africa receive less than 10 per cent of the continent’s available credit.

Everjoice Win, head of women’s rights for ActionAid, says women’s status as farmers worldwide needs better recognition, and that women themselves should have access to more rights.

“Women toil in most of the world’s fields, from planting potatoes in South America to harvesting maize in Africa or sowing rice in the waterlogged farms of Asia,” she said. “Yet many do not own the land they work and cannot access extension services, subsidised credit or join co-operatives and farmers unions.”

Despite some progress after the United Nations 4th Conference on Women in 1995, ActionAid says women in many countries are still denied basic rights, such as the right to own, control or inherit land, largely due to the lack of political representation.

Win says women farmers are forced to fight governments and companies for access to land which is rapidly being slated for the production of biofuels and other corporate crops.

Additionally, she says eliminating discrimination is “essential” to ending the impoverishment of millions of women worldwide and contributing to sustainable development.

“As the world’s largest donor of development aid, the EU also has a duty to ensure that its money is available to those who need it most,” she said. “Women small holder farmers hold the key to ending hunger. They need our support.”

By Taylor Turner