The International Women’s Day (March 08) 2026 theme was: “Give to Gain”, which emphasises that supporting women through time, funding, and advocacy benefits everyone, fostering, innovation and stronger communities. This theme highlights reciprocity, urging individuals and organisations to invest in women to achieve a more connected and equal world.
The core message is that providing opportunities, mentorship, and resources to women results in greater growth and innovation for all. The campaign encourages taking tangible steps, such as increasing funding, sharing knowledge, and boosting visibility for women. Ensuring access to healthcare and addressing health inequities for women. Promoting a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
In addition, 2026 is the United Nations International Year of the Woman Farmer. Women farmers feed families, sustain livelihoods and strengthen our food systems. Their work supports communities and helps build a more sustainable, resilient future for all.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), women play essential roles across agrifood systems, producing, processing and trading food that sustains families, communities and economies. Yet their contributions often go unrecognised, and persistent inequalities limit their access to resources, opportunities and decision making.
The International Year of the Woman Farmer highlights these realities, calls for collective action and increased investments to close gender gaps, strengthen women’s livelihoods and promote their leadership across agrifood value chains. By advancing gender equality and creating conditions for women and girls engaged along agrifood value chains to thrive. The Year contributes to building fairer, more inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems for all.
Empowered women farmers are key agents of change in transforming agrifood systems. Closing gender gaps in access to land, finance, technology, education and decision-making enhances the well-being of women and their households. It boosts productivity, strengthens resilience to climate change and drives progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In Bangladesh, women farmers are the backbone of agricultural sector, comprising over 50%, some estimates say 58% of the workforce, yet they face severe inequality. Despite high participation, they face limited land ownership, only 13% of rural women own land, lower wages, approx. 400-500 BDT vs. 600 BDT for men, and unrecognised labour.
Research shows that women consistently receive lower wages than men for similar work, earning roughly 400-500 taka ($3-$4) compared to the 600 taka ($5) men receive daily. They have limited access to credit, technology, and training.
A significant portion of women’s work is deemed ‘unpaid family labour’ or subsistence farming, which is not properly captured in formal national statistics.
Despite legal provisions, women own less than 15% of agricultural land, which restricts their access to agricultural, financial, and extension services. Despite the hurdles, women are increasingly involved in homestead gardening, livestock rearing, and post-harvest activities.
The first and foremost responsibility of the state is to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food to all people at all times.
According to Article-15(a) of the Constitution of Bangladesh, it is the fundamental responsibility of the state to provide its citizens with food. As per the government’s Allocation of Business, it is the duty of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management to establish a dependable food security system for the nation.
Meeting the challenge of global hunger is at the heart of ‘food security’ – empowering the world’s farmers to sow and harvest plentiful crops, effectively care for livestock and catch fish, and then ensuring that the food produced reaches those who need it.
Chronic hunger threatens individuals, governments and societies. People who are starving or undernourished and cannot care for their families are left with feelings of hopelessness and despair, which can lead to tension, conflict, and even violence. We must keep in mind that “hungry people are angry people.”
Indeed, women are the main providers of meals, care and nutrition in the household, and they have a fundamental role in assuring improved nutritional status for all. It is also important to encourage proper distribution of food among all members in the household without any discrimination towards women and children. Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen said: “Poverty is caused by the lack of exchange entitlement in a market economy. Gainful employment is the principal challenge for the poor and the main focus for poverty alleviation.”
Thus, strategies for poverty alleviation broadly encompass the redistribution and creation of assets in favour of the women and give guarantee of employment at a reasonable wage and adoption of measures having direct benefit for them. This is possible when political leaders express their commitment to implement the programme without corruption or discrimination. Hunger and malnutrition are probably the biggest impediments to economic growth in the world today. The economic cost of hunger is immense. It is estimated that $20 to $30 billion a year are lost in the world due to hunger and malnutrition. It means that $500 billion to $10 trillion are lost in productivity and income. So, an investment in malnutrition and hunger today is an investment in tomorrow’s GDP. Female-headed households are affected disproportionately by the food price shocks.
Bangladesh is paying a heavy toll for climate change and is facing many big problems, such as increased temperature, salinity, frequent floods, cyclones. Poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition are the three silent killers and climate change has become a severe headache for the nation.
We must make efforts to emphasise the role of mass media to raise awareness about women farmers. We must keep in mind that women are the key to food security. So women must be fed optimal food so that their children become healthy and well nourished. Thus we can build healthy nations and save the lives of millions globally.
The writer is a journalist, columnist, and researcher
