Ms Yael Hartman, the Global Director of Government Relations and Policy at One Acre Fund./HANDOUTEugine Asubila is a young farmer from Kakamega. She first started farming on less than half an acre, but dreamed of something more.
With access to farming inputs and training, Eugine not only grows enough to feed her family, but has also earned enough income to open her own salon.
For Eugine, farming isn’t just about providing for her family—it’s about gaining independence and building a life she can be proud of.
Yet, like many women farmers across Africa, Eugine has little say in the rules that shape Kenya's agricultural policies, even though those policies determine her access to land, what support reaches her farm, how much she earns, and how much her efforts can contribute to her family’s livelihood.
In many African countries, women make up a very large share—if not the majority—of smallholder farmers, contributing most of the labor and day-to-day farm operations.
However, they are underrepresented in leadership circles where decisions are made about input price, availability, and variety; access to technologies; and market opportunities.
Women are underrepresented in agricultural policy forums, boards, and government agencies, even though they are among the most affected by the decisions made.
At the community and household level, Farm Africa notes that women typically have little household decision-making power, and few opportunities for community leadership involvement.
What impact does this exclusion have on agricultural policies? Quite negative and wide-reaching, as it turns out.
One policy brief in Kenya analysing both national and Siaya County agricultural extension policies found that while policies acknowledge women’s role, they lack budget, inclusion in policy formulation, and clear objectives. As a result, women farmers in Kenya have limited access to extension, credit, land rights, and other support - largely because the policies that shape these systems were not designed with them in mind.
The case for women in policy leadership
Women leaders are uniquely positioned to champion policies that support smallholder farmers, many of whom are women.
Women leaders and professionals’ lived experience enables them to design and advocate for policies that tackle real barriers faced by women smallholder farmers, from securing land and access to financial credit to the daily challenge of balancing farming with caregiving for children, the sick and the elderly.
Policies designed without women’s voices often miss the mark. Women have to be sitting at the policy table if priorities are to shift meaningfully towards influencing positive outcomes such as better nutrition, child health, equitable access to land tenure, and climate resilience.
Excluding women from agriculture and climate policy formation also means everyday farmer concerns are sidelined, while attention shifts to large-scale projects that benefit the few.
Several reviews warn that without structural inclusion, gendered vulnerabilities persist. In contrast, a recent UNDP study across Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria showed that in multiple African climate adaptation programmes, when women are included in climate policy and adaptation planning, priorities shift to the most crucial interventions; water access, climate-resilient crops, food security, and early warning systems.
Land rights particularly exclude women and youths, and the long-term right to invest in one’s land can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity. Josephine Kamau, a 25-year-old smallholder farmer in Western Kenya, works her parents’ land but does not have the right to decide what is planted on it. “If I could, I would invest in fruit trees, agroforestry trees, and chickens; I would intercrop to maximise every hectare we have. But my father decides, and he wants to stick with subsistence farming. I know that I can make a business out of our land, but I have no power.”
Her experience reflects a broader reality across many African communities, where sons are more likely to inherit land and exercise control over it, a privilege that rants them the agency and opportunity to turn farming into a business.
Turning gender policy into practice
Across Africa, many governments and organizations have made
commitments to close the gender gap in agriculture, but the next step is
turning these policy promises into practice.
Yael Hartmann
Some organisations are already showing what this looks like in action. At One Acre Fund, where I work, we have learned that small shifts like offering flexible loan repayment schedules and training times that fit around caregiving can make a big difference in women’s participation. Our mobile tools empower women by giving them direct access to trainings, weather alerts, and insurance—removing the need to travel for these essential services.
Our insurance products help women de-risk new investments in their farms, enabling them to innovate and increase productivity. We’ve also witnessed the transformative impact of investing in women staff—many of whom are farmers themselves—by building a strong pipeline of women leaders who drive innovation and influence agricultural systems to dismantle barriers that hold women farmers back.
The next step is not just to bring women like Eugine and Josephine to the table - in the spaces where decisions about their livelihoods are made – but to reshape the table itself.
Eugine and Josephine's voice and perspective will be heard when the women attending policy forums aren't at the back of the room—but leading them. When women lead policy, communities eat better, farms grow stronger, and economies thrive.
But getting there requires collective action; the government must ensure the diligent implementation of land reform laws that enable women to own and control land, while continuing to invest in agricultural services that reach and support them.
Development partners should channel funding toward programmes that deliberately elevate women's voices and support women’s cooperatives and leadership programmes.
And the private sector should design products and services that reflect women’s realities. Together, we can create a food-secure future where women farmers have the power to shape their own destiny.
Ms Hartmann is the Global Director of Government Relations and Policy at One Acre Fund
