Attention to reducing gender disparities in agriculture has reemerged as a critical component of agricultural programs in recent years in response to the world food price crisis of 2007-2008. Those events highlighted how the persistence of gender disparities in access to productive assets place women agriculturalists in difficult and precarious positions. Research, including new studies as well as that conducted by the CRSPs years ago, on women’s and men’s roles in agriculture production and marketing, women’s contributions to food security and household nutrition, participatory varietal selection, and other topics are gaining new traction.

In line with Feed the Future principles, Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research and earlier CRSPs have recently multiplied their efforts to reduce gender inequalities that constrain agricultural development. By integrating closer attention to gender issues, Innovation Lab activities:

• help to identify and reduce institutional barriers to gender equality;
• include women in their degree programs and short-term trainings;
• conduct research on problems faced by women as producers, processors, and traders; and,
• increase women’s incomes and access to assets.