WHY WOMEN’S ROLE IS CRUCIAL IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The world in which we live is not the same anymore since women have been occupying changing positions
in our daily life, more so than anything else, they show how significant they are for the development of our
society. Domestic tasks are no longer their sole attribution and such tasks no longer limit their potential, on
the contrary, women’s empowerment brought outlooks that are more positive to business supervision and
innovation.
When women are economically and communally empowered, they become a strong force for a change. In
rural areas of the developing world, women play a key role in running households and make major helps to
agricultural production. But the variations that exist between men and women will make it difficult for
women to realize their potential. Despite their many duties responsibilities, women have significantly less
access to the properties, resources and facilities that they need to rise their productivity and ease their
burden of household responsibilities and duties. Women are held back by unequal belonging rights and
limited govern over resources and lack of education. Labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks further
hinder the opportunity of women to maximize their capacity for earning income.
The situation is also no different in the agricultural world. According to the 2011 edition of "The State of
Food and Agriculture in the World," prepared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), women account for 43 percent of rural labor in developing countries. According to FAO, it is
estimated that when women’s access to the required economic resources and technologies is enhanced,
women could increase plantation yields by 20% to 30%, and this would reduce the number of
undernourished people by up to 17%, i.e., 150 million people. Given equal resources and facilities, women
could contribute much more compare to men. FAO estimates that if women farmers (43 per cent of the
agricultural labor force in developing countries) had the same access as men, agricultural output in 34
developing countries would rise by an estimated average of up to 4 per cent. This could reduce the number
of undernourished people in those countries by as much as 17 per cent, translating to up to 150 million
fewer hungry people.
Women provide a fresher view and perspective, which men can’t or may have a hard time to see. In
building communities, women prove to be as effective as men. Based on the basic unit of society, women
have many admirable attributes when it comes to multi-tasking, decision making, financial management
and etc. Therefore, in order to obtain a holistic approach on development, what the women in the
workplace have to say has the same weight as those from the men. Conventionally, women traits also a
factor to increase productivity in working class. Empowering them is essential, not only for the well-being of
individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity, given women’s large
presence in the agricultural workforce worldwide. As such, women are crucial in rural development to
support in man power activities in agriculture.