In Ngoma, in Rwanda’s Eastern Province, Olive Iradukunda runs a nursery that produces fruit-tree seedlings. It is a service that did not exist in her community before she started it, and today it creates jobs. Her story is modest in scale but large in meaning: it shows what can change when a woman farmer moves from producing for survival to building a business.

Olive was one of several women farmers who shared their experiences at a side event that we convened jointly with FAO on the sidelines of the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2026. Held to mark the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, the event brought together policymakers, farmers, private sector leaders and development partners around a single question: what will it take to move from celebrating women farmers to investing in them?

Their contribution is not in question. Across sub-Saharan Africa, agrifood systems provide livelihoods for 76 per cent of working women, according to FAO. In Rwanda, 62 per cent of employed women worked in agriculture in 2024 (NISR). Yet women remain concentrated in subsistence farming rather than in the more profitable, market-oriented parts of the value chain, and the gap is sharpest in access to finance. In 2024, about 8 per cent of women farmers accessed bank borrowing, compared with 13 per cent of men (MINAGRI).

“Investing in women farmers is not a social expenditure. It is one of the smartest economic investments a country can make,” said Fatmata L. Sesay, our Resident Representative and Officer-in-Charge of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Rwanda. This message resonated throughout the afternoon: closing the gaps faced by women farmers is not only a matter of fairness, but also of food security, growth and resilience.

FAO Country Representative in Rwanda Muhamedi Aw-Dahir made the same case from an agrifood perspective: “Closing gender gaps in agrifood systems is not only a matter of equality; it is a strategic investment in food security, economic growth and sustainable rural development.” From the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Hon. Consolée Uwimana identified the specific constraint that holds women back: “Women create the value at the start of the agricultural chain, yet too often remain absent from its most profitable parts.”

The conversation also placed women farmers at the centre of the environment–agriculture–gender nexus. Across the continent, women are not only producing food; they are restoring degraded land, protecting biodiversity and managing scarce water, even as they are among those hardest hit when droughts and floods occur. A panel discussion brought together representatives of the East African Legislative Assembly, Heifer International, Afri Foods and the Private Sector Federation to discuss how policy and investment can better support this role.

For Shakira Muteteri, a farmer from Kirehe, the value is also personal. She described how farming gave her a sense of dignity and how gaining agricultural knowledge and passing it on to others have been among the most rewarding aspects of her work.

The International Year of the Woman Farmer runs throughout 2026. A single event cannot, on its own, close the gaps in access to finance, land and markets that women farmers face. However, it can strengthen the case for action and bring stories such as those of Olive and Shakira to the attention of the people who shape policy and investment. The task now is to ensure that recognition translates into access to finance, technology and markets, enabling more women farmers to do what Olive has done: move from farming for survival to farming to build a future.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer through resolution A/RES/78/279, with FAO leading its implementation. FAO Headquarters, FAO Rwanda and UNDP Rwanda jointly organised the side event in Kigali.