Agricultural development programmes that succeed in achieving a fair share of resources for women will see food production and profits increase by up to 20%.

That’s according to Self Help Africa’s inclusion advisor Mary Sweeney, who is developing systems to fully integrate gender equality into development projects across sub-Saharan Africa.

‘For various cultural, social and historic reasons women are frequently denied access to the same resources as their male counterparts. In many instances women do not have access to land, to training opportunities or to good markets for their produce.’

‘When women are fully integrated into the development process however it is extremely common that productivity increases, and the earnings that farm families see from their land also goes up,’ she said.