Most notable about Feed the Future, the US government's recent
initiative to tackle global hunger and food security, is its
emphasis on women – unprecedented in the US and timely. More
than three decades of work on women and agriculture at the
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) suggests that
improving women farmers' access to appropriate resources,
technologies, markets and land will pay multiple dividends in
the form of increased agricultural productivity and, ultimately,
improved household nutrition. In fact, according to the US state
department's, Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative
consultation document, economic output could be increased by
15%-40% and under-nutrition reduced by 15 million children by
providing women with assets equal to those of men. Women are
crucial to the health and wellbeing of their families and
communities, and national economic growth. Take, for example,
India's economic transformation: according to the World Bank,
Indian states with the highest percentage o