Bridging the gender gap in agricultural productivity and food security requires technologies and innovations that are gender-friendly, says an article in SciDev.Net.

The article reports on the Empowering women for sustainable natural resource management forum held at the World Agroforestry Centre in March 2015, during which speakers discussed how many agricultural technologies do not consider women. They may be technical and labour-intensive or require a lot of physical strength, and therefore difficult for women to apply.

Mary Njenga, a postdoctoral fellow in bio-energy at the World Agroforestry Centre, said researchers need to observe women smallholders on the ground. “In developing projects for research and development, we must work to identify the challenges from people’s own perspective and then bring in science and technology to the local situation,” said Njenga

Asa Torkelsson, advisor for economic empowerment at the UN Women Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, said technologies are needed to address most of the bottlenecks that women face within agriculture to enhance their productivity through better storage and value addition.

Read the full story: Gender-friendly tech could empower women in agriculture

Find out more about the forum: Empowering women for sustainable natural resource management