Providing financing to agriculture is challenging for both male and female farmers, however women face some unique challenges. These challenges relate to the role of women in the household which often restricts their control over assets and constrains their available time for productive activities. Their role in the household is often invisible, particularly when it comes to their economic and financial contributions. As such, women have lower access to economic and financial services. These unique challenges make access to finance a much bigger challenge for women compared to men in the agricultural sector.

This paper reviews the existing literature and summarizes the key issues and challenges regarding the access of women to financial services in the agricultural sector. The paper demonstrates that there is a business case to be made for closing the financing gap between men and women in agriculture. It highlights some examples of various private and public initiatives that aim to achieve greater economic growth in agriculture by closing this gap.

The SME Finance Forum compiled and published this report.