International Women’s Day was observed worldwide on March 8, and in 2026 the United Nations marked the occasion under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” The observance has deep historical roots, while the UN has officially recognized and commemorated it since the mid-1970s, giving the day a global institutional platform that now reaches across every sector of society.
For the global potato industry, the day offers more than a ceremonial moment. It provides a necessary opportunity to acknowledge a reality that has long been visible in practice, even if it has not always been fully articulated in public: women have been central to the potato sector for generations.
Their contribution reaches from the crop’s ancient origins in the Andes to the most modern corners of the industry – from seed stewardship and on-farm production to laboratory science, post-harvest management, processing, trade, administration, communications, and strategic leadership. That is not rhetoric. It is a matter of historical continuity and present-day fact.
A story that begins near the origin of the crop
Any serious discussion of women in the potato industry should begin with the crop’s own history. Potatoes emerged from the Andean region of South America, and contemporary institutional reporting from the International Potato Center continues to highlight the role of rural and Indigenous women in conserving native potato diversity, preserving seed, and carrying forward practical and cultural knowledge linked to the crop.
These women have not simply helped maintain a few traditional practices on the margins. They have served as custodians of biodiversity that remains deeply relevant to the future of potato farming itself.
That point matters because biodiversity is not a nostalgic side issue. It is one of the foundations of resilience in agriculture. The potato sector now speaks often about climate adaptation, disease pressure, shifting market needs, and the search for varieties that can perform under more volatile conditions.
Yet long before those themes became common in policy and industry language, women in potato-growing communities were helping preserve the diversity from which future resilience can be built. In that respect, their contribution has never been peripheral. It has been foundational.
Women are present across the entire potato value chain
It would be a mistake to frame women’s role in the potato industry too narrowly. In many agricultural narratives, women are still described mainly in relation to farm labour or household support. That is far too limited a lens. FAO’s current framing of women in agrifood systems is much broader, emphasizing that women work across all segments of value chains and in multiple capacities – not only in production, but also in processing, trade, services, and other linked functions.
The same applies clearly to potatoes. Across the global industry, women are involved in tissue culture, seed multiplication, breeding support, pathology, agronomy, extension, grower services, crop monitoring, grading, storage supervision, food safety systems, quality control, logistics, packaging, processing operations, marketing, communications, office administration, sustainability compliance, and organizational management.
In some regions these roles are highly visible. In others they are still understated or folded into broader family or community labour systems. But whether their contribution is publicly recognized or not, it remains essential to the functioning of the sector.
This is where the conversation becomes especially important. Recognition is often selective. Public attention tends to favour a limited number of prominent voices, while the daily work that actually keeps sectors running is carried by many more people whose names are seldom mentioned. The potato industry is no exception. One of the most meaningful ways to honour women on International Women’s Day is therefore not merely to praise high-profile success, but to acknowledge the vast and often under-recognized body of work performed by women throughout the system.
The broader agrifood evidence is impossible to ignore
The global data underline why this conversation matters. FAO reports that agrifood systems employ about 36 percent of working women worldwide, making the sector one of the major sources of women’s employment globally. At the same time, FAO stresses that women continue to face persistent disadvantages in access to land, finance, inputs, services, technology, and decent work opportunities. Those constraints are not minor inefficiencies. They shape how entire food systems perform.
FAO also points to the scale of the opportunity. Closing gender gaps in farm productivity and wages in agrifood systems could raise global GDP by nearly USD 1 trillion and reduce food insecurity for tens of millions of people. That is a remarkable figure, and it carries a clear message for every crop sector, including potatoes: better inclusion of women is not simply a moral aspiration. It is also sound economics and better system design.
For the potato industry, this has practical implications. When women lack equal access to training, improved seed, digital tools, finance, extension, mechanization, or leadership pathways, the impact is felt not only by individuals but by farms, companies, and supply chains. Productivity suffers. Innovation slows. Household and community resilience weakens. By contrast, when women are properly supported and fully integrated into decision-making, the benefits extend beyond equity. The entire sector becomes more capable, more responsive, and more resilient.
Innovation in potatoes depends on women too
This is especially relevant at a time when the potato industry is under pressure to adapt rapidly. Growers and allied industries are dealing with climate variability, changing disease dynamics, rising production costs, labour constraints, shifting regulatory expectations, and more demanding consumer and processor requirements. In that environment, innovation is no longer optional. It is a condition of staying viable.
CGIAR has emphasized that when women are directly involved in decision-making – including in areas such as inclusive breeding and technology design – adoption of agricultural innovations can improve because technologies are more likely to reflect real local needs, affordability constraints, labour realities, and practical on-farm conditions. That insight resonates strongly in potatoes, where success depends on fine margins, timely decisions, and solutions that work in the field rather than only on paper.
Women’s contribution to potato innovation should therefore be understood in the widest sense. It is present not only in formal research settings, but also in observation, problem-solving, adaptation, quality management, varietal evaluation, storage handling, and operational discipline. Every potato business depends to some extent on people who notice what others miss, who maintain standards under pressure, who keep systems organized, and who connect technical work to practical outcomes. Women have long played those roles across the industry, often without fanfare, but with measurable consequence.
Recognition must go beyond symbolic praise
International Women’s Day can sometimes invite polished messaging that stops short of honest institutional reflection. The potato industry should resist that temptation. Celebration is appropriate, but sentiment alone is not enough.
A more serious response would ask harder questions. Are women adequately represented in technical panels, farm organizations, research agendas, and industry leadership structures? Are they visible in conferences, publications, and trade discussions in ways that reflect their actual contribution? Do they have equitable access to promotion, training, capital, and professional networks? Are younger women entering the sector seeing a future in which they can thrive, advance, and lead? These questions follow directly from the barriers identified by FAO and from the sector’s own need to widen its talent base.
There is also a cultural dimension to this. In many parts of agriculture, women’s work has historically been treated as expected rather than exceptional – part of the fabric of farming and agribusiness, but not always fully credited in official narratives. Yet the fact that a contribution is longstanding does not make it ordinary in the sense of being replaceable or negligible. In the potato industry, it means the opposite. It means women’s work has been indispensable for so long that the sector has sometimes forgotten how much it depends on it.
Why 2026 gives the issue added momentum
This year adds another important layer. The United Nations has designated 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, with FAO positioning it as a global platform to spotlight women’s essential roles across agrifood systems and to push for action on the structural barriers they continue to face. That makes this a particularly relevant moment for the potato industry to think beyond one-day recognition and toward a more sustained culture of acknowledgment and inclusion.
For potato stakeholders worldwide – growers, seed companies, processors, researchers, storage specialists, trade groups, technology providers, and industry media – the challenge is clear enough. It is not only to say that women matter, but to act in ways that reflect that truth. That means seeing women not as a side story within agriculture, but as integral participants in the industry’s past, present, and future. It means building structures in which their knowledge, labour, and leadership are properly valued. And it means understanding that a stronger potato sector will be built not by habit or inertia, but by making fuller use of the people who already sustain it.
A tribute rooted in reality
The global potato industry owes a great deal to women. It owes them for stewardship carried across generations. It owes them for labour that has often been physically demanding, technically precise, and quietly dependable. It owes them for scientific and operational contributions that have strengthened production, storage, processing, and quality systems. And it owes them for the continuity they have provided in families, communities, and institutions built around the crop.
That is why the most meaningful tribute is not simply to celebrate women on March 8 and move on. It is to state plainly, and without qualification, that women have helped build, sustain, and transform the global potato industry across time and across sectors. They have been part of its roots, part of its daily work, and part of its future. Any honest account of the potato industry – whether historical or forward-looking – must make room for that truth.
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