GFB News Magazine
Female farmers being celebrated worldwide in 2026
by Jennifer Whittaker
Posted on February 27, 2026 9:31 PM
A panel discussion at the 2026 AFBF Convention explored how the United Nations International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 came about. From left, AFBF Women’s Leadership Committee Chairwoman Isabella Chism moderated a discussion between Karla Theiman, Krysta Harden & Alexis Taylor. / Photo by Jennifer Whittaker
The International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF) 2026 didn’t happen overnight.
Krysta Harden, Karla Theiman and Alexis Taylor, who worked together at the USDA over a decade ago, shared a stage at the American Farm Bureau Convention to discuss how, in 2024, the United Nations General Assembly came to designate the IYWF.
“How powerful is it that because of impassioned people [worldwide] we have a global initiative to raise women up, to elevate their voices, their contributions and surface solutions to some of the challenges that still exist around the world for them in agriculture?” Taylor said.
Having been mentored by Harden, Theiman and Taylor first discussed the possibility of the IYWF in 2016 as their time together at the USDA ended.
All three ladies grew up on farms.
“There have been women farmers, probably since we’ve been eating as people. They were called wives, sisters and daughters,” Harden said. “Now we’re starting to realize they deserve to be recognized for their contributions.”
As USDA deputy secretary of agriculture from 2013-2016, Harden used her influence to advocate for the women she knew contributed to family farms, but in most cases, weren’t considered farmers. Under her guidance, the 2017 U.S. Agriculture Census language was changed so that up to four people on a farm could be listed as principal producers and principal operators. This allowed women, who had always been working on the farm, to be counted along with their husbands/dads, who had been listed because the men were deemed to have more primary roles.
As Harden, Theiman and Taylor traveled overseas with the USDA, they met women who had to walk a mile to get water for their crops, who could not inherit land or get loans to improve their farms.
Harden began talking about these issues in speeches around the world. Theiman said the response of female audiences was amazing, especially in Cote d’Ivoire, where it’s women who primarily pick cocoa in hard conditions but can’t own the land.
As her last act of USDA chief of staff in December 2016, Theiman gave a speech to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization suggesting it designate an IYWF.
When Taylor returned to the USDA in 2023 in a more senior position, she picked up the cause again.
Taylor’s staff started by getting the White House, State Department and National Security Council to support the campaign. U.S. embassy representatives worldwide talked to their respective host governments. At the USDA, Sec. Tom Vilsack down to career employees asked their counterparts in other countries to encourage their leaders to support the resolution.
They asked Mongolia to cosponsor the IYWF resolution because it had succeeded in getting the U.N. to declare 2026 as the International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists. Of the 193 U.N. countries, 123 cosponsored the resolution.
The U.N. IYWF resolution focuses on four priorities: female access to land, access to capital, access to technology, education & training, and access to markets.
All three ladies credit men they’ve worked with for supporting their careers and the IYWF.
They praised AFBF’s longstanding women’s leadership program and said they use it as a model for similar programs in ag organizations they now lead.
U.N. stats show women produce about 50% of the world's food, but 60% of women worldwide can't own land. / Photo by Logan Thomas