The Agriculture Department on Thursday held a launch of the United Nations International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, which the United States proposed and the U.N. General Assembly adopted in April.

There will be many events around the world leading up to the actual Year of the Woman Farmer in 2026, officials said.

“This landmark initiative signals a pivotal movement for empowering women farmers,” USDA said in the program for the event.

“The IYWF seeks to elevate the critical role of women in agriculture by highlighting the key challenges they face. These challenges include securing access to land tenure, obtaining necessary training and resources, harnessing the power of technology and implementing innovative agricultural practices.”

The initiative also seeks to align the empowerment of women with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Alexis Torres Small welcomed attendees, but said credit for the United States proposing the resolution and the U.N. General Assembly adopting it goes to Agriculture Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor.

In her remarks, Taylor said the idea came up at a 2016 meeting when she was serving in the Obama administration.

She noted that the Biden administration had sent Foreign Agricultural Service officers to New York to campaign for support of the resolution and that 123 countries signed it.

Taylor pointed out that “every country has women farmers” and said some countries that are considered more traditional in their gender roles signed on to the resolution.

Taylor said there had been no “boy and girl jobs” on the family farm she grew up on in Iowa because her parents had no sons, and the girls had to do the chores that on other farms were performed by boys.

During a panel discussion, Lauren Phillips, the deputy director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division said that around the world women have often identified themselves as “farmers’ wives,” but are increasingly calling themselves farmers.

FAO, Phillips said, is using its authorities to help women farmers through research programs and helping them gain access to finance, mentorship and training in productivity and marketing. The FAO is also helping women deal with water scarcity and climate change, she added.

Phillips also noted that 60% of countries have no land ownership protection laws for women. Women often lack access to collateral, she said, but they often own jewelry, which can be used as collateral in some countries.

Blayne Arthur, the secretary of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, said women are becoming more comfortable in agricultural leadership positions. She noted that women now lead agriculture departments in 12 U.S. states.

Arthur also noted there is “an opportunity to have different conversations with young men” about the role of women in agriculture. She said women should give credit to the men who are their “champions.”

As women “climb the ladder” in leadership, they should “leave the ladder down” to provide more opportunities for other women rather than pull it up with them, Arthur said.