Submitted by Administrator on Thu, 28/01/2016 - 16:47
Policy and business leaders have used a major food conference to highlight the need for more women in the global agriculture sector.
One of the speakers, Chelsea Clinton, told delegates that women were a "crucial, vital and necessary" part of delivering global food security.
Data shows that progress has been made in recent years, but there is still a long way to go to close the gender gap.
The call for equality was made at the 2015 Borlaug Dialogue in the US.
"Certainly, we are not on track at the moment to feed the population we expect to have around the world in 2050," Ms Clinton, vice-president of the Clinton Foundation, told the gathering.
One of the themes of the three-day event, which focused on the "fundamentals of global food security", was inspiring young women to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).