On International Women's Day (March 8th) we are celebrating the 80,000 women farmers from around the world have protested as part of ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign, demanding the right to land to help end hunger.

There is no quick fix to ending hunger, but there is a long-term solution. Women’s access and control over land is the answer.

Women produce 60-80 per cent of the food in developing countries but own only one per cent of the land . Without secure tenure it is difficult for women to borrow small amounts of money to buy seeds and other essential inputs. Women are often excluded from training and farmer’s cooperatives. Lack of knowledge about their rights makes them vulnerable to land grabbing and disinheritance.

In The Gambia, for instance, farming is often the only means of survival but most women taking part in ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign said that they owned no land and felt they were being exploited by landowners.

The food crisis means there is now an urgent need for structural solutions to end hunger. Over the last two years, the average price of food in developing countries has risen by 80 per cent, according to the World Bank.

ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign, mobilising women farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America, is helping to bring real and lasting solutions to end hunger.

• As a result of the campaign, 120 women in the Dalit community have been granted title deeds to one acre of agricultural land in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
• In Nepal, there is a commitment from key politicians to enshrine women’s land rights in the new constitution.
• In The Gambia, 3,000 women have received land. Local chiefs and district governors have made concrete commitments to women on land.
• In Northern Malawi, 300 women have successfully managed to convince traditional leaders to allocate them land.

“We want rural women to have much more visibility and to be heard when they speak out,” said Graça Machel, while marching with Mozambican women in Maputo last year.

Machel is an avid supporter of women’s development. “We want them to have a voice, particularly in decision making because they are usually left out. These women are leaders with extraordinary qualities. We can’t let this desperation keep them down.”

HungerFREE Women Speak Out - a photo exhibition capturing the stories of women taking part in ActionAid’s campaign is being launched in ten countries to mark International Women’s Day. It will travel globally to raise awareness and support for women’s land rights.