Women as shock absorbers: Gendered costs of the global fuel and fertilizer crisis
A recent interview with a woman farmer in Kenya revealed the multiple challenges of higher fuel and fertilizer prices stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As fuel prices have doubled, she said, farmers have been forced to sell their produce at higher prices to compensate for the increased cost of transporting goods to the market.
- gender
- farm inputs
- fertilizer
- conflicts
- energy prices
By Elizabeth Basauri Bryan, Muzna Alvi, Marame Cisse, Faith Gikunda, Eric Kirimi, Hamza Muhammad, Claudia Ringler, Tirsit Sahledengil, Bello Yakasai, and Taddese ZerfuJune 12, 2026
Key takeaways
- Women and girls in many countries are bearing the brunt of rising fuel and fertilizer prices triggered by the Iran war.
- Higher costs strain agrifood systems and exacerbate existing gender inequalities, further limiting women’s access to inputs, income, and food security.
- Gender-blind policy responses widen gender gaps. Subsidies and relief measures can exclude women, highlighting the need for more inclusive, long-term solutions.
A recent interview with a woman farmer in Kenya revealed the multiple challenges of higher fuel and fertilizer prices stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As fuel prices have doubled, she said, farmers have been forced to sell their produce at higher prices to compensate for the increased cost of transporting goods to the market. That, in turn, has reduced demand, and with it, sales and incomes. Obtaining fertilizers has also become more challenging. Pointing to an illegal practice that has been highlighted in media reports, she noted that brokers quickly purchase subsidized fertilizer supplied by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and then repackage and sell it at retail shops for more than double the price. As a result, farmers like her are reducing cultivated area, lowering their production, income, and, ultimately, food consumption. As she explained: “If I used to buy a kilo of meat for my home in a week, right now I cannot even buy … Even putting food on the table becomes a challenge.”
The energy price crisis is also affecting other agrifood workers beyond the farm. During a recent discussion with a women’s cooperative specializing in groundnut processing in Nigeria, one of the members observed, “Rising fuel and fertilizer costs have driven up raw groundnut prices from 3,000 to 4,000 naira [$2.20 to $2.94]. Consequently, our groundnut oil has jumped from 1,500 to 2,000 naira [$1.10 to $1.47] per measure. Because these price hikes affect every essential commodity with no alternatives, they have impacted on every aspect of our lives. We are just surviving day by day.”
Rising fuel and fertilizer prices resulting from the Iran war are disrupting agrifood systems around the world, hitting smallholder farmers and other agrifood workers in low- and middle-income countries particularly hard. Within smallholder farming communities, women and girls often bear the greatest burden when crises hit. Persistent inequalities in access to resources and services limit their capacity to respond, as do patriarchal norms restricting their economic opportunities, roles, mobility, and agency. Thus, the current shock threatens to erode the slow but steady global progress towards greater gender equality in agrifood systems.
In this post, we highlight the diverse problems women and girls face from the fertilizer and fuel crisis—sometimes the direct result of measures intended to help—and make recommendations on how countries can address these issues and use the current moment as an opportunity to build more equitable and resilient agrifood systems.