Market Empowerment

The challenge

Producing more is not enough if farmers cannot earn fairly from what they grow. Many smallholders sell through middlemen who also supply inputs and credit, which leaves farmers with little bargaining power. Women face a further barrier: only 24.4 percent of women took part in the labour force in 2024-25, and fewer than one percent of farms are headed by women. Young people also struggle to find enterprise and skills pathways. Without business skills, collective organisation and links to buyers, rural producers remain price-takers rather than price-makers.

Sources: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey 2024-25; Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Seventh Agricultural Census 2025.

Our approach

Women Open Schools teach tailoring, food processing and small enterprise management; projects with donors and public partners build stronger farmer organisations, value chains and access to finance, technology and markets.

Key interventions

• Enterprise skills for women: tailoring, food processing and small enterprise management
• Evaluation of gender-inclusive market value chains and crops with growth potential (CARE International Pakistan, 2023)
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Economic Transformation Project, KP-RETP (IFAD, 2024 to 2029)
• Skill development for rural women in non-traditional high-value crops and food processing (Zakat Foundation of America, 2025 to 2026)
• Stronger farmer organisations and cooperatives

Results in numbers

• 3,365Youth equipped with technical and vocational skills
• 507Women Open Schools established
• 12,700Women and youth graduated (WOS)
• 35New food products developed

Related projects

Models used

Women Open School (WOS) and Farmer Field School (FFS).

Partners and donors

Donors and partners for individual projects are listed on each project page.

SDG alignment

• 5 SDG 5: Gender equality
• 8 SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
• 9 SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Stories from the field

Resources and downloads