On 15 July 2025, UNU will host “Sowing Equality: Addressing Gender Barriers in Food, Water and Agricultural Systems”, a BIG IDEAS Dialogue with Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS. This online event will be held via Zoom webinar at 18:00 JST (UTC+9).
Persistent gender inequalities continue to limit women’s roles and influence within Europe’s agricultural systems. Women remain underrepresented in key areas such as farm management, land ownership and agricultural research. Current normative frameworks often fail to reflect the systemic barriers women face, resulting in policies that are neither inclusive nor effective.
At the same time, research shows that women are more likely to adopt holistic, sustainable approaches — particularly in water resource management and environmentally-friendly technologies such as nature-based solutions. However, these gender-disaggregated trends are rarely incorporated into the design of agricultural policies or technology support systems.
Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla will join UNU Senior Vice-Rector Sawako Shirahase to explore how gender-inclusive policies can strengthen food and water security and improve the resilience of agricultural systems. The discussion will also examine current European efforts to promote women’s participation in agriculture and propose strategies to scale up and accelerate these initiatives.
About the speaker
Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla is a Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Coordinator for the Nature, Climate and Health programme at UNU-CRIS.
In this capacity, Dr. Nagabhatla coordinates the projects, programmes and activities of the cluster while contributing to environmental governance-related activities and outputs collaborating with staff and networks. She is also the Project Leader at UNU-CRIS for “GCRF Global Seaweed STAR — Safeguarding the Future of Seaweed Aquaculture", a partnership with the Scottish Association for Marine Science focusing on developing countries in East Africa and South-East Asia.
Dr. Nagabhatla is a sustainability science specialist and a systems analyst. With more than 20 years of work experience, she has led, coordinated and implemented transdisciplinary projects in various geographical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, working with international organizations including: IWMI, World Fish Centre, IUCN, Asia Pacific Climate Centre and UNU-INWEH. She is also affiliated with leading academic institutes — Oxford University (UK); Leibniz University (Germany) — in various roles, mostly related to sustainability research, science-policy interfacing and mentoring young professionals.
Dr. Nagabhatla holds a doctoral degree in Environmental Science from the Indian Space Research Organisation, post-doctoral experience working with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, and a diploma in International Humanitarian Law from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, India.
Read Dr. Nagabhatla's full bio on her UNU profile.
