top of page
Search

Those who know how, make the time - The International Year of Women in the Field and ESG beyond carbon.

This article was published in the "Integral Sustainability" column of Issue 203 of Leite Integral Magazine - click to access the full issue.


The line “whoever knows how to seize the moment,” from the song “Pra Não Dizer Que Não Falei das Flores ” by Geraldo Vandré , inspires the title of this column and has transcended generations as an affirmation of responsibility and action. It doesn't speak of individual heroism, nor of improvisation. It speaks of those who understand the context, read the right time, and decide to act. In the field, this logic is no exception. It structures the productive daily routine and, to a large extent, is driven by women who make technical, productive, and human decisions long before they appear in reports, metrics, or inventories.


It is precisely this type of decision—silent, continuous, and fundamental—that is gaining international recognition. The United Nations' decision to dedicate 2026 to the International Year of the Woman Farmer , which we adopt here as the International Year of Women in the Field , does not stem from a symbolic gesture. It reflects something central and still little considered on the sustainability agenda. Production systems depend directly on the people who make daily decisions in the field, and a significant portion of these decisions are made by women.


The leading role of women in livestock farming is not an identity issue nor a narrative disconnected from the business. It emerges as a practical response to production systems pressured by climate, income, and efficiency, and reveals why gender has come to be treated, globally, as a relevant variable of resilience and adaptation in agri-food systems.


This recognition directly relates to the current situation of the dairy farming industry. In recent years, the sector has taken initial, and important, steps in the environmental dimension of ESG, the "E" in environmental . Methane, carbon footprint, life cycle assessment, and emissions inventories have become part of the technical vocabulary, driven by market demands, corporate commitments, and climate policies. Progress has been made. But so have limitations.


Measuring emissions accurately remains a significant technical challenge. Reducing emissions consistently requires time, investment, and changes in management practices. Transforming environmental data into practical decisions, both on the farm and throughout the supply chain, continues to be one of the biggest bottlenecks in applied sustainability, which, in livestock farming, is still under construction.


The leading role of women in livestock farming emerges as a practical response to production systems pressured by climate, income, and efficiency, and reveals why gender has come to be treated, globally, as a relevant variable of resilience and adaptation in agri-food systems.


It is precisely at this point that the ESG agenda needs to mature. Despite the growing focus on the environmental component, production systems don't function solely based on metrics. They function because someone decides, adjusts, observes, corrects, and sustains the process every day. We talk more and more about indicators like carbon footprint. But we still talk little about who makes decisions and acts based on these numbers.


The internal imbalance of the ESG agenda


In agriculture, the "E" (environmental) aspect of ESG has received much recent attention, which is legitimate given the global climate emergency. The problem arises when the "S" (social) and "G" (governance) aspects are only considered as complements. The result tends to be an increasingly frequent paradox: technically well-described but socially fragile supply chains; consistent reports supported by poorly understood realities. Reports may be correct. Systems, not always. This fragility becomes evident when we observe who actually sustains the production systems.


Women in agri-food systems: global evidence


FAO reports show that women represent a significant portion of the workforce in global agri-food systems, especially in developing countries. Consolidated estimates indicate that approximately 40% to 45% of the agricultural workforce is female. However, when considering access to productive assets, the asymmetry is evident: less than 15% of agricultural land is owned by women, and access to credit, technical assistance, and technology remains unequal. (Table 1)



This inequality is not just social. It has a direct effect on productivity, income, climate resilience, and food security. The FAO itself points out that reducing the gender gap could generate significant gains in efficiency and adaptive capacity in food systems.


The Brazilian case: real presence, limited visibility.


In Brazil, the Agricultural Census indicates that women account for approximately 19% of agricultural establishments as formal owners. This data, in itself, already reveals a significant participation. However, it does not fully capture the reality of women's role in the field.


Critical analyses of the Census show that many women actively participate in management, decision-making, production planning, and maintenance of activities, even when they do not appear as legal heads of household. A significant portion of this work remains invisible to traditional data collection instruments, which prioritize formal ownership and property relations.


This difference is not neutral. It influences public policies, access to credit, technical assistance, training programs and, increasingly, the way sustainability is measured, reported and rewarded.


Dairy farming and the invisible decisions


In dairy farming, this disconnect between formal visibility and real leadership becomes even more evident. On numerous farms, women do not appear in the records, but they are at the center of the decisions that determine productive performance and sustainability. They decide on nutrition, health, reproduction, culling, animal welfare, routine organization, milking quality, and the long-term continuity of the activity (Figure 1).



These are silent decisions, poorly documented and rarely measured. However, they directly impact indicators that are now at the heart of the ESG agenda: herd longevity, feed efficiency, loss reduction, animal health, productive stability, and adaptation to extreme weather events. There is no animal welfare without daily attention. There is no herd longevity without constant observation. There is no climate adaptation without fine-tuning of the system.


Sustainability measured and sustainability practiced


The gap between what is measured and what is practiced helps explain why so many ESG strategies encounter difficulties in real-world implementation. Systems that measure well but ignore decision-makers risk being technically correct but structurally weak (Figure 2).



Climate, gender and productive resilience


Studies on climate and gender show that extreme weather events tend to disproportionately impact women in rural contexts. This is not due to a lack of technical capacity, but to structural restrictions on access to resources, credit, information, and adaptation tools. At the same time, the literature indicates that the effective inclusion of women in adaptation strategies increases the resilience of production systems (Table 2). Gender, therefore, is not a peripheral issue on the climate agenda. It is a structural factor in the success or failure of adaptation strategies.



ESG that starts with people.


When we talk about ESG as intelligence applied to production, we need to broaden our perspective. ESG begins with real governance, the kind that defines who decides, who has access, who remains in the field, and who can sustain and adapt the production system over time.


Some Brazilian initiatives are beginning to explore this path in a more structured way. This is the case with ESGpec, which develops digital tools aimed at translating management practices, animal welfare, and governance into information applicable to the ESG agenda in livestock farming. The proposal is not to replace environmental metrics, but to complement them, recognizing that sustainability is also built from everyday decisions, often made by those who do not appear in formal reports.


It is no coincidence that many practices now associated with sustainability and regeneration emerged outside of reports and the spotlight. They were born from the concrete need to sustain production in the face of economic instability, climate pressure, and resource scarcity. They were practical responses, built at the right time, by those who needed to make the moment happen.


An ESG approach restricted to environmental metrics risks producing technically correct but structurally unstable supply chains. Recognizing who sustains the system is not a symbolic gesture. It's a strategy.


If the ESG agenda truly aims to guide the future of livestock farming, it needs to go beyond environmental inventories and formal reporting. Sustainability is not sustained solely by well-calculated metrics, but by well-understood decisions. Making visible who decides, how they decide, and in what context becomes part of the sustainable transition strategy itself. It is at this point that ESG ceases to be merely an evaluation system and begins to function as a real tool for transformation, anchored in governance, people, and the daily practices of the field. Because, in the end, those who know how, make the time.


Authors


Bruna Silper - Veterinarian, specialist in precision livestock farming and sustainable solutions, PhD in Animal Science and dairy farmer in Minas Gerais, CEO of ESGpec.

Heloise Duarte - Veterinarian, specialist in Agroindustrial Management and beef producer in MG, COO of ESGpec.


References


The gender gap in agriculture and its implications on the context of climate change - https://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture-sourcebook/enabling-frameworks/module-c6-gender/chapter-c7-2/en/

IBGE – Agricultural Census 2017




The "Integral Sustainability" column is a column published by ESGpec in Leite Integral magazine , which has established itself as a space for dialogue between science, innovation, and practice in the field. Each article invites reflection on the future of dairy farming and on how we can balance productivity, animal welfare, and environmental responsibility.


🌿 This column is the result of a partnership between ESGpec and Revista Leite Integral , and reinforces our commitment to making sustainability a practical, measurable, and inspiring topic.

bottom of page