•   Strengthening women's ability to benefit from market-based opportunities by market institutions and policies giving explicit priority to women farmers groups in value chains;
•   Supporting public services and investment in rural areas in order to improve women's living and working condi­tions;
•   Prioritizing   technological   development   policies   tar­geting rural and farm women's needs and recognizing women's specific knowledge, skills and experience in the production of food and the conservation of biodi­versity;
•   Assessing the effects of farming practices and technol­ogy, including pesticides on women's health, and meas­ures to reduce use and exposure;
•   Ensuring gender balance in AKST decision-making at all levels; and
•   Providing mechanisms to hold AKST organizations ac­countable for progress in the above areas.

     Policies can reinforce the achievement of development and sustainability goals by recognizing and taking into ac­count the role played by family farming and rural women in terms of production, employment and household food suffi­ciency. Consolidation of the small-scale farming sector, where women are particularly active, requires AKST oriented to­wards the improvement of local food crops to better satisfy domestic markets, the  development  of drought-resistant breeds to provide a more reliable harvest to those living on marginal lands, and greater focus on on-farm enterprises such as seasonal fish ponds that increase women's economic contribution to household survival.
     Strengthening women's control over resources is central to achievement of development and sustainability goals as well as changes in discriminatory laws that exclude women from land ownership, from access to clean water, getting loans or opening bank accounts. The principle of equal pay for women working in agriculture, innovative low-cost and sustainable technological options and services in water sup­ply are among the measures that can enable more equitable benefit-sharing from AKST investments and wider access to services that benefit both women and men. Governments can facilitate access to grants or credit on concessionary terms to women and women's groups.
     There is an urgent need for priority setting in research to ensure that women benefit from modern agricultural tech­nologies (e.g., labor-saving technologies and reduced health risk techniques) rather than being overlooked in the imple­mentation of technologies as has often occurred in the past [Global Chapter 3]. For social and economic sustainability, it is important that technologies are appropriate to different resource levels, including those of women and do not en­courage others to dispossess women of land or control their labor and income. Development of techniques that reduce work load and health risks, and meet the social and physical requirements of women can contribute to limiting the nega­tive effects of the gender division of labor in many regions.
     Modern agricultural technology should not undermine women's autonomy and economic position. Targeted mea­sures will be needed to ensure this does not happen. AKST systems that are gender sensitive would expand the range of

crop, horticultural, medicinal and animal species and vari­eties available for food provisioning and market sale. They would take into account all phases of agronomic management and post-harvest activities. Policy makers and researchers would need to consider the complex social, health and en­vironmental implications of adopting engineered crops and weigh these against lost opportunities to direct institutional attention towards proven low external input agroecological approaches and strengthening farmer-centered seed-saving networks. By integrating local and gender-differentiated un­derstanding of seeds and the cultural values connected to food preservation, preparation and storage, AKST can en­hance the success of technological adoption and eventually be more effective in enhancing rural livelihoods.
     Intellectual Property Rights that recognize women's technological knowledge and biological materials are needed if development and sustainability goals are to be met. Wom­en's intellectual property rights relating to the knowledge of indigenous plant varieties and cultivation are in need of pro­tection. Support of the documentation and dissemination of women's knowledge is an important aspect of a gender-sensitive approach to IPR [Global Chapter 2] and is required to retain the knowledge of both women and men.
     As disaster-related and complex emergencies will be­come more frequent and larger in scale, preferential research aiming at a better understanding of how gender issues af­fect communities' vulnerability and their ability to respond is indispensable. Gender differences in vulnerability and in adaptive opportunities should be better researched and ac­knowledged in the technology development to mitigate car­bon emissions ensuring success of adaptation policies.
    Communities and civil society could be further sup­ported to voice their concern for gender-sensitive agricul­tural services. They could assist in collecting information on men and women's roles, access, needs of AKST in dif­ferent societies (including nomadic communities) and in sharing this on broader platforms, in order to have gender issues taken seriously in the design of development plans and agricultural services. Agricultural programs designed to increase women's income and household nutrition would need to take much greater account of the cultural context of women's work as well as patterns of intra-household food distribution and natural resource access if development and sustainability goals are to be met [Global Chapter 3].
    Giving preference and support women's access to educa­tion and information is critical to meeting development and sustainability goals. Targeting female students for advanced education in agriculture and other sciences is a vital part of this preference as well as curriculum reform that expands the scope of knowledge relevant to meeting development and sustainability goals. This priority should be placed in the larger social, environmental or "life" context: the Earth University in Costa Rica combines hands-on fieldwork ex­perience with theoretical work on not only the agricultural sciences, but also  business administration, entrepreneur-ship, ecology, resource management, forestry, anthropology and sociology.
     Training women farmers as trainers for other women provides  an  opportunity to  share  their  experience  and knowledge. Training and micro-credit programs should be interlinked to effectively transfer agricultural technology to