In each location, the Female Food Hero competition holds a community debate, where men and women can discuss local gender relations, agricultural production and challenges. Several themes have come up across the country that make it even more difficult for female small-scale food producers, particularly:

- Traditions and cultural practices that mean women cannot own land, and rarely have control over the profits from their work on the land - Land investments that undermine local rights - Climate change, and unpredictable weather and harvests - Poor access to markets and infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications