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centive to invest in cash inputs and devote more time to crop management. Poormanagement has led to low yields, no or low marketable surplus, and consequentlylow income from rice. Farmers are thus caught in a vicious circle of poverty. Despitethe riskiness in rice production, farmers grow rice as the major crop to sustain householdfood security. Their primary concern is to meet their basic food requirementsand fodder needs for their livestock through their own production. To reduce risk,they diversify their income sources, one of which is for male members to migrate toother cities or other highly productive agricultural areas. This requires allocation offamily labor to various livelihood activities according to the gender roles prescribedby the household and community, degrees of labor specialization by family members,and opportunity costs of family labor.While there has been greater awareness and recognition of the vital roles thatpoor women play in rice-based farming systems, their unpaid labor contribution inrice farming is seldom valued. This has often led to their exclusion as cooperators inon-farm research and as recipients of training and extension programs. With the increasingmale migration (seasonal or semipermanent), other family members, particularlythe female members, are left behind to manage the farm (crops and livestock)aside from their daily household and child-care responsibilities. The changinggender roles and responsibilities will have far-reaching implications not only for cropproduction but also for the social organization aspects of the rice household economy.It is important for biological and social scientists to understand the emerging changesthat will shape the nature of rice production systems and their implications for poorhouseholds and gender relations. This important understanding will help prioritizeresearch issues for technology and policy interventions that can improve the wellbeingof members of farming households, especially the women.Thus, an analysis of gender roles and relations should be integral when characterizingtarget recommendation domains for technology development. This chapterdiscusses the objectives of gender analysis in on-farm research, and provides a conceptualframework for the livelihood systems. It also presents a case in the rainfedlowland rice ecosystems in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, which demonstrates howgender analysis can be used in characterizing and understanding the farm householdand its environment.Gender analysis and its objectives“Gender” refers to a social rather than biological construct, whereas “sex” refers tothe biological differences between men and women. Gender describes the sociallydetermined attributes of men and women, including male and female roles. As a socialconstruct, gender roles are based on learned behavior as a response to socioeconomicand environmental pressures and conditions and are flexible and variable acrossand within cultures. Gender is a useful socioeconomic variable to analyze roles, responsibilities,constraints, opportunities, and incentives of the people involved in researchand development efforts (Poats 1990). It is relational in focus, that is, it isconcerned with women and men in relation to each other. Gender analysis is an ana-340 Paris et al