Tool kit for Gender and Agriculture - Economic Commission for Africa

18
Improving Agriculture through Gender Analysis
CHAPTER II: IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
THROUGH GENDER ANALYSIS
A. Gender Roles in the Farming System
Women and men have distinct roles within the farming system. Gender differences in
rural farming households vary widely across cultures (see Table 4), but certain features
are common. Women tend to concentrate their agricultural activities around the homestead,
primarily because of their domestic and reproductive roles; they play a critical
role in food production, post-harvest activities, livestock care, and increasingly in cash
cropping. Certain tasks, activities, or enterprises are regarded as “male” or “female.” In
some settings, a rigid division of labor exists between men and women: household
members have separate incomes and expenditures and reciprocal or skewed rights and
obligations. In others, the division of labor and specialization of tasks is less rigid and
not as skewed. In general, however, women tend to have a wider range of activities and
enterprises than men. On the one hand, they have productive activities in agriculture
and livestock management; on the other, they have chief responsibility for reproductive
activities, that is, the bearing and rearing of children and maintenance of the household.
Although the gender-based division of labor in the farming system varies widely,
it still affects responses to agricultural innovation everywhere.
Table 4: Gender-Based Differences in Agriculture
Access to: Gender-Based Differences:
Land Land title and tenure tend to be vested in men, either by legal
condition or by sociocultural norms. Land reform and
resettlement have tended to reinforce this bias against tenure
for women. Land shortage is common among women.
Compared to men, women farm smaller and more dispersed
plots and are less likely to hold title, secure tenure, or the same
rights to use, improve, or dispose of land.
Extension and
training
Women farmers have less contact with extension services than
men, especially where male-female contact is culturally
restricted. Extension is often provided by men agents to men
farmers on the erroneous assumption that the message will
trickle “across” to women. In fact, agricultural knowledge is
transferred inefficiently or not at all from husband to wife.
Moreover, the message itself tends to ignore the unique
workload, responsibilities, and constraints facing women
farmers.
Technology Women generally use lower levels of technology because of
difficulties in access, cultural restrictions on use, or regard for