Gender,control, and crop choice in northern Mozambique

Women play an important role in the agricultural production process in developing countries, yet their role in making decisions about what to grow and implications for household welfare remains poorly understood. In this article, I study women's empowerment in northern Mozambique as it relates to agriculture, considering in particular the factors associated with women managing the plots that they nominally control. Women control about 30% of the plots in the data, but only manage about 70% of those plots. Using a unique panel data set, I find that women are more likely to manage plots when households have had historic access to off‐farm labor, typically completed by men. When women manage plots, they tend to grow crops with less complicated production techniques and are less likely to grow the main area cash crop. However, conditional on historic access to off‐farm labor their farm incomes are the same as among men.     

Political reservation and female empowerment: evidence from Maharashtra,India

This paper studies the impact of political reservation for women on political participation and empowerment of women living in areas where gender quotas are mandated. Following the 1992 passage of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in India, one-third of village government head positions are reserved for women. Utilizing the random allocation of reserved seats and a unique individual level data-set which captures a large set of measures on political participation of women, we find that women residing in areas with a female village government head show significantly higher levels of political participation and empowerment. Overall, the observed effect can be entirely attributed to improved outcomes of women from a lower socio-economic strata, while no effect is found for economically better-off women. The results suggest that the imposed gender quotas are an effective means of overcoming inequalities and contributed to giving disadvantaged women more voice and opportunity for political empowerment. We further investigate the role that the level of women’s political participation plays on the type and quality of public services delivered. Our results indicate that the level of women’s political participation and empowerment is an important channel through which public service delivery is influenced.     

Can women's self‐help groups improve access to information,decision‐making,and agricultural practices? The Indian case

Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.     

Women farmers’ participation in the agricultural research process: implications for agricultural sustainability in Ethiopia

Empowering women farmers to participate in agricultural research is a key strategy for sustainable agricultural development. Women empowerment has the potential to improve their roles in agricultural production while enhancing nutrition and food security. Although new agricultural development policies are focusing on improving women engagement in agriculture, there is limited literature on women empowerment in relation to agricultural research. This study used mixed methods to analyse women farmers’ participation in four stages of the agricultural research process – design, testing, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation. Two hundred and thirty individual interviews with women farmers and 16 focus group discussions with men and women farmers were conducted in four Woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. Quantitative data were analysed using binary and multivariate probit models. Qualitative data were analysed using line-by-line coding. The results showed that several empowerment indicator variables significantly (p?≤?.001) influenced women’s participation in different stages of agricultural research. Specifically, input in production decisions, autonomy in plot management, membership to farmer groups, and ability to speak in public enhanced women’s participation in different stages, in addition to access to information and extension services, education and land size. Cultural norms hindered women’s empowerment and engagement in research. To foster sustainable agriculture development, it’s important to integrate holistic and proactive gender perspectives into research strategies to increase women’s participation in farmer research groups, access information and knowledge, have voice and challenge constraining cultural norms and traditions.     

Gender and conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

Conservation agriculture (CA) involves the practice of concurrent minimum tillage, permanent soil cover using crop residue, and crop rotation. Evidence indicates that CA increases agricultural productivity, reduces farming labour requirements, and improves soil quality. While CA is practised in several African contexts, little is known about its interaction with gender. This review synthesized knowledge on the interplay of gender and CA in sub-Saharan Africa. The review highlighted the relative neglect of gender issues in research on CA in SSA. Existing research was limited both in quantity and to a few countries in the region. There was also little critical focus on gender as a social phenomenon: a few of the studies conceptualized gender in terms of the socially constructed roles of men and women while the majority framed it in terms of the sexual categories of male and female. Compared to men, and due largely to gendered barriers, including lack of access to land; machinery; inputs; extension services; and credit facilities, women farmers adopted CA less and dis-adopted it more. CA increased women’s incomes, labour involvement, household food security, as well as risks for land and crop dispossession by men when farming becomes lucrative. It also increased workloads, employment opportunities and health risks for women. CA positively altered gender relations, boosting women’s participation in agricultural decision-making at the household level. Deliberately enlisting women as beneficiaries; working with men to advance their understanding of women’s needs in agriculture; and offering agricultural inputs directly to women are some strategies that enhanced women’s participation in CA. Gaps in current research on gender and CA include: critical focus on and understanding of gender as a social construct in relation to CA; the long-term impacts on CA for gender relations, incomes for men and women, and women’s empowerment; the sustainability of strategies for supporting gendered participation in CA; and the dynamics of gendered access to local farmland markets for CA.     

Gender and conservation agriculture in East and Southern Africa: towards a research agenda

It is remarkable that despite wide-ranging, in-depth studies over many years, almost no conservation agriculture (CA) studies consider gender and gender relations as a potential explanatory factor for (low) adoption rates. This is important because CA demands new ways of working with the farm system. Implementation will inevitably involve a reallocation of men's and women's resources as well as having an impact upon their ability to realize their gender interests. With respect to intra-household decision-making and the distribution of benefits, CA interventions have implications for labour requirements and labour allocation, investment decisions with respect to mechanization and herbicide use, crop choice, and residue management. CA practice may impact upon the ability of households to source a wide variety of crops, wild plants, and insects and small animals for household nutrition. Gender biases in extension service design can sideline women. This paper examines the limited research to date on the interactions between CA interventions and gender in East and Southern Africa, and, based on the gaps observed, sets out a research agenda. It argues that attention to gender in CA is particularly timely given the increasing interest in CA as a means of adapting to climate change.     

农业节水中妇女因素影响研究进展

[目的]农村劳动力性别结构发生变化,使妇女承担起了包括农业灌溉在内更多的农业生产劳动。妇女农业节水对水资源的高效利用具有重要的现实意义。[方法]文章基于文献梳理的视角,采用文献分析法和比较归纳法,类列出现有研究中妇女对农业节水影响的定性,界定妇女赋权的概念,提出利用微观调研数据定量分析不同因子对妇女农业节水的影响及其单个因子的贡献率。[结果]（1）农业女性化是工业与农业竞争发展博弈的结果,尽管该趋势延续与否、对农业生产发展利弊的判定尚不明确,但是农村劳动力性别结构发生变化确定无疑,妇女更深程度地参与了农业生产多个环节,农业劳动也相应更多地落在了妇女肩上。（2）妇女成为农业灌溉的主要力量,却因受限于教育程度相对偏低、劳动压力大、社会地位边缘化等原因影响了在农业节水中表现。（3）赋予妇女权能,使其能在承担了灌溉劳动的同时有机会参与水资源的管理,激发妇女在农业节水中的积极作用。[结论]妇女对农业节水影响的研究较少,已有文献多以定性研究为主,且对妇女农业节水与否说法不一。采用微观调研数据分析妇女年龄、健康状况、文化程度、节水意愿、地区经济发展水平、家庭总收入、政策扶持、技能培训、干旱情况、土壤...     

How has microcredit supported agriculture? Evidence using panel data from Bangladesh

Improving agricultural productivity has received a greater attention in recent years amid concerns about rising food insecurity, population pressures, and climate change. Many believe that better access to institutional credit, spanning microcredit as well as commercial and agricultural banks, can help rural households smooth risks, and access inputs and other technology to modernize agriculture and improve farm/nonfarm linkages. We use recently augmented household panel data spanning over 20 years in Bangladesh to examine the effects of rural credit expansion (both microcredit and formal bank channels) on outcomes for agricultural households. We find that microcredit has benefited households with lower landownings, raising agricultural income from activities such as livestock rearing that require less land, as well as nonfarm income diversification for all households, but with the strongest effect for landless or near‐landless households. We do not find effects of microcredit on crop income, but do, however, find that reported supply‐side credit constraints significantly lower crop income. Borrowing by both men and women has contributed to nonfarm income growth for marginal farmers, but only men's borrowing has contributed to nonfarm income growth among higher landowning groups.     

Relative efficiency of women as farm managers: Profit function analysis in Côte d'Ivoire

The efficiency of women farmers in the agricultural sector of developing countries is passionately debated. Very few studies have examined this issue in African agriculture. All previous studies were based on production functions, but have been criticised as suffering from simultaneous equation bias because the input levels are endogenous. The profit function method avoids these problems. No previous study has used the profit function method to lest for technical, allocative and economic efficiency differences between women and men farmers. The objective of this paper was to determine whether women rice farmers are less efficient than men rice farmers in Côte d'Ivoire using the restricted normalised profit function method. Our results show that the relative degree of efficiency of women is similar to that of men. The paper provides empirical support for efforts to eliminate bias against women farmers in African agriculture.     

Drinking water and off‐farm labour supply: between‐gender and within‐gender bias

In this paper, we use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) panel data to analyse the impact of drinking water on off‐farm labour supply. A two‐stage least squares (2SLS) multivariate Tobit regression model with random effects was applied. We find that impacts of drinking water conditions on off‐farm labour supply may be greater for women than men but depends on the specific family role or family structure. A strong within‐gender effect exists in households. For example, daughters are not sensitive to water access nor water quality, but householder's spouses are sensitive to water access, and daughters‐in‐law are sensitive to water quality. Our findings suggest that infrastructure development in improved access to safe water has contributed positively to reductions in traditional gender biases, evening the playing field between daughters, daughters‐in‐law, mothers and mothers‐in‐law. We also find that water the infrastructure program may actually encourage off‐farm labour mobility, reducing the supply of agricultural labour and the share of household labour on the farm. Thus, a broader approach to water policy should also include public investment in achieving greater labour efficiency and productivity.     

Resource constraints and partial adoption of conservation agriculture by hand-hoe farmers in Mozambique

Conservation agriculture is a set of practices widely promoted to increase agricultural productivity while conserving soil through reduced tillage, mulching and crop rotation. Adoption levels are low across southern Africa and farmers often use only some components on small portions of their land. This study uses in-depth interviews and partial budget analysis to explore adoption of conservation agriculture in Mozambique's Angonia highlands. Farmers described many benefits but there was little sign of adoption beyond plots where non-governmental organizations promoting conservation agriculture had provided inputs. Most farmers were adamant that conservation agriculture could perform better than conventional agriculture only if they applied fertilizer or compost. With current costs and prices, conservation agriculture is unprofitable except on small plots for farmers with low opportunity cost of household labour. These findings suggest that conservation agriculture can improve maize yields but capital and labour constraints limit adoption to small plots in the absence of free or subsidized inputs. Given the current ranges of prices for grain and inputs these manual forms of conservation agriculture will not be adopted on a large scale in Angonia. Nevertheless, small conservation agriculture plots can provide farmers with high yields where constraints are lowest.     

Women’s Labour Contribution to Productivity and Efficiency in Agriculture: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh

This article examines the contribution of women’s labour input to productivity and efficiency in crop farming using a large survey dataset of 1,839 households from 16 villages in two agro‐ecological regions of Bangladesh. Results reveal that female labour accounts for a substantial 28% of total labour use (mainly supplied from the family) and contributes significantly to productivity as well as technical efficiency. Contrary to expectation, the cost share of female labour input is significantly higher than the male share, and has a substitution relationship with all other inputs, including male labour. The estimated mean level of technical efficiency is 0.90, implying that crop output might be increased by 10% by eliminating technical inefficiency. Both male and female education have a significant impact on improving technical efficiency. Other significant technical efficiency shifters are farming experience, family size and crop diversification. Owner operators are found to be technically inefficient relative to the tenants. Policy implications include creation of a hired labour market for female labour so that more women can be involved in the production process, and can contribute to towards improving productivity and efficiency. In addition, investment in education for both men and women, strategies to promote crop diversification and effective regulation/modification of the tenancy market will significantly improve technical efficiency in this case.     

农户借贷对粮食生产技术效率的影响研究——基于2012—2018年3省3 255份农户面板数据

目的 基于生产要素配置视角,研究农户借贷对粮食生产技术效率的作用路径,并进行理论分析。方法 文章利用2012—2018年中国农业科学院农业经济与发展研究所全国固定观察点的3 255份农户面板数据,首先采用随机前沿模型测算农户粮食生产技术效率;其次构建固定效应模型,实证分析农户借贷对粮食生产技术效率的影响方向及作用强度,并利用IV-2SLS方法处理农户借贷对粮食生产技术效率影响的内生性问题,并进行稳定性检验和异质性分析。结果 农户借贷对粮食生产技术效率有显著促进作用,存在借贷行为的农户粮食生产技术效率比未存在借贷行为的农户高0.017。除此之外,农户党员身份、农业技术培训、家庭非农劳动力人数以及加入合作社对粮食生产技术效率都存在明显的促进作用;而家庭劳动力人数对粮食生产技术效率有显著抑制作用。结论 农户利用借贷资金改善生产要素配置从而提高粮食生产技术效率。     

MGNREGA in Tamil Nadu: A Story of Success and Transformation?

Social protection has emerged as a key driver of development policy at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. It is widely considered a ‘good thing’ that has the potential not only to alleviate poverty and vulnerability, but also to generate more transformative outcomes in terms of empowerment and social justice. Based on an ethnographic study of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India's flagship social protection policy, this paper takes a critical look at what this policy's ‘success’ consists of. The study was carried out in Tamil Nadu, a state widely presented as a ‘success’ in terms of MGNREGA's implementation, and describes who participates in the scheme and how success is understood and expressed at different social and bureaucratic levels. In terms of MGNREGA's outcomes, we conclude that the scheme is benefitting the poorest households – and Dalits and women in particular – especially in terms of providing a safety net and as a tool for poverty alleviation. But the scheme does more than that. It has also produced significant transformative outcomes for rural labourers, such as pushing up rural wage levels, enhancing low‐caste workers' bargaining power in the labour market and reducing their dependency on high‐caste employers. These benefits are not only substantial but also transformative in that they affect rural relations of production and contribute to the empowerment of the rural labouring poor. However, in terms of creating durable assets and promoting grassroots democracy, the scheme's outcomes are much less encouraging.     

The impact of strengthening agricultural extension services on women farmers: Evidence from Ethiopia

This paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP), which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems in Ethiopia, and by making them more responsive to smallholders’ needs, in particular women farmers. We examine the gender‐differentiated impact of the RCBP using panel data on 1,485 geographically dispersed households in project and control kebeles. We find that women farmers’ access and satisfaction with extension services increased significantly immediately after the start of the project, but that effect did not last into the medium term. The project led to an increase in the adoption of high‐value crop farming, area of land cultivated, and economic participation of household members, benefiting male‐ and female‐headed households equally. Results point to the positive impact of incorporating women's needs and constraints in the design of the agricultural extension system. However, the project was not able to reduce the preexisting gender gap in agricultural outcomes.     

The fourth industrial revolution,agricultural and rural innovation,and implications for public policy and investments: a case of India

The Indian Government and public–private partnerships are developing and disseminating a dizzying number of innovative, networked solutions, broadly known as the Digital India initiative, to increase the efficiency of safety nets and worker productivity and to improve life. Yet, challenges to turn the power of information and other technologies into a farmer‐friendly technological revolution for India's 156 million rural households are considerable, including: (1) reliable, up‐to‐date, location‐specific message content for a diverse agriculture to help stratified households shift to productive, knowledge‐intensive agriculture as a business—government, private sector, and civil society have big roles to play; (2) digital literacy, i.e., teaching farmers how to choose and use apps, even where the digital divide is absent; apps are, or soon to be, in regional languages; and (3) monitoring actual use and impacts on users’ lives by understanding the adoption and adaptation processes. These challenges call for bottom‐up, complementary investments in physical, human, and institutional capital, and farmer‐friendly e‐platforms, while forging ahead with many top‐down policy and institutional reforms currently underway, in which progress is real and constraints holding back greater success are better understood.     

The adoption of intensive monocrop horticulture in southern Cameroon

Results from a 1997 survey of 208 households in the humid forest zone of southern Cameroon indicate that African policy makers seeking to intensify agricultural production should focus attention on the horticultural sub‐sector. The survey, which gathered information on horticultural production practices, found that the average expenditure on agro‐chemical inputs by horticultural producers using monocrop production systems was 190US$/ha, which greatly exceeds the FAO reported national average expenditure of 6.50 US$/ha. A logit model of monocrop adoption indicated that the size of land holding per household had a negative effect on adoption, congruent with population‐driven technical change and that increases in unit transportation costs significantly decreased the probability of adoption. These findings suggest that policy makers should target horticultural intensification in areas of higher population density and promote investment in rural roads. The age of the household head had a significant negative and elastic effect on adoption, which in combination with an increase in the cohort of younger farmers in the rural population induced by macro‐economic events contributed to the spread of intensified horticulture. In the study area, roughly two‐thirds of rural households also produce cocoa and the quantity of cocoa produced was positively associated with adoption of intensive horticultural systems suggesting that export crop promotion indirectly facilitated diversification of agriculture. Women's participation in intensive monocrop production was limited and efforts to promote their greater involvement are recommended.     

Latin American Women's Protection after Adjustment: A Feminist Critique of Conditional Cash Transfers in Chile and Argentina

This paper analyses conditional cash transfer (CCT) policies in Argentina and Chile from a gender perspective. Policy advocates maintain that, through the income provided by CCTs, women acquire some economic autonomy and empowerment within the household. This positive analysis is, however, tempered by gender-based concerns about the developmental value of conservative appeals to women as “mothers”, founded on traditional cultural norms, in regional policy design. Drawing on these two country examples, the objective of the paper is to assess the terms and conditions of women's inclusion as “conduits of policy” in CCTs in the Southern Cone. Findings indicate that the continuity of policy in Chile's anti-poverty strategies locates women as being accountable for family well-being within a multidimensional and psychological vision of poverty. Chile constitutes a radical example of the extension of women's individual responsibilities in managing household poverty with no collective component. By contrast, in Argentina the role of women appears to be dictated more by continuous changes in the state's definition of poverty alleviation, rather than the developmental objective of empowering women. Women's positioning in CCTs could be labelled as bearers of politics, in a context that transfers to women the duty of socially assisting others while rendering their personal needs progressively less visible.     

The modification of North China quadrangles in response to rural social and economic changes in agricultural villages: 1970–2010s

In Chinese agricultural villages, housing provides multiple functions for rural households. With the transition of state policies and regional socio-economic development in China over the last 40 years, farmers have modified the layout and form of rural housing to adapt to the shifts in their livelihoods and lifestyles. Rural housing built by the remittances of migrant workers has produced negative externalities in densely populated agricultural regions, whilst in some villages, traditional housing has been demolished as part of settlement rationalization plans, with peasants relocated to apartment-style housing. These practices have been controversial and generated conflicts between peasants and local governments. Thus, rural housing has become a theoretical and practical problem in rural China that cannot be resolved with a “one-size-fits-all plan or policy”. Based on field surveys and interviews in three case villages, this paper examines how the form and layout of North China quadrangles (NCQs, or Huabei siheyuan), the four-sided folk housing built by people of the Han nationality in northern China, have been modified since the 1970s. We discuss the land use problems arising from the evolution of NCQs and options for solutions. We found that NCQs in agricultural villages have undergone several dramatic modifications: NCQs built during the collectivist agriculture era (1970s) were traditional in style but had reduced functions; NCQs built during the agriculture intensification era (1980s to mid-1990s) played an important role in agriculture production; and NCQs built in the cyclical migration era (mid-1990s to date) are typically modern and spacious. These modifications to the form of NCQs can be seen as adaptation and survival strategies of rural households in response to socio-economic transitions, their changing livelihoods, and changes in their needs over the course of their lives. Today, rural houses with varied qualities, abandoned houses, and empty plots of land coexist and intermingle together in rural settlements. To manage this chaotic situation, we suggest macro-level solutions with targeted measures to respect variations in farmers’ characteristics and interests and avoid impairing the diversity and adaptability of rural folk housing.     

Examining gender inequalities in land rights indicators in Asia

A broad consensus has emerged among both policymakers and researchers that strengthening women's property rights is crucial for reducing poverty and achieving equitable growth. Despite the important role of land in rural livelihoods and as a form of wealth in many Asian countries, surprisingly few nationally representative data exist on women's property rights in Asia.This paucity hinders the formulation and implementation of appropriate policies to reduce gender gaps in land rights. This article reviews the existing micro‐level, large sample data on men's and women's control of land, identifies what can and cannot be measured by these data, and uses these measures to assess the gaps in the land rights of women and men. Utilizing nationally representative individual‐ and plot‐level data from Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Vietnam, and Timor‐Leste, we calculate five indicators: incidence of landownership, distribution of landownership, distribution of plots owned, mean plot size, and distribution of land area, all by sex of owner. The results show large gender gaps in landownership across countries. However, the limited information on joint and individual ownership are among the most critical data gaps and thus are an important area for future data collection and analysis.