The impact of agricultural and household technologies on women: a conceptual and quantitative analysis in Burkina Faso

Agricultural technologies (new cultivars, inorganic fertilizers, soil-and water-conservation techniques) in Sub-Saharan Africa have been primarily introduced to male farmers by male-dominated extension services on the family plots. These yield-increasing, input-intensive technologies increase the demand for farm labor. So, not only do men obtain most of the direct benefits from the introduction of technology but this labor-intensive technology also increases the demands on women's time for additional labor. This raises the question: Are the combined effects of agricultural technologies beneficial or detrimental to women? We first develop a labor-market model that examines the impact of agricultural and household technologies on labor allocation and income determination within the household. We then discuss the important issue of how household labor-allocation decisions and division of income are made within the family in Sub-Saharan Africa. We use a programming model to estimate the effects of these technologies on household incomes and the income of women. The results indicate that the impact of agricultural technologies depends on the type of decision-making prevailing in the household. In contrast, household technologies increase the welfare of women regardless of the type of decision-making. However, with bargaining behavior, agricultural technologies do benefit women and there is some empirical support for this type of household behavior in Sub-Saharan African households.     

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...     

Heterogeneity in male and female farmers’ preference for a profit-enhancing and labor-saving technology: The case of Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR) in India

Labor-saving and income-increasing technologies may affect women farmers differently from men. However, very few studies explicitly account for women's preferences for new technologies. We carried out a discrete choice experiment with 337 female and 329 male farmers in Maharashtra, India, to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) for direct-seeded rice (DSR) with drum seeder and to understand the gender differences in marginal valuations of key attributes. We used the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to collect self-reported data on the role and say of women in different domains of decision making. The respective gender roles of women and men in the family and on the farm are aligned with their preferences. Men have a greater say over how the family spends the cash. Accordingly, men tend to have a higher WTP for attributes that increase income (increase in yield) or reduce cash costs (reduction in seed rate). Women contribute a large share of the labor for transplanting rice, much of which is unpaid work on family farms. Women, therefore, seem to value labor saving more. Women in our sample were more interested in the new technology and had a higher WTP for it.     

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.     

Effects on poverty and equity of the decline in collective tank irrigation management in Tamil Nadu, India

This paper investigates the factors influencing the decline in collective management of local commons and the impact of this decline on agricultural production and household consumption. The analysis is based on a village and household data set collected in 1999 in Tamil Nadu, India, where tank irrigation systems are managed collectively for rice cultivation by informal water users' organizations. Our statistical analyses find that one major reason for the decline in collective tank irrigation management is the dissemination of private well irrigation systems. Once the decline has occurred, our analyses predict that the gap in rice yields between farmers who have access to private wells and those who must rely solely on tanks will widen, with only the latter group suffering lower yields. Our analyses also find that the same pattern holds for levels of income and consumption because the affected farmers cannot sufficiently compensate for the loss of their rice income by diversifying their income sources to agricultural labor or nonagricultural work. In this way, the decline in collective management results in greater inequality and poverty.     

Welfare implications of reduced government subsidies to farm families: accounting for fringe benefits

In the past three decades, farm families have relied on government payments and off‐farm income to reduce income risk and increase total household income. Studies have shown that, as the income effect dominates, government payments tend to reduce off‐farm labor of farm operators and spouses. But that may not be true if one accounts for fringe benefits associated with off‐farm employment. Additionally, with looming budget deficits and the possibility of a reduction in decoupled government payments, farm families may be facing an altered economic environment. Our study addresses this issue by examining the links between government farm program payments and the ever‐important role of fringe benefits in the off‐farm employment of farm couples. Results from farm‐level data actually show that the marginal effect of government payments on hours worked off‐farm will decrease in magnitude when accounting for fringe benefits, ceteris paribus. These results support the notion that farm households’ welfare loss stemming from reduced decoupled payments may be overstated when models exclude fringe benefits from the estimation of off‐farm labor supply.     

Solving Brazil's land use puzzle: Increasing production and slowing Amazon deforestation

Brazil has become an agricultural powerhouse, producing roughly 30 % of the world’s soy and 15 % of its beef by 2013 – yet historically much of that growth has come at the expense of its native ecosystems. Since 1985, pastures and croplands have replaced nearly 65 Mha of forests and savannas in the legal Amazon. A growing body of work suggests that this paradigm of horizontal expansion of agriculture over ecosystems is outdated and brings negative social and environmental outcomes. Here we propose four strategies that can reduce deforestation, while increasing production and social wellbeing. First, eliminate land grabbing and land speculation through designation of public forests. This would clarify land tenure and limit the pool of land available for uncontrolled expansion of agriculture and ranching. Second, reduce deforestation on private properties by implementing existing mechanisms in Brazil’s Forest Code to facilitate payments for environmental services, with support from market initiatives for sustainable sourcing of agricultural products. Third, incentivize increased productivity on medium and large properties through targeted investments. By stimulating adoption of proven technologies for sustainable intensification, this would help meet Brazil’s production targets and growing international demand for agricultural products, without expanding into new production areas. Finally, foster economic, environmental and social improvements through technical assistance to small farmers. Small farmers occupy a large swath of the Amazon and often lack access to technical assistance, production technology, and markets. Providing quality technical assistance to small farmers could help them better align production practices with local opportunities; increase household income and improve livelihoods; and reduce deforestation pressure. By implementing these four strategies in a coordinated effort between public and private agents, Brazil can show the world how to reduce deforestation while increasing agricultural output, reestablishing its leadership in managing natural resources and mitigating climate change.     

The Adoption of Genetically Modified Cotton and Poverty Reduction in Pakistan

This article employs a propensity score‐matching approach to examine the direct effects of adoption of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton on yields, pesticide demand, household income and poverty, using cross‐sectional data from a survey of farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Generally, the findings reveal that adoption of the new technology exerts a positive and significant impact on cotton yields, household income and poverty reduction, and a negative effect on the use of pesticides. The positive and significant impact of the technology on yields and household income is consistent with the potential role of new agricultural technology in directly reducing rural poverty through increased farm household income.     

Husbands’ and wives’ risk preferences and improved maize adoption in Tanzania

Research on technology adoption typically assumes that the preferences of a single individual—the household head—determine household-level decisions. This study uses experimentally derived prospect theory-based risk preferences from couples in Tanzania to test whether men's and women's risk preferences, which often diverge, influence the adoption of improved maize varieties. We find that women's risk aversion and men's loss aversion are negatively correlated with improved variety use. The tendency of men to overweight small probabilities is negatively associated with adoption, whereas the tendency of women to do so is positively associated. These findings suggest that technology adoption research should look beyond the preferences of the household head, and that technology promoters should consider targeting both men and women in their education and dissemination efforts.     

Working Women and Expenditures on Food Away-From-Home and At-Home in Spain

Spain currently is experiencing rapid cultural and economic changes that influence food markets. In this paper, the selection and purchase of food away from home and at home in Spain are modeled in a two-stage process using switching regression techniques with explicit accounting for the value of women's time available for household production. The empirical results show that the value of women's time, income, and household demographic variables are important determinants of both participation in the market for and expenditures on food away from home. The paper concludes that high-income, young families with few children and employed family heads are more likely to consume food away from home and also to spend more than others on food away from home.     

农户生计资本对新型农业社会化服务采纳行为影响研究

目的 文章旨在探讨农户生计资本对新型农业社会化服务采纳行为的影响,从产业链全过程视角下推动农户新型农业社会化服务采纳行为。方法 基于可持续生计分析框架,利用江西省569个农户实地调查微观数据,构建二元Logitics模型实证生计资本对农户新型农业社会化服务采纳行为作用关系。结果 （1）受教育水平、农业劳动力数量、耕地面积、家庭年收入、是否加入合作社、是否担任村干部、获取农业信息渠道数量对产前环节新型农业社会化服务采纳行为具有正向显著影响;（2）农业劳动力数量、耕地面积、家庭年收入、获取农业信息渠道数量对产中环节新型农业社会化服务采纳行为具有正向显著影响;（3）受教育水平、耕地面积、家庭年收入、是否加入合作社、是否担任村干部、获取农业信息渠道数量对产后环节新型农业社会化服务采纳行为具有正向显著影响;（4）耕地块数对新型农业社会化服务全过程采纳行为具有负向显著影响;（5）距离县城公里数、村庄地形、经营方式对农户生产全过程新型农业社会化服务采纳行为均有正向显著影响。结论 据此提出提供再教育培训,引导劳动力回流;推进“小田并大田”与“宜机化”改造;拓宽农户收入渠道,稳步提升家庭收入;创新农民组织功能,拓宽农业信息渠道;优化服务主体布局,发展多种经营模式的对策启示。     

Beyond water-intensive agriculture: Expansion of Prosopis juliflora and its growing economic use in Tamil Nadu,India

Against the backdrop of expanding commercial crop markets and private well expansion, market-oriented agriculture has developed in villages with access to abundant water resources in Tamil Nadu, India. On the other hands, the villages that have failed to secure sufficient irrigation water have experienced sharp decline in cropping. Such land has been rapidly invaded by Prosopis juliflora, a tree species that has wide adaptability of the different environments and high coppicing ability. This species has traditionally been harvested as a fuel for domestic use and small-scale businesses, and recognised as “a tree for the poor”. However, since the establishment of the electricity act in 2003, which completely deregulated participation of private companies in the electricity generation industry, the new usage of Prosopis has been created: several small-scale electricity generating plants began to utilise this tree as an energy source. As a result, the demand for Prosopis tree rapidly increased and the real price of raw wood has more than doubled between 2003 and 2009. A census survey of household income revealed that income generated from Prosopis expansion compensated for the decrease of cropping, and contributed to an increase in the net household income, especially for the landless labourers and middle class land holders. This fact indicates that it is possible to reduce poverty in a semi-arid rural area without securing additional irrigation water, in case proper institutions and technologies are in place.     

目标价格改革对新疆棉农收入的影响机理及实证研究——基于南疆四地州370个样本农户的实地调查

[目的]通过探讨目标价格改革对棉农收入的影响机理,揭示影响南疆四地州棉农增收的主要因素。[方法]从棉农角度出发,基于南疆四地州370个样本农户的实地调研数据,结合当地特有的自然地理、农业生产、社会经济条件以及目标价格政策实施状况,理论分析目标价格补贴对棉农增收的作用机理,并运用多元线形回归模型实证分析目标价格补贴政策等对棉农收入的作用方向和影响程度。[结果]户主受教育程度、是否外出务工、社会关系、棉花种植面积、县域经济发展水平和棉花销售价格等对棉农人均收入均存在显著影响。[结论]基于此,要避免将补贴化为主要的收入保障措施,继续加快土地流转,扩大棉农财产性收入来源,加快新型职业农民培育,发展农民职业教育,加快县域经济发展,多管齐下,破解制约南疆民族地区棉农增收难题。     

Nonpecuniary Benefits to Farming: Implications for Supply Response to Decoupled Payments

We develop a household model wherein farmers allocate labor to maximize utility from leisure, consumption, and nonpecuniary benefits from farming. The model shows that farmers with decreasing marginal utility of income respond to higher decoupled payments by decreasing off-farm labor and increasing farm labor, resulting in greater agricultural output. We then estimate the difference between farm and off-farm returns to labor using data from three nationally representative farm household surveys. The finding of a large on-farm/off-farm wage differential provides compelling evidence of substantial nonpecuniary benefits from farming.     

New evidence regarding the effects of contract farming on agricultural labor use

Contractual agreements between smallholder farmers and agribusiness companies have gained in importance in many developing countries. While productivity and income effects of contracting in the small farm sector were analyzed in many previous studies, labor market and employment effects are not yet well understood. This is an important research gap, especially against the background of continued population growth and structural transformation. Here, we investigate the effects of two types of contractual agreements between large international processing companies and smallholder farmers on agricultural labor use, household labor allocation, and hired labor demand in Ghana's palm oil sector. We use cross‐sectional survey data and a willingness‐to‐pay approach to control for unobserved heterogeneity between farmers with and without contracts. We find that agricultural labor intensity is substantially reduced through the contracts, because contracting in Ghana is associated with the adoption of labor‐saving procedures and technologies. Simple marketing contracts lead to reallocation of the saved household labor to off‐farm employment, whereas resource‐providing contracts lead to a stronger reallocation of labor within the farming enterprise. Household labor is more affected by labor savings than hired labor.     

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.     

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 groups formed in response to public video screenings on rice processing in Benin

When the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)¹ introduced improved parboiling technology in Benin in 2006 through farmer-to-farmer video, it enhanced women's creativity and motivation to parboil more and better the quality of rice. Their rice attracted more buyers and fetched a higher price which increased their profits and strengthened the women's social cohesion. The video motivated women to start parboiling as a group and to express group-based requests for credit and training. However, newly established women's groups in villages with strong negative experiences from the cotton sector did not last because of fear and mistrust. The video helped local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve their training methods and strengthened their relations with rural communities and between the women rice processors and input and output markets. Although these NGOs responded by facilitating access to micro-finance institutions, they were unwilling to provide credit to the groups because of past bad experiences. Instead, informal credit suppliers proved more responsive. Rice producers who attended the open-air video shows at the same time as the women rice processors became more willing to sell them rice on credit. We discuss the conditions and challenges of farmer-to-farmer video in creating organizational and institutional changes among service providers and rural entrepreneurs.     

From male to joint land ownership: Women's experiences of the land tenure reform programme in Rwanda

During the post‐genocide period, the Government of Rwanda embarked on a land tenure reform programme that culminated in a land registration and titling process in 2009. This paper intends to capture women's experiences in relation to this programme. The empirical data were collected in Musanze District using a household survey, semi‐structured interviews, and focus group discussions. The main findings reveal that there is support of the general idea that women should benefit from the land tenure reform in Rwanda. However, there is some criticism towards parts of the land laws, and women have limited actual knowledge about land‐related laws. With land titles, women mostly have a say on the land use decisions requiring each of the spounses' legal consents but not on the daily management of land and its produce. Finally, the paper reports the persistence of social norms and culturally biased gender ideologies affecting the effective implementation of land‐related laws and policies. Therefore, the paper underscores the need to build the implementation of new laws and policies on a good understanding of customary practices to strengthen women's land rights in Rwanda.