Admission number AEM-MOOCs/2022/12/800

Name MBALIRE Arthur

Semester I
Course code AEM 104
Course title Gender Mainstreaming for Agricultural
Development
Signature
Date 20/03/2023
QUESTION 3:
Gender issues in agriculture; ways to address them

Introduction
Gender can be defined as socially constructed norms and ideologies which determine the roles
that women, men, girls and boys play in their daily lives in a particular context (WB, 2012).
These social roles vary over time and space and are reinforced by a system of discrimination
whereby men and women are allocated tasks differently and are accorded differential treatment
by virtue of their gender (gender division of labour, roles and responsibilities). Understanding
gender relations and power dynamics behind them is a prerequisite for understanding
individuals’ access to and distribution of resources, the ability to make decisions and the way
women and men, girls and boys are affected by political processes and social development.

Gender issues
Gender becomes an issue when division of labour results in an equal distribution of work,
opportunities and benefits between two sexes: man and woman. This is true in a situation in
which power relations between men and women put one gender in a dominant position and the
other in a subordinate position. A gender issue therefore involves a degree of oppression of one
sex by another through a system of discriminatory practices and denial of certain rights (UCA,
NAADS & SG 2000, 2003).

Gender and food security

Women are responsible for half of the world’s food production, yet they continue to be regarded
as home producers or assistants on the farm, and not as farmers and economic agents on their
own merit USAID/Feed the Future (2013) and FAO (2011). In many developing countries, land,
water rights and livestock are predominantly owned by men and transferred intergenerational to
males. Even where they can access land, lack of ownership creates a disincentive to invest time
and resources into sustainable farming practices, which in turn lowers production and results in
less income and food for the household. Women are the primary caretakers in the home, tasked
with providing food and care for the family. They, however, have less access to inputs and
advice so are less productive. The gap between men and women in agricultural production
decreases productivity for the whole household. Women’s own nutritional and health status has a
direct impact on the nutritional status of her children. Although timing and spacing of child
births have impacts on the nutritional status of her children, a woman may not be empowered to
choose when to have children. Time is a major constraint for women. They have to spend a great
deal of time traveling on foot to collect water and firewood, preparing meals and feeding the
family, and traveling between the home and fields, forcing them to make difficult trade-offs.
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Women’s mobility may be constrained because they are tied to their homes and are the primary
care takers of children.

Gender in conflict and pandemics

Women are more confronted with risks to their safety, especially in conflict and post-conflict
environments; violence against women is a serious problem around the world. Households
affected by HIV/AIDS have increased vulnerability to food insecurity. Illness due to HIV/AIDS
impedes a family’s capacity to grow food while their nutritional needs are even more critical.
Additionally, burdens on women as caretakers are increased.

Gender and agricultural livelihoods: strengthening governance

Good governance is one of the most important factors in eradicating poverty and promoting
development. It promotes voice and accountability, stability and absence of violence, the rule of
law, regulatory quality, effectiveness, and control of corruption. Sustainable livelihoods depend
on the access to and control over assets, namely, human, social, physical, natural, and financial
capital. Gender differences in access to and control over assets dictate power asymmetries and
negotiating power between men and women within the household and community. Women
participation in social groups and democratic governance is curtailed because of their assigned
gender roles and stereotypes.

Gender issues in rural finance (UCA, NAADS & SG 2000, 2003 and; FAO, 2002)
Having access to financial services allows rural women to procure the inputs, labour and
equipment they need for their agricultural or rural off-farm activities and; take better care of their
children, as research shows that women spend most of their income and savings on their
children’s education, nutrition and health. However, the availability of financial services is
limited in rural areas, and the existing financial services intended for rural communities rarely
benefit rural women. Societal norms and the associated gender roles become barriers to women’s
access to financial services. Legal restrictions on credit for women requiring the husband’s
signature on loan applications; lack of information about availability of credit; lack of collateral;
tagging credit to activities that women may not be participating in and; lack of saving and credit
products suitable for women products.

Gender in agriculture and nutrition (Sexsmith et. al., 2017; USAID/Feed the Future (2013)
and; FAO (2011)
Women make up a large percentage of the agricultural labor force but are disadvantaged in
productive asset ownership (land, livestock), and control of productive inputs. Female farmers
produce less than men―not because they are less efficient farmers, but because they lack equal
access to resources. Smallholder women farmers receive only 5% of all agricultural extension
services worldwide; work 20 hours more than men per week but receive less than 10% of
available credit. Women play key roles as both farmers and caregivers and are more likely than
men to spend their income on food and health. Their contribution, however is underrated. They
are less likely to hold statutory land rights, and, when they do own land, their plots are often
relatively small; women’s needs are rarely considered by social and business investors, often
resulting in unpaid work; gender discrimination in credit markets makes it more difficult for
women farmers to acquire laborsaving and innovative production inputs; investment projects
have tended to reproduce gender divisions of labour that relegate women to temporary, insecure
employment. Although contract farming schemes can raise women’s earnings, women have been
largely left out of these opportunities because they do not have production assets. Plantation
farming can create new paid employment opportunities, although employment conditions
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including remuneration are often poor; overcrowding women in the field and packing houses
exposes them to physically arduous work and to sexual harassment and; although investment
projects have raised women’s earning power, they have rarely improved women’s under-
representation in producer cooperatives or worker groups, including in internal decision making
and dispute-resolution bodies. Women’s voices in consultations and negotiations have been
curtailed leaving only male elites to opine.

Gender issues in agricultural marketing (UCA, NAADS & SG 2000, 2003)

Men tend to have more resources (money, tractors and land) and are therefore able to produce
larger quantities of produce, especially cash crops. Men are the ones that mainly engage in long
distance trade. Household obligations usually disadvantage women, restricting them to
smallholder markets near their homes. Contracts for cash are usually made with men as heads of
the household. The generally higher education level of men helps them to perform better in the
commercial world. Men tend to own and control means of transportation within the household.

The following best practices can help address gender issues in agriculture:
1. Identify agricultural practices and technologies that will reduce time, financial, and labor
constraints, with special attention to women’s constraints. For example, mechanizing
agricultural operations;
2. Promote approaches that foster equitable (though not equal) resource allocation practices
between men and women in family farm enterprises;
3. Work with the private sector to facilitate the entry and retention of women workers;
4. Encourage the private sector to invest in upgrading women’s skills, for example
functional adult literacy;
5. Design systems of resource allocation to explicitly reward women’s unpaid contributions
to household production;
6. Encourage men and women partnerships in development interventions/enterprises in the
household or community level to foster mutual support.
7. Improve the resilience of vulnerable rural populations by strengthening the ability of
households to manage agro-enterprises to meet both food and cash needs (training in
farming as a business).
8. Design equitable access to the rewards from agricultural enterprises by designing
commercial payment mechanisms (such as warehouse receipts)
9. Engage men and women in improving nutrition of all household members by
encouraging behavioral change and introducing nutritional training programs in
communities;
10. Foster equitable participation in decision-making processes at all levels (e.g., community
organizations, producer associations, local government) by engaging women’s advocacy
groups in policy reform; reforming organizational or community governance structures
(e.g., bylaws and constitutions) to promote women’s participation and/or attention to their
needs;
11. Promote the use of gender analysis by policymakers and policy analysts as a tool to
improve the enabling environment by ensuring that attention to gender inequalities is
integrated into agricultural policy research and; training policymakers to understanding
the differential gender impacts of policy.
12. Encouraging women to join voluntary saving and loan associations; flexibility in loan
terms to favour women; removing legal restrictions on women borrowing; reducing
transaction costs through group lending and simplifying borrowing procedures (UCA,
NAADS & SG 2000, 2003);
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 13. Using group formation strategies that are easily replicable and lead to scaling up and
federation of groups to help members exploit the advantages of collective action.
Developing group management and leadership skills and ensure that groups adopt
mechanisms that include women and men in performance evaluation of groups and their
leaders, and some enforceable sanctions such as the ability to withhold member- ship
fees.
14. Promote inclusive information sharing that enhances women’s understanding of their
rights and opportunities.

Conclusion
To have an all-inclusive development for all categories of people, there is need to break
sociological barriers that lead to discrimination and to empower marginalized groups, especially
women.

REFERENCES
1. Food and Agriculture Organization (2002). A Guide to Gender-Sensitive Microfinance.
Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) Programme. Rome.
2. Food and Agriculture Organization (2011). State of Food and Agriculture 2011: Women
in Agriculture, Closing the Gender Gap for Development:
http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa2010 11/en/
3. Sexsmith, K., Smaller, C. & Speller, W. (2017). Promoting Gender Equality in Foreign
Agricultural Investments: Lessons from voluntary sustainability standards. Winnipeg:
IISD. Retrieved from https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/promoting-
genderequality-foreign-agricultural-investments.pdf
4. Uganda Cooperative Alliance, National Agricultural Advisory Services & Sasakawa
Global 2000 (2003). Trainers’ Manual for Strengthening the Capacity of Service
Providers for Farmer Institutional Development. UCA December 2003
5. USAID/Feed the Future (2013). The Importance of Gender in Linking Agriculture to
Sustained Nutritional Outcomes. A presentation to the Agriculture and Nutrition Global
Learning and Evidence Exchange held in Guatemala City, Guatemala from March 5-7,
2013.
6. World Bank (2012). Overview in World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and
Development, World Bank, Washington DC