Women in Agriculture

*Women in Agriculture (2)*

As the global community works toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- among them, SDG2, which aims to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 -- women can be the key agents of change in agriculture, nutrition and rural development.  With better access to information, training, and technology, women can alter food production and consumption so that land and resources are used sustainably.

The industrialization of agriculture falls mainly within typically male areas of decision-making, including the economic risks involved. These areas include the competitive use of machinery, agrochemicals and high-breeding plant varieties; the cultivation of cash crops and the breeding of large livestock for supra-regional markets. Men’s involvement in these often risky activities have in the past decades brought about ruin for many farmers, forcing them to migrate to the slums of the cities and causing many to commit suicide out of desperation. Women in contrast tend to be more cooperative and cautious, and try to minimize risks in food production, processing and supply, and they opt for social self-help and preventive health care. Men’s forms of farming practice geared toward national and international markets therefore often undermine female domains and competences. Women frequently provide their families with food, from diversified cultivation of vegetables, fruits, tubers and herbs in their gardens, as well as from the rearing of small livestock.

Women’s Contribution to Agriculture

Women as livestock keepers

Within pastoralist and mixed farming systems, livestock play an important role in supporting women and in improving their financial situation and women are heavily engaged in the sector. An estimated two-thirds of poor livestock keepers, totalling approximately 400 million people, are women. They share responsibility with men and children for the care of animals, and particular species and types of activity are more associated with women than men. For example, women often have a prominent role in managing poultry and dairy animals and in caring for other animals that are housed and fed within the homestead.

Female-headed households are as successful as male-headed households in generating income from their animals, although they tend to own smaller numbers of animals, probably because of labour constraints. Ownership of livestock is particularly attractive to women in societies where access to land is restricted to men.

Women in fisheries and aquaculture

In 2008, nearly 45 million people world-wide were directly engaged, full-time or part-time, in the fishery primary sector (FAO fishery database). In addition, about 135 million people are estimated to be employed in the secondary sector, including post-harvest activities. While comprehensive data are not available on a sex-disaggregated basis, case studies suggest that women may comprise up to 30 percent of the total employment in fisheries, including primary and secondary activities. Information provided to FAO from 86 countries indicates that in 2008, 5.4 million women worked as fishers and fish farmers in the primary sector. This represents 12 percent of the total. In two major producing countries, China and India, women represented a share of 21 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of all fishers and fish farmers. 

Women have rarely engaged in commercial offshore and long distance capture fisheries because of the vigorous work involved but also because of women’s domestic responsibilities and/or social norms. Women are more commonly occupied in subsistence and commercial fishing from small boats and canoes in coastal or inland waters. Women also contribute as entrepreneurs and provide labour before, during and after the catch in both artisanal and commercial fisheries. For example, in West Africa, the so called “Fish Mamas” play a major role. They usually own capital and are directly and vigorously involved in the coordination of the fisheries chain, from production to sale of fish.

Having discussed all these, what then are the major challenges they face in this sector? I’ll pick it up from there next week. Thanks much for following till this point. Join me again, same time next week.

Article by:

Okediji Oluwadurotimi

Food, Nutrients and Health

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References

1. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/03/07/women-in-agriculture-the-agents-of-change-for-the-food-system

2. https://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/women-in-agriculture/women-in-agriculture.html