Gender and Family Farming in the Context of Agrarian Transition

Amit Mitra, Independent ResearcherNitya Rao, Professor, Gender and

Development, University of East Anglia

Potential of IYFFThe 3 Rs:• Recognising women and

men as equal partners in family farming;

• Redistributing resources across genders;

• Representation and Voice in Decision-making.

With in-built sensitivity to social differences

Family Farms• A way of life, not just an economic enterprise;• Variability in activities and across

ecosystems;• Women (and men)not a homogenous group; • Definitions & methodologies of data

collection not standardised across Asia.

Challenges Confronting Family Farms

• Urbanisation• Climate Change• Decline of Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services• Globalisation, trade liberalisation and

withdrawal of the state

CHANGES IN AGRARIAN STRUCTURE

Corporatisation of Production

• Promotes high-value mono-cropping• Changes resources rights in favour of

the rich (&men)

Migration and Diversification• Non-farm incomes a predictor of wellbeing• Strong interdependencies between farm and non-farm

activities• Variability and flexibility in gender divisions of labour in

family farming• Cooperation between genders and generations,

including pooling of incomes

Feminisation

• Regional and country-level variations• Drivers of ‘feminisation’ varyRegion Male employment in

agriculture 2000 2011

Female employment in agriculture 2000 2011

East Asia 41 32.2 55.8 39.3 South East Asia

48.6 42.5 51.2 43.9

South Asia 53.4 44.4 74.9 68.8 Source: ILO 2012: Appendix, table A10

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND GENDER

Laws, Customs and Practices• Global and national frameworks recognise gender

equality• In practice, many barriers and constraints to

realisation• Interconnectedness of social institutions• Resistance and creativity of women for equality

Women’s Rights to land• Focus on land as the key productive asset for family

farming• Main access route is inheritance, varies across Asia; but

male bias entrenched• Women see land as source of security, and recognition

of their status as productive and reproductive workers.

Technology and Knowledge• Mechanisation – drudgery

reduction or labour displacement?

• Gendered impacts differentiated by class

• Access to transformative information, knowledge and skills denied; secondary roles reinforced

• Technologies to reduce reproductive work burdens inadequate

HOUSEHOLD AS AN

INSTITUTION

Intra-household relations

• Asian cultures emphasise complementarity, not individual self-interest

• Economic transactions reflect social relations, dependence, obligations

• Assets have gendered meanings• Pervasiveness of domestic violence• Everyday negotiations over labour, crops,

incomes

Armed Conflict

• Civil war, ethnic conflict, insurgency has increased poverty and insecurity

• Public infrastructure, especially irrigation, destroyed/not maintained, though majority dependent on agriculture

• Men killed/migrate and increase in women and child headed, and multi-generation households

Nutrition• Diversified crop base, yet malnutrition persists• Joint contributions and reciprocity crucial for nutrition• State policies– Enhance women’s workloads and responsibilities– Pit men against women, or alienate men from meeting

their nutritional responsibilities• Bio-fortified staple crops improve diets

Work intensity

Women’s Work & Nutrition• Time and health trade-offs impact nutrition• Energy consumption function of work intensity• Time allocation an inadequate measure of work intensity• Generic estimations of ‘need’ difficult, as influenced by biases

of gender & age across different economic and social groups• Cultures of food consumption – taboos, feeding practices,

notions of body and beauty

CONCLUSIONS &RECOMMENDATIONS

Key Insights• Agriculture seen as a ‘backward’, ‘unskilled’

sector, its contributions undervalued

• Dependence on migration, non-farm and off-farm employment for wellbeing

• This has led to changing structure of the family

• Family farms seen as individual units, rather than embedded in larger ecosystems & social contexts, a way of life and livelihood, leading to losses in biodiversity, crop mixes, nutrition and knowledge.

Implications for Gender• ‘Feminisation of agricultural work’ – low-paid,

invisible, insecure, and under-valued

• Increase in women’s work burdens on family farms and unpaid care, but varies with social position

• Focus on land as an asset downplays other natural & economic resources, and social support networks and services, critical to women’s identities

• Responsibility for nutrition on women, without attention to the unpredictability of returns to their productive and reproductive contributions

RecommendationsTo Governments and UN bodies: Paradigm Shift needed towards agriculture-led growth

1. Recognise the centrality of women in family farms– Remove discriminatory provisions from all laws and

policies– Develop UN convention to ensure equal entitlements to

women and men family farmers

2. Ensure access to resources– Improve infrastructure and services to save time and

reduce drudgery in productive and reproductive work– Actively support women’s managerial and entrepreneurial

roles and knowledge

Recommendations3. Recognise and research specificities across

agro-ecological and socio-economic contexts, and over the life-course

4. Ensure policy convergence to focus on people rather than sectors.