Women Farmers are
Invisible Actors in Hunger Drama
Women shoulder more
and more of the burden of providing food in many parts of the world as
they plant, plough, harvest and fish, gather fuel-wood, fetch water,
cook, breastfeed, and sell foodstuff.
But although they are the
main actors in feeding the world and fighting hunger and malnutrition,
most of their work is unpaid or grossly underpaid and they have little
or no access to land, credit, training and technology.
On a global scale, women
cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown. In sub-Saharan
Africa and the Caribbean, they produce up to 80 percent of basic
foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50 percent of food
production. In Latin America, they are mainly engaged in subsistence
farming, horticulture, poultry and raising small livestock.
In countries in
transition, the proportion of rural women working in agriculture ranges
from about a third in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to more than half in
Poland.
In some parts of the
world the role of women in agriculture has become increasingly dominant
as men are forced to leave their homes in search of jobs and income in
towns and cities. This new trend, called the ‘feminisation of
agriculture’, is most accentuated in sub-Saharan Africa where the male
population in rural areas is falling rapidly and women are now forming
the majority of smallholder farmers.
While the dominance of
women in rural areas is evident, policy- makers, planners and extension
officials often behave as if women did not exist, as if the situation
and needs of all farmers were the same, whether they are men or women.
Studies have shown that
when women farmers have access to resources such as land, credit,
technology training and marketing, they are more productive than men
farmers. But the world’s primary food producers have generally less
access to resources than men.
Without secure land
rights, women are often denied access to credit or the benefits of
membership in co-operatives and farmers associations. Land ownership
titles, however, are mostly given to the male head of household. For
example, less than 10 percent of women farmers in India, Nepal and
Thailand own land. Similarly, in Latin America agrarian reform
programmes tend to give land titles to men.
Without secure land
rights, women farmers find it difficult to obtain financial support from
banks. Land is usually required as collateral for loans and credit
schemes, and loans are often channelled through rural organizations to
their members. Membership is often limited to the head of household.
Without credit, women
farmers cannot buy inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, and better
technology, or hire workers. An analysis of credit schemes in Kenya,
Malawi, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe found that women received less
than 10 percent of the credit awarded to smallholders and one percent of
the total amount of the credit directed to agriculture. In Jamaica,
women account for only five percent of loans granted by the Agricultural
Credit Bank.
Ironically, numerous
studies have suggested that women may be more reliable than men in
repaying their debts.
by Erwin Northoff
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