Washington, D.C.----Women
farmers produce more than half of all food worldwide and currently
account for 43 percent of the global agricultural labor force, yet few extension or research services are directed at women farmers, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online
service. Women produce as much as 50 percent of the agricultural output
in South Asia and 80 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, write report
authors Danielle Nierenberg and Seyyada Burney.
In spite of women
farmers' essential roles in global and local food security, there is a
persistent gender gap in agriculture. Cultural norms and restrictive
property or inheritance rights limit the types and amount of financial
resources, land, or technology available to women. Studies in South Asia
and throughout the Middle East also show that women receive lower wages
and are more likely to work part-time or seasonally than men in
comparable jobs, regardless of similar levels of education and
experience.
"Recognizing the
factors restricting women from receiving full compensation for their
role in global agriculture is key to alleviating the gender gap in
agricultural employment, resources, and development," said Nierenberg,
co-author of the report and Director of Worldwatch's Nourishing the
Planet project. "Women produce 60-80 percent of the food in developing
countries but own less than 2 percent of the land. They
typically farm non-commercial, staple crops, such as rice, wheat, and
maize, which account for 90 percent of the food consumed by the rural
poor."
Fewer extension or
research services are directed at women farmers because of perceptions
of the limited commercial viability of their labor or products----and
only 15 percent of extension officers around the world are women. Yet
the Economist Intelligence Unit's newly developed Global Food Security
Index has a 0.93 correlation with its index of Women's Economic
Opportunity, showing that countries with more gender-sensitive business
environments----based on labor policies, access to finance, and comparative levels of education and training----have
more abundant, nutritious, and affordable food. This relationship
provides evidence that when women have equal resources and opportunity,
they can produce higher----and higher-quality----agricultural yields.
Farmers in countries
with greater gender equality, based on an Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development index of Gender Inequality and Social
Institutions, tend to achieve higher average cereal yields than those in
countries with more inequality. The countries are also more
food-secure, based on food affordability, availability, quality, and
safety. Improved agricultural productivity reinforces gains in gender
equality in addition to creating a positive feedback mechanism
throughout local communities.
Community-level
efforts to improve women farmers' status and livelihoods can become more
effective if there are similar initiatives at the national scale. Policies
governing assets, employment, and mobility can be altered to protect
women's diverse needs and interests, including retention of joint
property upon widowhood and freedom for sole caregivers to work in
non-domestic employment or travel without male supervision in order to
support their families.Improved property or inheritance rights must go
hand in hand with supporting measures to ensure and develop women's
capacities to use their land or agricultural assets.
According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2011,
85 percent of countries made progress toward gender equity over the
past seven years, yet women farmers are still largely marginalized by
development policies that are inattentive to their needs. Current data
are limited in scope and slow research efforts by not reflecting the
wealth of knowledge and expertise that women are already using to, for
example, mitigate global climate change. Food insecurity and climate
change, along with associated trends such as land grabbing, large-scale
biofuel production, and gendered migration and employment patterns, are
also putting increasing pressure on women farmers to produce more with
fewer resources.
Developing a
rights-based policy framework requires collaborative research, learning,
and action within the international community for a global movement
to empower women farmers with the resources, support, and recognition
they need and deserve.
Further highlights from the report:
- Women represent 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world.
- Increased individual smallholder yields as a result of closing
gender gaps in land ownership can raise domestic agricultural output by
2.5-4 percent.
- Although they produce as much as 50 percent of the agricultural output, only 10-20 percent of landholders are women in most developing countries.
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