Agriculture

The agriculture sector needs to better examine the varied roles of men and women in the production, processing and sale of food. Without such data, agricultural experts fail to reach women farmers in an authentic, sustainable fashion.

Small-scale farmers – many of whom are women – are critical to growing economies and reducing hunger. But we lack proven solutions that link small-scale farmers into agriculture markets in ways that enable these producers and their countries’ economies to benefit.

When small-scale farmers have equitable access to markets and opportunities to boost their production, farm incomes increase. Farmers are able to feed their own families as well as provide food to the general population – all of which ultimately helps reduce poverty and hunger.

Women play a crucial part in this effort and in the overall agriculture sector. But despite increasing attention to women’s key roles in agriculture, there is still much we don’t understand. We don’t know how women make decisions about the types of crops they produce or how they process and sell their products. How do women farmers benefit from increased agricultural productivity? And what risks do they perceive when trying to expand their production and incomes? This dearth of information undermines the effectiveness of agriculture investments. Without understanding how women participate in the sector, programs continue to bypass nearly half of the agricultural workforce – to the detriment of women, their families and the sector overall.

We can change this. But doing it in ways that ensure women’s equitable inclusion into larger agriculture markets first requires a detailed examination of the value chains in which small-scale farmers work. Such an analysis essentially traces a commodity, such as maize, from the farm on which it’s cultivated to the dinner table where it’s ultimately consumed. The analysis identifies points along this “chain” where there are opportunities to increase the commodity’s quantity and quality of production as well as the value added to the product, such as through processing maize into flour. And it identifies inefficiencies, one of the greatest of which remains the grave inequities between how women and men participate in agriculture.

With that, it’s imperative for value chain analyses to focus on gender. Examining the journey from “farm to fork,” with an eye toward the varied roles of women and men, allows us to capture the complexities of how they each engage in specific commodities at all stages – from production to processing to sales. It reveals what women and men do and with what resources. It shows how they, their families and the agriculture marketplace benefit. Finally, it assesses these factors in the context of broader social and economic forces, such as how women’s household responsibilities can limit their time to produce crops for commercial markets or how inheritance laws can bar women from owning land.

Take for example a gender value chain analysis of dairy in Africa. Membership to dairy cooperatives was based on households, and only the head of the household was allowed to participate. That person also had to provide proof of land ownership. The analysis showed that the membership rules limited women’s participation in and benefits from cooperatives. So to better incorporate women, the analysis proposed changing the rules to relax the property ownership requirement and allow individuals, instead of households, to join.

The benefits of conducting such a value chain analysis are widely understood but how to do it in a manner that accurately represents women’s opportunities and constraints remains the challenge. At ICRW, we believe that investments in gender analysis of agricultural value chains are vital because analysis results can then be integrated into existing and new agricultural development programs to improve their effectiveness. Without data on women’s roles in farming, processing and marketing, agriculture development experts won’t reach women in an authentic, sustainable fashion. And global efforts to feed the world’s hungry and help lift them out of poverty will continue to fall short.

To that end, agriculture researchers and practitioners can no longer operate in separate silos – especially in light of increasing budget constraints and skyrocketing food prices. They need to work together to find synergy in their complementary interests and expertise. They must set a unified agenda for effectively analyzing the gender inequities at each stage of a commodity’s journey from the farm to the dinner table. And then, they need to identify ways to overcome them.

By taking steps to truly understand the lives and livelihoods of women farmers as well as processors and traders, global endeavors to increase agricultural productivity, boost economies and alleviate hunger will be far more successful.

Paula Kantor is ICRW’s senior gender and rural development specialist.

ICRW will host a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, with agriculture practitioners and researchers in an effort to jumpstart a shared agenda on creating more gender-responsive research, practice and learning in agricultural development.

With concerns about a mounting budget deficit and anticipated cuts to investments in foreign affairs, legislation aimed at international development issues will likely face challenges in the 112^th session of the United States Congress that starts today. This includes efforts geared toward bettering the lives of marginalized women and girls worldwide.

Although the Obama administration has committed to empower women and girls as part of an overall push to improve development programs, officials over the next two years will need to secure stronger Congressional support – through legislation and funding – to turn pledges into programs.

“Investing in women and girls as part of an overall strategy to improve the efficiency of foreign assistance could form the foundation of compromise both within and between Congress and the administration,” said Dan Martin, senior advocacy specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). “Reducing poverty and defending human rights are not partisan issues. We hope Congress can find common ground in these efforts.”

The political landscape transformed on Nov. 2, when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives with a net gain of 63 seats, and Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. While committee leadership in the Senate remains unchanged, House leadership of key foreign affairs committees shifted dramatically.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis of 2008 continues to affect the federal budget, putting foreign assistance accounts at risk for reductions. Senior members of Congress, including incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said they intend to cut funding from the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development (USAID), the two agencies primarily responsible for conducting global development programs.

According to the State Department, foreign aid represents 1 percent of the federal budget. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has prioritized women and girls as part of her larger efforts to improve the effectiveness of U.S. development dollars, saying “investing in the potential of the world’s women and girls is one of the surest ways to achieve global economic progress, political stability and greater prosperity.”

Indeed, leaders from the legislative and executive branches of the government are recognizing that women and girls are integral to activities abroad. But Congress took few concrete legislative actions in 2010 to back up that notion: Legislation aimed at preventing child marriage failed to pass into law. So did a bill meant to help reduce violence against women worldwide. Meanwhile, Congressional action in late December to fund the federal government through March 2011 meant that foreign assistance funding would see no increases in the near future.

In the midst of anticipated challenges ahead, ICRW experts will continue to educate members of Congress and key administration officials about specific actions that can be taken to improve gender equality and fight poverty worldwide. To that end, ICRW will work on the following issues in the 112^th Congress:

Prevention of Child Marriage

Child marriage, most common in poor, rural communities, has devastating consequences for young girls around the world and, as ICRW research has shown, further perpetuates the cycle of poverty. By helping girls to stay in school longer and preventing health risks associated with early childbearing, combating child marriage could increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance dollars – and give millions of girls a better chance to live full, healthy lives.

Senators on Dec. 1 unanimously approved the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act,” legislation aimed at curbing this harmful traditional practice. However, despite significant bipartisan support, it failed in the House to pass into law.

“We made great progress over the last two years, and ICRW fully intends to use that momentum to bring this issue forward again in 2011,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “We need to work with key stakeholders, including those that led the effort to defeat the bill last year, to find the nexus between good policy and good politics.”

Integrating Women into International Agricultural Development Programs

President Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative to increase U.S. investment in agricultural development, particularly through small-scale farmers, strives to help reduce hunger and poverty worldwide. Through this initiative, the administration commits to boosting productivity and incomes by ensuring that women and men farmers have equal access to resources.

Congressional leaders in 2010 provided much-needed funding for international agricultural development. However, in the current budget climate, future funding for these programs will likely face scrutiny.

“The Obama administration must do a better job of communicating to Congress what Feed the Future is, how it serves American interests, and why the requested funding levels are necessary,” said David Kauck, ICRW’s senior gender and agricultural specialist. “Consistent U.S. investment in international agricultural development will enable farmers to increase their income, reduce hunger and malnutrition and contribute to overall economic growth.”

Violence against Women

Nearly one in three women around the world will face violence in her lifetime, and certain regions of the world have even higher rates. The U.S. continues to fund programs to address gender-based violence globally, even increasing investment in some areas, such as to further explore the link between HIV and violence. The “International Violence Against Women Act” (IVAWA) was first introduced in 2008 and reintroduced in 2010 to foster a more comprehensive, coordinated approach that supporters of the legislation, including ICRW, believed would be more effective and fiscally responsible. 

The bill received unprecedented attention as the subject of multiple Congressional hearings and debates. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed IVAWA on Dec. 14, however the Congressional calendar did not allow time for a full Senate vote on the legislation.

ICRW experts say IVAWA provides the U.S. an opportunity to become a worldwide leader in a comprehensive approach to reducing violence against women. “Reducing violence against women will have a double dividend,” said Mary Ellsberg, ICRW’s vice president of research and programs and an expert on in issues related to gender-based violence. “It will help end a gross human rights violation, and give women more opportunities to realize their full educational, economic and social potential, which will ultimately lead to more stable and prosperous societies.”

Foreign Assistance Reform

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is the governing document of most U.S. international assistance. However, in the context of today’s development issues, many deem the act to be outdated.

Several attempts by legislators to modernize U.S. foreign assistance in 2010 were met with limited success. The Obama administration, however, is moving forward on two fronts to keep pace with the changing times, especially as it relates to further integrating women into foreign assistance programs:

The first one is through President Obama's “Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development", which was released last year and further clarified his commitment to empowering women and girls as well as integrating gender throughout all development programs. “We’re investing in the health, education and rights of women…” Obama said during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, “because when mothers and daughters have access to opportunities, economies grow and governance improves.”

Second, the State Department last month released the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), which pledges to “integrate gender issues into policies and practices at the State Department and USAID.” The QDDR will serve as a blueprint of reforms to be implemented at State and USAID, starting in January 2011, to make foreign assistance more effective.

“In order to make these executive-level commitments permanent, Congress needs to pass legislation to reform the Foreign Assistance Act,” Martin said. “And to do that, administration officials will have to reach out to counterparts on the Hill to find common ground.”

Roxanne Stachowski is ICRW's external relations associate.

The global Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has commissioned the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to identify pragmatic ways to integrate gender analysis into ongoing agricultural research programs. 

Established in 1971, CGIAR is a network of 15 global institutions engaged in research for sustainable development. CGIAR centers collaborate with national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, the private sector and other partner organizations around the world. Its research has been credited with spearheading major improvements to agricultural productivity and food security.

ICRW is working with CGIAR to examine how the organization can incorporate gender-related realities into its research, program implementation, policy design and evaluation in fields such as food security and nutrition. Analyzing the role of gender in agriculture includes, for instance, addressing the unique needs and capabilities of women and men in farming. In many countries, women play critical roles in agricultural production, processing and marketing.

And by considering women farmers’ various agricultural responsibilities, CGIAR scientists can develop effective technologies that are more likely to enjoy widespread acceptance, said David Kauck, ICRW’s senior gender and agriculture specialist who leads the project. He added that as more women farmers adopt such technologies, researchers will have a greater impact on alleviating hunger, boosting agricultural productivity and improving the livelihoods of the rural poor.

“By better integrating gender considerations into CGIAR’s formidable body of research, we can help ensure that both women and men benefit from agricultural innovations,” Kauck said.

Roxanne Stachowski is ICRW’s external relations program associate.

Simple, diverse farming techniques help mother of five in Kenya curb hunger and earn an income.

VILLAGE OF MUYAFWA, Kenya – Much of Janet Wamalwa’s one-acre farm plot lay bare and difficult to cultivate. Like many areas of sub-Saharan Africa, her land in Muyafwa, a village in western Kenya, was plagued by soil erosion and low productivity. And for a subsistence farmer like 32-year-old Janet, when her crops don’t grow, her family doesn’t eat. The mother of five said that they lived on one meal a day during the dry season.

But no more.

Today, Janet’s crops are thriving and her family is eating better because of several sustainable farming techniques she implemented with the help of an international nongovernmental organization, World Neighbors, and Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Janet is one of several women farmers who experts from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) met with to learn more about farming methods that work best for them. Janet’s approach is just one example of how small-scale farmers in Africa – most of whom are women – can use a diversity of simple practices to stave off hunger, earn an income and, ultimately, improve their lives.

“Women like Janet are central to alleviating hunger in rural communities where most of the world’s poor and food insecure people live,” said Rekha Mehra, ICRW’s director for economic development. “They depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods, and small-scale, affordable solutions that increase their productivity can go a long way in improving the quality of life of their entire household.”

ICRW experts plan to take what they learned from Janet and other women during the ICRW-sponsored workshop and share it with Kenyan and U.S. policymakers and practitioners as they develop strategies to boost agricultural productivity.

"Farmers like Janet also can inspire and teach other farmers in similar circumstances how to adopt practical skills and techniques – this is something they all discovered during the workshop," Mehra said.

So what exactly did Janet do to increase her yields and curb her family’s hunger?

In part, she learned to use her land more efficiently by dividing it into several plots to plant a variety of crops. She grows bananas, beans, cassava, groundnuts, kale, maize, tomatoes and sorghum – all of which she uses to feed her family and sell at local markets. Janet also owns dairy goats, whose milk helps nourish her children and whose manure helps create organic fertilizer.

By planting a combination of compatible crops – a process known as “intercropping” – and using the organic fertilizer, Janet’s soil fertility is much richer. The proof is in her yields: In the past, Janet said she harvested some 100 to 200 pounds (45 to 90 kilograms) of maize per season; now she produces about 595 to nearly 1,000 pounds (270 to 450 kilograms).

Meanwhile, she also developed ways to store water at her home, which is located in an area where rainfall is unpredictable and excessive drought is common. She did this by fashioning a roof gutter to collect and direct rainwater into a 100-liter tank. Now, even in the dry season, Janet said she has water that can last up to four days.

Janet also took advantage of the terrain where her farm is located. Although her village does not have electricity or irrigated water, her farm sits on a slight downhill slope. She used the slanted ground to her benefit by digging channels between her plots. These channels collect water and nutrient runoff from the farms above hers, helping to nourish her crops.

The small, relatively cost efficient farming techniques Janet adopted are representative of solutions small-scale farmers in Africa and elsewhere can practice to alleviate hunger – and poverty.

And for Janet, the benefits have been life-changing. Now, she said her children’s overall nutrition is better, in part because the variety of crops she grows allows her to provide a healthy mix of food for her family year-round. Meanwhile, the extra income Janet earns from selling products in local markets means she can pay her children’s school fees. In the past, when she couldn’t make ends meet, the first cost-savings remedy was to pull the children from their studies.

Now, Janet can afford to steadily keep them in school.

ICRW Program Associate Charles Ashbaugh contributed to this report.

As they gather this week for the World Food Prize Symposium, government leaders, multilateral institutions, civil society and private corporations will again discuss international hunger. Their usual response to this issue is to beef up agricultural production by focusing almost exclusively on expanding markets and developing new technologies, such as improved seed varieties. This is necessary, but insufficient. It would be wise – especially now – for world leaders to consider a novel approach. This is our best opportunity in decades to get it right.

To make a significant dent in chronic hunger and  jump-start economic growth, global food security strategies must tackle something less tangible than seeds, less visible than tractors: It's time for an approach that addresses the underlying social inequities between women and men that contribute directly to low productivity farming. Members of the G20 and President Barack Obama already recognize the value in this. Obama's Feed the Future Initiative suggests that if women farmers had the same assets as men, economic output would increase and fewer children would go hungry. The message here? Gender inequality is a drag on productivity, and until we do something about it, we'll keep taking two steps back with each step forward.

To understand why we need to do more for women farmers, it helps to examine their unique place in the agricultural sector, particularly in Africa, where hunger is common and where most women work as small-scale farmers. In sub-Saharan Africa, it's women who often are responsible for ensuring the nutritional well-being of their children. It's women who produce most of the food eaten at home. And it's women who have a strong role in farming crops for sale.

Strategies to boost household food production in Africa and elsewhere oftentimes assume that the  household acts as one unit – that women and men under the same roof split chores, make decisions jointly and share land, equipment and other assets. Decades of field research demonstrate that this is not the case. In most rural farming communities around the world, women hold less power than men. They have less say over household decisions. They have less influence over income. Meanwhile, studies show they labor longer hours than their male counterparts.

And for all their work, women farmers are less likely to see the profits from the sale of the goods they produce. What's more, many women from Latin America to Southeast Asia report that as the value of a particular commodity – that they farm – increases, men take over the marketing and sales.

It's for these reasons that women do not have the same preferences as men. Why should a woman grow a higher-value crop if it will mean more labor on her part, but still the same income – or less? Essentially, many women farmers are locked into low-value, low-productivity farming because their lives do not measurably improve if they change their methods.

One reason that global food security strategies continue to fall short is that they don't recognize these on-the-ground realities of women farmers. Simply put, agricultural investors don't know their primary client. And until food security strategies address the inequities women face – while simultaneously providing them equal access to training, information, capital, seeds and tools – efforts to increase agricultural productivity in some of the neediest corners of the world will fail. Poor, rural families will remain trapped in poverty. Children will continue to go hungry and malnourished.

So to the leaders and decision-makers at the World Food Prize gathering, I say this: Let's get it right this time. Let's dive into those less visible, yet powerful drivers that cripple agricultural productivity. Gender inequality cannot be an afterthought to our food security strategies. It must be the linchpin.

This commentary was featured as a guest column for The Des Moines Register on Oct. 1, 2010.