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Gender and Agriculture: Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps
- Source :
- Gender and Agriculture: Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2013.
-
Abstract
- Women make essential contributions to agriculture in developing countries, where they constitute approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labor force. However, female farmers typically have lower output per unit of land and are much less likely to be active in commercial farming than their male counterparts. These gender differences in land productivity and participation between male and female farmers are due to gender differences in access to inputs, resources, and services. In this paper, the authors review the evidence on productivity differences and access to resources. The authors discuss some of the reasons for these differences, such as differences in property rights, education, control over resources (e.g., land), access to inputs and services (e.g., fertilizer, extension, and credit), and social norms. Although women are less active in commercial farming and are largely excluded from contract farming, they often provide the bulk of wage labor in the nontraditional export sector. In general, gender gaps do not appear to fall systematically with growth, and they appear to rise with Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and with greater access to resources and inputs. Active policies that support women’s access and participation, not just greater overall access, are essential if these gaps are to be closed. The gains in terms of greater productivity of land and overall production are likely to be large. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the differences in male and female productivity within predominantly food crops. Section 3 discusses the major elements needed for production, documents the male–female gap, and explores the existing evidence on why these gaps exist. Section 4 concludes.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
Labour economics
fertilizers
land development
Factors of production
farmers
Development
scientists
Gross domestic product
land reform
gender
Small farm
Economics
Gender analysis
new technologies
Agricultural productivity
agricultural extension centers
incomes
Productivity
Contract farming
agriculture
Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Gender and Health,Gender and Law,Gender and Development,Anthropology
extension
agricultural extension
crops
farms
livestock
agricultural production
agricultural information
extension services
diet
Land reform
equipment
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15646971 and 02573032
- Volume :
- 28
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The World Bank Research Observer
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....058be7f1903d17a6700210a67b071519