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Citation |
- Permanent Link:
- https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00083264/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Women Farmers And Food Issues In Africa: Some Considerations And Suggested Solutions
- Series Title:
- Working paper Women in International Development, Michigan State University
- Creator:
- Spring, Anita
- Place of Publication:
- East Lansing Michigan
- Publisher:
- Women in International Development, Michigan State University
- Publication Date:
- September 1987
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 30 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Subjects
- Subjects / Keywords:
- Women farmers -- Africa ( lcsh )
Sexual division of labor -- Africa ( lcsh ) Food supply -- Africa ( lcsh ) Malawi ( fast ) Women in rural development ( fast )
- Genre:
- bibliography ( marcgt )
- Spatial Coverage:
- Africa -- Malawi
Notes
- Abstract:
- This is a working paper written by Dr. Anita Spring. The paper reviews the aspects of African women's contribution to food and cash crop production. This paper also offers suggestions to improve participation in the smallholder sector. The paper addresses the stereotypes that women face that might prevent planners and development project from incorporating women into programs and plans.
The first chapter of this paper is "African Women Are Farmers". Some of the statistics mention that even though the continent growth rate is 3% per year, while the rate of food has declined 1.5% in the 1970s and 1980s. The chapter addresses that women make a majority of farmers in Africa and should be considered into planning and program.
Anita Spring mentions Ester Boserup, the Danish economist that points to the importance of women in African agriculture. Additional work has been done over the past 15 years based on Boserup's work. The main argument is that excluding women from new technologies, food production has decreased and is a major contributor to the current food crisis in Africa.
The next chapter is "The Sexual Divison Of Labor". This section discusses how women's agricultural labor in the smallholder section has been increasing. The section describes how women work both on food and cash crops and also do many farm operations. In African agriculture, the division of labor is described as men and women each being responsible for certain discrete tasks. Another pattern is where men and women cultivate different crops.
Anita Spring mentions a case study in Malawi where the work division labor patterns are the same as above. This section explains the different crops that both men and women normally tend to and their working hours. There is a great need to understand the diverse types of African households and the intrahousehold dynamics and their effects on farming systems in order to identify the appropriate technology.
More information is added to describe the sex-rations of working-age people and the proportion of female-headed households. There are differences in households of married and unmarried women. Men's are not normally found doing "women's work". Normally men and boys don't really help with the harvest.
The next chapter of this paper is "Household Income And Food Supply". This chapter explains that men are absent more than women and that women do 66% of the total agricultural work. It is reported that women only bring in 17% of the total outside cash earnings through crop sales. Wives control the income they earn through farming but are responsible for purchasing food, kitchen supplies, and their children's clothes. Men use their own income for taxes, investments, entertainment, and only help in the wive's food purchases if its an emergency.
Anita Spring describes a case study by Guyer (1984) that describes the changing nature of men's and women's income and expenditures and their impact on the family in southern Cameroon. This case study explains that women cannot count on regular support from men who have their own expenses. Women contribute a lot to feeding rural families where men use their income for their own needs. There is a concern for childhood malnutrition with an increase in family size.
The next chapter is "New Technologies That Bypass Women". This chapter mentions that Barbara Roger's "The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies" (1980) explains for western stereotypes about women's "natural" place in society influences development endeavors. Anita Spring describes that women are considered gardeners and not farmers and that those kinds of stereotypes are very harmful in developing women's agricultural extension curriculum. "The efficiency of agricultural intensification is jeopardized by this failure to recognize women's needs and interests".
The following chapter is "Working Toward Solutions". The chapter recognizes the food crisis will not be simply solved by increased production in the smallholder sector. Entities like policymakers, project planners, and decision-makers also need to be involved to solve the crisis and target women farmers. Some plans are also outlined in this chapter.
The following section is "Disaggregated Data by Sex". This section mentions that women's efforts in agriculture are described as "invisible". In order to show the impact women have on agriculture, Anita Spring proposes to survey and quantify the impact women have on agriculture.
The next section is "Review Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR/E) and Intrahousehold Dynamics". This section criticizes some of the methods and categorization that the FSR/E uses, especially when not properly diagnosing the family dynamics, which have been largely ignored.
The following sections of this paper are "Guide the Development of New Technologies", and "Reorient Training Programs and Extension Staff". These sections outline ways to have a successful development program. Some suggestions in the paper also come in the sections "Focus Income- Generation Projects on Crop and Livestock Production Rather than on Crafts", and "Involve Women in Capital Intensification Schemes".
The other sections are also development suggestions which include "Involve Women as Well as Men in Land Reallocation and Registration Schemes", "Focus Research on Women's Crop, Food Crops, and Small Ruminants with Particular Attention to Low Moisture Varieties and Small Animal Species".
The first Appendix item is "Reaching Female Farmers Through Male Extension Workers" pamphlet. The following pages include Tables 1-3.
- Biographical:
- Dr. Anita Spring has devoted her life to research in topics such as international agricultural development; food security; entrepreneurship and African business; women/gender in international development; environment and resource management since the 1970s. She has conducted research and produced many publications at several prestigious universities including Cornell University, San Francisco State University, and recently the University of Florida. She is currently a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, and director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Business Environment Report (SABER) Project at the University of Florida.
- Funding:
- Working paper #139 (Michigan State University. Office of Women in International Development) ;
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- University of Florida
- Rights Management:
- All applicable rights reserved by the source institution and holding location.
- Resource Identifier:
- 17402477 ( OCLC )
88623500 ( LCCN ) 0888-5354 ; ( ISSN )
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