In an increasingly industrialised society, agriculture still remains the backbone of many traditional economies of the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa itself, almost two-thirds of jobs depend on agriculture, both for men and women. This part of the world has an enormous number of women contributing to agricultural produce in direct and indirect ways. With agriculture contributing to over 40% of its GDP, Nigeria has women contributing ‘between 60 per cent and 80 percent of the agricultural labour force’. Despite this huge number, women farmers face gender discrimination at all steps on the way, which hampers their productivity vis-à-vis men in the field, a trend which does not speak highly of the socio-economic status of women in the nation.
Manifestation of gender bias in agriculture
More and more men are reported to be moving to urban centres to look for work leaving women behind to take care of the farm land if any, or to feed the family back home. In other cases they are widows in charge as the breadwinners of their home. Women immerse themselves in all jobs related to agriculture. However, things are far from smooth for the fair sex. A report from World Bank in partnership with the ONE Campaign states, “Between men and women there are key gender differences in quantities across many important factors of production, such as land size, fertiliser use, labour and household characteristics. After accounting for such differences, plots managed by women produce 27% less (in terms of gross value of output) per hectare than plots managed by men.”
The report also states that “unlike in the north, women in the south have similar average returns to productive factors as men. The findings suggest that if women in the south had similar quantities of productive factors to men’s, they could produce just as much and the gender gap might disappear.”
A country which is at the mercy of the region’s tough climatic conditions, managing a good yield depends on many factors. These range from fertile land, availability of livestock, and ownership of land among others. Women farmers in Nigeria are at a loss for equal access to technology, resources and knowledge, needed to boost production. Their responsibilities don’t come down with children and homes to take care of but just add up leading to divided attention.
More male members at home translates into more number of people at work on the farmland. In the absence of the same, they are forced to opt for hired help which is difficult to come by. If it does, women struggle to get them to work properly. Women, though exceptionally good at managing their lands, are seldom the decision makers regarding major decisions of the farmland. This subjects them to follow orders from the male members at home instead of taking financial decisions or managing money.
That women farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in Nigeria are unable to match their male counterparts when it comes to improving their yield is clear from a simple observation that World Bank notes in its report. It says, “Improved seeds can boost farmers’ yields. Yet female farmers may not be able to afford to purchase improved seeds or may have limited knowledge or confidence in their quality’.
The World Bank study which focused on six African countries namely Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, found that when it comes to productivity levels of men and women, ‘female African farmers are up to 66 percent less productive’.
The way out
Poverty line in Nigeria has half the population living below it. Studies say those in the field of agriculture face ‘higher poverty levels’. Northern Nigeria has almost 80% of its households employed in agriculture while the number sits at 50% in South of the country.
By the year 2025, Nigeria will become the fourth most populous country in the world. Looking at the involvement of a large number of women in this sector, which is only on the upward spiral, the need of the hour is to empower and equip the fair sex with requisite knowledge and training to make them deliver better in the field. This is also the key to bring them above the poverty line thereby improving their quality of life.
Educating young girls will go a long way in raising their socio-economic status to bring them at par with the men. Ensuring that they become decision makers of their work will also help brighten their prospects as well as that of the sector. The World Bank advises the government to ensure there is gendered data which will help locate the exact number of women farmers and their situation. This will help allocate funds, look into their training requirements and bring them to the front lines.
According to Gender at Work, a World Bank report, in countries like Rwanda and Tanzania, women are participating in the labour force close to 90%. However, this does not necessarily mean, they are ‘employed in good jobs, farming productive crops, running profitable enterprises, or that they are earning as much as their male counterparts’. Compared to the men, they are earning less, doing menial jobs, and working out of compulsion rather than as a choice. This is quite true of many low-income nations including Nigeria. Add to this the laws that fix working hours and kind of employment they can take up legally, women lag behind all the way. Women friendly laws that make women the equal stakeholders in issues that concern them are the need of the hour.
Another issue that Nigerian women face, emphasized by an Oxfam report, is the lack of access to land due to the tradition of land being passed on, owned and inherited by male descendants. This brings about a challenge in acquiring credit to continue the business, as Nigerian women do not have collateral against which they can secure loans and instead they rely on loans from friends and family. According to USAID, 43 per cent of the agriculture labour force comprises women. Thus, when women own the same amount of land as men, there would be an estimated increase of more than 10 per cent in crop yields.
The UNICEF states that the number of children who are of primary school age in Nigeria but are not in school stands at around 4.7 million. Out of this, one can imagine how girls fare. Parents don’t want to send their girls to schools for a variety of reasons including distance to the school, helping hand needed at home, not enough money to spend on uniforms and textbooks, among others. The recent despicable incident of Boko Haram kidnapping school girls too acts as a hindrance for girls to get quality education. A safe and productive environment is what they need to learn and not an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
Someone has rightly said that when you educate a woman, you educate an entire generation. For instance, Aaron (2009) states that women are more inclined to invest the revenue gained in educating their children which leads to a much wider benefit to the community as a whole. Educate the present generation and the future generations will take care of themselves. Thus, cracking the gender bias in agriculture is only possible through a holistic approach which requires policy intervention, education and empowerment of the fair sex.
Ruchi Gupta
Gupta is Senior Research Analyst
Businessday Research & Intelligence Unit (BRIU)
