Food Security, Productivity, and Gender Inequality - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 278

Second, there are well-documented gender inequalities and male biases in women
farmers' access to technical information, credit, extension services, critical inputs
such as fertilizers and water, and marketing (World Bank 2009, FAO 2011, Peterman,
Behrman, and Quisumbing 2009). Membership in rural cooperatives, which provide
inputs, is also predominantly male in most countries (see Saito, et al 1994, among oth-
ers). In addition, there are significant gender differences in the tools owned by male and
female farmers. In Kenya, for instance, the value of farm equipment owned by FHHs
was found to be half that owned by MHHs (Saito, et al. 1994, 23). In Gambia, under 1% of
women farmers are found to own a weeder, seeder, or multiuse agricultural implement,
compared with 12%, 27%, and 18%, respectively, of male farmers (cited in Peterman et al.
2009, 28).
Third, women face social restrictions in public participation and mobility in many
regions (such as in northern South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa). This
adversely affects their ability to freely procure inputs, or sell their produce, or hire labor.
In other words, it restricts their ability to function fully as farmers (Agarwal 1994, FAO
2011, World Bank 2009).
Fourth, these constraints, in turn, restrict women's ability to take advantage of oppor-
tunities for higher-value production. Lack of secure land rights and other resources can
exclude women farmers from contract farming arrangements, as research in Kenya and
Senegal shows (Dolan 2001, Maertens and Swinnen 2009). And in family farms, where
men hold the contracts, women tend to face heavier workloads, while men control the
cash generated (Collins 1993, FAO 2011). Women are also less able to adopt high-yielding
crop varieties and improved management systems due to poorer access to extension ser-
vices (see Doss 2001, for Africa).
What impact do these constraints have on farm productivity?
Gender Differences in Farm
Productivity
A substantial body of available evidence indicates that gender inequalities in access
to land, other production inputs, and agricultural support systems, can significantly
affect farm productivity. The effects are especially revealing in contexts in which men
and women cultivate both separate and joint plots, as is common in sub-Saharan
Africa. For this region, a fair number of studies have measured productivity differ-
ences between male and female farmers (Table 11.1). The studies vary in their meth-
odologies and in what they measure (individual crop yields, all farm output, or farm
incomes), but all of them are based on medium to large samples and statistical analy-
sis. Typically the comparison is between FHHs and MHHs, but a few studies measure
differences between plots managed by men and women within the same extended
household.