Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
matter and nutrients and have proved ever-more dependent on external inputs, gen-
erally purchased at a highly subsidized rate as the national diet shifted to these
new crops. Others are turning to locally produced sources of nutrients such as the
Faidherbia
tree, which improves microclimates, soil organic matter, and nutrients,
and provides fodder for livestock at no external cost (Garrity 2013). However, for
them to be successfully introduced, the community must agree to protect the new
shoots from livestock for the trees to generate properly.
13.2.2 C
ultural
C
apital
Cultural capital determines how communities and groups within communities see
the world, how they connect the seen and the unseen, what they take for granted, and
what they think is possible to change. Cultural capital is often highly determined
by and determines natural capital. Like natural capital, cultural capital is heteroge-
neous and gendered. Women's cultural capital often includes understanding what
to plant under what conditions, and where to take animals as pastures become dry.
Community culture gives meaning to animals beyond their market value, and food
often has specific ritual meanings. Rituals of respect are important for linking com-
munity members to each other and to the land. When one group's cultural capital
predominates and devalues other ways of seeing and knowing, it is called hegemony.
Cultural capital determines what women are supposed to do and what men are
supposed to do. In much of the world, women are to raise crops and animals for
household use, while men produce them for sale. Women search for and haul wood
and water for household use, while men undertake the same tasks to sell into a larger
market (Nombo et al. 2013).
In much of Africa, farming for food is a critical part of gender identity (Gladwin
2002). At one point, this led to gender complementarity between male and female
roles; however, that changed with increasing globalization (Flora 1985). Today,
men's tasks are often privileged in the distribution of resources within the household,
community, and state.
13.2.3 H
umaN
C
apital
Human capital represents the skills, abilities, and knowledge that each human being
possesses in a community. Gender, in part, determines which skills are taught by
grandmothers and mothers to daughters and by grandfathers and fathers to sons.
Formal education can be limited by whether a child is a boy or a girl, particularly when
the daily work of girls in agricultural production or boys in herding keeps them from
school. Norms that stem from cultural capital can define what is appropriate for boys
and for girls to change, with many communities seeing the value of girls' education.
When males seek work by migrating as part of a household strategy to adapt to climate
change, women take over many productive activities traditionally performed by males.
In cases of drought, household food consumption is often cut back as a way of
coping. This generally means that women wind up eating less while men and chil-
dren get a little more to eat, although all remain hungry.
