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Project

“Feminization” of agriculture: Building evidence to debunk myths on current challenges and opportunities
 

South Asia
Project ID
109177
Total Funding
CAD 247,300.00
IDRC Officer
Sandra Gagnon
Project Status
Active
End Date
Duration
24 months

Programs and partnerships

Agriculture and Food Security

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Bjorn Van Campenhout
United States

Summary

Myths and assumptions persist regarding women in agriculture that hinder the development of effective food security policies.Read more

Myths and assumptions persist regarding women in agriculture that hinder the development of effective food security policies. A systematic understanding of opportunities and risks women face in the agricultural sector and agricultural value chains is lacking, as is the gendered impact of male outmigration. Unpacking the dynamics of agricultural transformation — exploring and challenging the so-called “feminization of agriculture” — will provide opportunities for more evidence-based decision-making and policymaking and it will prevent the further proliferation of myths.

This project seeks to validate and/or challenge persistent assumptions about women and gender dynamics in agriculture and related sectors, including agroforestry, fish agro-food systems, and other natural resource domains. This project will fund three out of nine projects that will draw on both qualitative and quantitative data to analyze how gender roles and responsibilities in agriculture are changing.

The project will build evidence on the changing gender dynamics in agriculture and related sectors and compare evidence on the feminization of agriculture across domains and regions. Among the issues to be reviewed are how women are challenging their gender and caste identities to enhance their livelihoods. Evidence generated will provide up-to-date data on gender and agriculture to inform more relevant policymaking and programming.

Research outputs

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Article
Language:

English

Summary

The paper examines an important yet under studied factor affecting the quality of existing micro data on labor supply: response (to survey) fatigue. This underestimation differentially impacts women and youth, leading to meaningful economic and systematic biases in understanding peoples’ livelihoods.
As well, non-randomized household rosters systematically list youth and women later, exacerbating losses in reported labor activities. On average, estimated overall losses in terms of unreported labor activities are just under 8%. In the newly applied model these effects are nearly twice as large for women (10%) as for men (5%), and five times larger for youth age 14-24 (10-12%) than for adults age 35-59 (2.1%).

Author(s)
Ambler, Kate
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