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[PANEL] 1103 GENDER RELATIONS IN AGRICULTURE
Organizers:
HAGOS Nigussie, Mekelle University, Ethiopia
Kristie DRUCZA, Gender and Inclusion Research, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Ethiopia
Paper presenters:
WONDIMU Abebe; Kristie DRUCZA; MULUNESH Tsegaye
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PROMISING APPROACHES TO TRANSFORMING GENDER RELATIONS IN AGRICULTURE [Abstract ID: 1103-03]
Purposive sampling along with snowballing was used to identify 44 stakeholders working in gender and agriculture and semi-structured interviews were used. This session presents the seven most promising methodologies identified by stakeholders along with best practice mainstreaming. We define what mainstreaming looks like from the practice and then rank each stakeholder accordingly. Despite clear gender mainstreaming definitions and guidelines many stakeholders were confused about mainstreaming (seeing it as something done in projects rather than organizations). We map the differences and similarities in the approaches taken by various stakeholders: (I)NGOs, donors, government, research institutes, cooperatives, private sector - to incorporate and/or mainstream gender throughout their agricultural programs, as well as some of the challenges facing those working on gender in the agriculture sector.
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ENABLING AND CONSTRAINING FACTORS FOR AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION AND THEIR GENDER DIMENSIONS. [Abstract ID: 1103-02]
This paper presents evidence that gender norms and identities (masculine and feminine) along with socio-cultural factors have impacts on a farmer’s willingness and ability to innovate. 275 individuals (137 men, 138 women) in four wheat-growing communities in Ethiopia, participated in the study conducted in 2014 and validated in 2017. Seven standardized qualitative methods were used to collect data on enabling and constraining factors for innovation and their gender dimensions including semi-structured interviews, individual life stories, and participatory single sex focus group discussions. Women ranked confidence and family support as the top two factors that promote innovation while men ranked money and availability of role models. Men ranked financial constraint and socio-cultural barriers related to women’s mobility and division of roles as the top two factors that hinder innovation while women ranked financial constraint and a lack of support from husbands and the community. Moreover, women are considered weaker innovators by respondents and are watched more sharply and judged more harshly than men. This impacts upon their willingness to take risks, to innovate and their self-confidence. Additionally, agriculture extension workers do not as readily visit female headed households because of social norms about interaction between the sexes and ensuing gossip of affairs. Given GTP2 aims to increase agricultural production and productivity and turn Ethiopia to a middle-income country by 2025, these results suggest the promotion of more egalitarian gender relations and community acceptance for that change should be an important component to this agenda. The findings have relevance to policy makers and practitioners in particular to extension experts trying to develop Ethiopia’s agriculture sector.
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WHAT THREE DIFFERENT AGRICULTURAL QUANTITATIVE SURVEYS TELL US ABOUT GENDER [Abstract ID: 1103-01]
This presentation uses the results from data mining three wheat focused datasets (CIMMYT Pakistan wheat dataset with total sample of 317, a CIMMYT Ethiopia wheat panel dataset with total sample 1978 and an IFPRI-Ethiopian pilot input voucher household dataset total sample of 591). Using descriptive statistics including estimation of mean, proportions, and production of charts along with t-tests and chi-square tests, we present results on the division of labor questions and sampling strategies. We find that two out of three samples are taken according to crops/yields, or climatic conditions and are not representative of the population. The surveys mostly have a low representation of youth and two out of three have a low representation of women. This makes comparisons by sex and age and across regions difficult. The presentation argues that in the era of big data we should be cognizant of how the way that we ask questions in surveys, who is involved in survey design, the response range offered and the sampling approach all have a bearing on how gender sensitive the results (and thus how visible women are in our datasets).