| 1. |
- Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes, et al.
(författare)
-
Agricultural intensification and gender in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia
- 2019
-
Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The SAIRLA-supported AFRINT IV project has been collecting data on agricultural intensification from23 farming communities in seven regions in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia since 2008. Policies in allcountries have a strong focus on maize intensification and also target women as recipients ofsubsidised farm inputs. During this time, data on maize shows that only in the Zambian region hasthere been a sustained increase in yields, but this has been tied to a persistent gender gap. In theother two countries, yields have been stagnant. In the case of Malawi this is explained by poverty, landfragmentation and a gradual depletion of natural resources. In the case of Tanzania, withdrawal ofsubsidy schemes for maize in combination with new commercial opportunities in rice and tree cropsappear to be changing land use patterns.Despite these differences, women are united by some common characteristics: generally womenexperience mobility constraints as a result of domestic chores and socially restrictive norms. Moreover,the condition for co-financing to access subsidies disadvantages poorer households – many of whichare headed by women. Finally, women’s access to labour is limited, both that of men in particular, butalso the drudgery of their own domestic tasks and care burdens imposes restrictions on their time. Theseasonality of smallholder agriculture means that the effects of these shortages on intensification areaggravated.Policies need to redress all of these aspects, for instance through rural electrification and expandingbasic healthcare for children, encouraging small scale enterprises among women and gendersensitisation campaigns that involve men as well as women.
|
|
| 2. |
- Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes, et al.
(författare)
-
Is there such a thing as sustainable agricultural intensification in smallholder-based farming in sub-Saharan Africa? Understanding yield differences in relation to gender in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Development Studies Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2166-5095. ; 6:1, s. 62-75
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Smallholder-based, sustainable, agricultural intensification is increasingly put forth as a development pathway that is necessary to improve farmer's livelihoods, enhance productivity and engender a surplus that can be used to feed growing urban areas across sub-Saharan Africa. The following article examines trends in yields for Africa's largest staple crop – maize – among smallholder farmers in six regions in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, using longitudinal quantitative data collected in 2008, 2013 and 2017 in combination with qualitative data from nine villages. Substantial increases in yields are found only in Zambia, while yields are largely stagnant in Malawi and Tanzania. In the case of Zambia, however, there is a persistent gender-based yield gap. We use the qualitative data to explain this gap and find that gender-based differences in yields need to be understood in relation to local production systems, as well as the varied positionality of women, where the biases facing women who head their own households are different than for women living in male headed households. In policy terms, technologies that can promote intensification are different depending on these factors, even within the local context of particular farming systems.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Andersson Djurfeltd, Agnes, et al.
(författare)
-
The Gendered Possibilities for Participating in Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa – a Longitudinal Perspective from Seven Regions in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia
- 2020
-
Ingår i: SSRN Electronic Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1556-5068.
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper looks at the gendered possibilities for participating in agricultural intensification in seven regions in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania, using a longitudinal, regional, mixed methods approach combining household level data on land, labour and use of agricultural techniques for male and female farm managers as well as qualitative data collected from within male-headed households and community level data. The analysis is based on a quantitative dataset covering 1070 small scale farmers covering the period 2002 to 2017/18, as well as around roughly 350 qualitative interviews collected over the course of a decade. The results point to great variation between the regions as well as the countries in terms of access to land, but also suggest that gender relations around land are changing as a result both of deliberate policies as well as the emergence of rental markets for land. Indeed, gender-based gaps in cultivated area have fallen in some regions, but are persistent in others. Surprisingly, neither tenure security nor formalisation of tenure is differentiated between male and female respondents, in any of the regions. Access to family labour is however smaller on female managed farms and labour shortages are generally higher on these farms in most regions. Capital and labour intensive technologies add to gender based differentiation in cultivated area in regions where commercial opportunities are driving intensification, whereas gender based gaps in the use of these technologies have narrowed in poor regions as a result of deteriorating conditions for male farmers.
|
|
