Undervalued Roles of Women in Agricultural Practices in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, agriculture is the backbone of the economy whereby 85% of the population earns their livelihood from agriculture. Women play a great role in agriculture activities particularly farming, starting from land/seed bed preparation, tilling, sowing, applying fertiliser, fodder cutting, weeding, intercultural operations, transplanting, husking, threshing, drying, storing, harvesting of all types of crops, and selling agricultural commodities. However, they are performing all these activities with a backward technology whereby devices and tools are the most primitive. Regarding the decision-making role of women in agricultural-related activities, men are the major decision-makers, whereas women are excluded from making decisions regarding crops to plant, purchase and sale of livestock, farm inputs, land plot to plough, and similar activities, and this simply goes along with the common connotation, ‘Women Don’t Farm’.
Due to cultural practices and social norms, women’s engagement and efforts went unrecognised and they don’t have an entitlement to the fruit of their labours. Women also play an important role in livestock ranching and are exclusively responsible for backyard gardens, cleaning animal yards, milking, and milk processing, and looking after poultry. However, they did not have equal entitlement to the position of farmer equally with men.There are multiple factors that inhibit women from benefiting from the agricultural outputs. This includes social norms that portray women’s roles in household chores and care services regardless of their extensive engagement in labour-intensive agricultural productivities.
Embedded Stereotype against Women in Agricultural Practices in Ethiopia
Agricultural activities, such as crop production, animal care, household chores, and income-generating activities, are largely carried out by women. They weed, clear brush, plough fields, harvest, and transport crops. They also take care of children, fetch water, gather firewood, process food, cook, and grind grain, among other domestic duties. However, women’s participation in development activities is constrained by traditional influences and their scant power in domestic matters.
Women’s access and control of agricultural resources is determined by various factors. Though women are primary actors in agricultural productivity, there are deeply rooted gender-based constraints in which men’s role in the traditional ox plough is associated with physical strength attributed exclusively to masculinity, and women are considered to lack the ability to properly handle the plough. Though ploughing is associated with perceived physical strength, Gella (2015) argued that the use of farming material by Ethiopian farmers is very simple and doesn’t require intensive labour for their operation.(Gella and Tadele, 2015) Rather, the problem is embedded in gender-based labour divisions and taboos in the indigenous theory that women’s participation in farming activities would decrease the number of crops produced, and the stereotype against the physical capacity of women that considered as frail, delicate, deficient, and lacking; as a result, women farmers are never seen as having physical strength which will enable them to farm in the same ways as men.(Gella and Tadele, 2015) In rural areas women are exclusively assigned to handle household activities including food preparation, fetching water, collecting fuel, and generally caring for the family members.(Dessie, 2017) This activities by their nature are labour intensive and time take as a result limited Women’s membership in cooperatives and community-based organisations like Ekub, Wobera, one-to-five network groups, and other development groups, which are found to have positive implications for women’s participation in the identification and prioritisation of agricultural research problems, monitoring, and evaluation.(Dessie, 2017) Moreover, the limited scope of agricultural policies and poor policy guides toward women’s empowerment are also contributing to unregulated power relations between men and women regarding access to the final yields.(Mulema et al, 2019)
‘If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the community will eat.’
For instance, the economic system’s inherent gender bias frequently restricts a woman’s access to credit. In developing countries, where cultural norms and a lack of collateral frequently prevent women from borrowing money, this is particularly true for smallholder female farmers. Female farmers are less likely than male farmers to purchase and use fertiliser, seeds resistant to drought, sustainable farming methods, and other cutting-edge farming tools and techniques that boost crop yields.
Agricultural extension services have been largely designed, crafted, and implemented with the male head of the household as the intended client, and have failed to recognise that women are active, productive, and engaged as economic agents with their own financial needs and constraints. Non-recognition of women’s contribution to farming activities resulted in limiting women’s access to farmland, control over agricultural products, credit facilities, extension services, information, and general decision-making in relation to agricultural productivity.(Haile, 2016)
Key Points
- Even though women play a great role in agricultural activities, their participation in agricultural research and productivity is low due to the existing social norms, limited access to resources/opportunities, the limited scope of agricultural policies, and poor policy guides toward women’s empowerment.
- Women’s participation in agricultural research work is determined by various socio-economic characteristics such as access to individually managed plots, access to information, membership in farmer groups, and level of empowerment.
- The cultural norms and traditional beliefs that promote male dominance and identify farming with masculinity are limiting women’s decision-making roles in agriculture
- Men are the major decision-makers in agricultural activities, regarding crops to plant, purchase and sale of livestock, farm inputs, land plot to plough, and similar activities.
- The connotation ‘women do not farm’ excluded women from the benefit of agricultural yields.
- Education is found to be one of the factors influencing women’s access to agricultural extension services. Higher levels of education for farmers are found to increase their ability to use agriculture-related technologies better
- Legal and policy reforms have not adequately addressed the issue of gender in farming in Ethiopia.
Conclusion
Generally, Ethiopian women play an important role in agricultural activities including farming and livestock rearing. However their benefit from agricultural outputs is insignificant due to various socio-cultural factors. Though women engage in farming activities starting from land preparation to the final post harvesting activities of selling the crops, they are excluded from accessing and controlling the final yields. The agricultural extension policy is also lacking in addressing women’s specific needs and demands.
However, there are still issues with integrating gender into policies and programs related to the agriculture sector, In order to support government programmes and policy:
Recommendation
- A holistic approach that uncovers women’s potential and increases their participation in farmer research groups shall be implemented.
- To ensure women’s enforceable rights, and empowerment in agriculture, the existing social norms/taboos that overburden them with unpaid triple roles shall be addressed.
- Awareness creation strategy shall be designed to address social, cultural, and economic factors that hinder women’s decision-making, control and benefit from agricultural products.
- To ensure women empowerment through agriculture, , a specific target shall be made to empower women to access and control over resources, providing women with alternative labour saving technologies, enable women to have decision making power and reduce their time poverty.
Reference
- Abate Dessie, N. (2017) ‘The Roles of Rural Women on Agricultural Labor Conscriptions in Ethiopia: The Case of Delanta District, South Wello Zone’, EC Nutrition, 6(4), pp. 144–155
- Gella, A.A. and Tadele, G. (2015) “Gender and farming in Ethiopia: an exploration of discourses and implications for policy and research.,” Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 11(2), pp. 1–28.
- Duckett M. K. n.d ”Empowering female farmers to feed the world”. Available at:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/partner-content-empowering-female-farmers
- Mulema, A.A. et al. (2019) ‘Women farmers’ participation in the agricultural research process: implications for agricultural sustainability in Ethiopia’, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 17(2), pp. 127–145.
- Haile, F. (2016) ‘Factors Affecting Women Farmers’ Participation In Agricultural Extension Services For Improving The Production In Rural District Of Dendi West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia’, International Journal of Research in Applied, 4(7), pp. 133–148.
Further readings