scholarly journals Food Security, Productivity, and Gender Inequality

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bina Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Productivity Differentials ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Feminization Of Agriculture

This chapter examines the relationship between gender inequality and food security, with a particular focus on women as food producers, consumers, and family food managers. The discussion is set against the backdrop of rising and volatile food prices, the vulnerabilities created by regional concentrations of food production, imports and exports, the feminization of agriculture, and the projected effect of climate change on crop yields. The chapter outlines the constraints women face as farmers, in terms of their access to land, credit, production inputs, technology, and markets. It argues that there is substantial potential for increasing agricultural output by helping women farmers overcome these production constraints and so bridging the productivity differentials between them and male farmers. This becomes even more of an imperative, given the feminization of agriculture. The chapter spells out the mechanisms, especially institutional, for overcoming the constraints and the inequalities women face as producers, consumers, and home food managers. Institutionally, a group approach to farming could, for instance, enable women and other small holders to enhance their access to land and inputs, benefit from economies of scale, and increase their bargaining power. Other innovative solutions discussed here include the creation of Public Land Banks that would empower the smallholder, and the establishment of agricultural resource centers that would cater especially to small-scale women farmers.

Law as a Tool for Ensuring Contributions of Small-Scale Women Farmers to Food Security in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 709-737
Author(s):  
Jane Ezirigwe
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Equality Rights ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Laws And Policies

Abstract The paper discusses the role of law in ensuring that the agricultural productivity of small-scale women farmers in Nigeria is not encumbered by cultural practices and absence of extant laws and policies. Employing the feminist theory, it examines the existence and enforcement of equality rights for women to access productive assets including land, credit and agricultural extension services. It explores the specific challenges women encounter from perspectives other than limited access, including gender-based violence and gender-specific roles. The aim of the paper is to challenge some ubiquitous sociocultural practices that hinder the active participation and contribution of small-scale women farmers in agriculture and food security in Nigeria. It suggests how laws and policies can help increase this productivity. It concludes with recommendations on adequate legal frameworks, policy awareness, a commitment to promote women’s rights, as well as increased public investment in rural infrastructure to promote production of adequate, affordable and safe food in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.

scholarly journals Feminization of African Agriculture and the Meaning of Decision-Making for Empowerment and Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8993
Author(s):  
Ruth Haug ◽  
Dismas L. Mwaseba ◽  
Donald Njarui ◽  
Mokhele Moeletsi ◽  
Mufunanji Magalasi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Feminization Of Agriculture

The purpose of this study was to assess women’s decision-making power in small-scale agriculture in six African countries in view of the feminization of agriculture and to discuss the meaning of decision-making in relation to women’s empowerment and sustainability. The data are drawn from a multisite and mixed-method agricultural research and development project in six sub-Saharan countries including two sites in each country. The five domains of empowerment outlined in the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index are used to structure the analysis. The results indicate that in the selected sites in Malawi, Rwanda and South Africa, women farmers tend to dominate agricultural decision-making, while the result is more mixed in the Kenyan sites, and decision-making tends to be dominated by men in the sites in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Despite women participating in agricultural decision-making, the qualitative results show that women small-scale farmers were not perceived to be empowered in any of the country sites. It appears that the feminization of agriculture leads to women playing a more important role in decision-making but also to more responsibilities and heavier workloads without necessarily resulting in improvements in well-being outcomes that would enhance sustainability.

scholarly journals Food Security and Renewable Energy : Insights

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-193
Author(s):  
Eric Owusu Asamoah
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Food Production ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Food Price ◽  
Variable Effect ◽  
Bioenergy Production

<p>The world’s increasing population together with the amount of calories needed to meet dietary requirements has intensified food security concerns. As a result, the world’s energy demand has correspondingly risen mainly due to the preference for sophisticated food production-(usually energy–demanding), as well as mechanization of the food supply chain. Renewable energy has been pivotal in meeting the above demands by means of energy for food processing, storage and transport.</p> <p>The surge in food prices has gained widespread consideration. Many factors such as cost of farm inputs, climatic patterns and land tenure systems account for the food price increases observed in recent decades. There is also common knowledge that renewable energy particularly –bioenergy as being a cause of the above. The quest for a safer energy against conventional fossil fuels has made first generation biofuels the go-to option resulting in competition for resources that would have otherwise been used to produce food or consumed as food. Hence the food price increments.</p> <p>Bioenergy production may have a variable effect on food prices. Whereas the cultivation of first generation bioenergy crops can increase prices, it could also be the catalyst to induce investment in agriculture to increase crop yields that would ultimately stabilize prices. In the situation where resources for staple crops are shifted to   bioenergy feedstock, staple food prices would soar due to shortages. This suggests many people are likely to remain in perpetual hunger unless crops yields are enough to meet the dimensions of food security –availability, access, utilization and stability.</p> <p>Food security and bioenergy have positive synergies as stated earlier. For example, while higher prices may boost local economies, bioenergy could strengthen food availability, access, utilization and stability to ensure food security. Additionally, bioenergy could mitigate energy deficiencies especially in the countryside. Proper management would be essential to ensure bioenergy production does not occur at the detriment of local livelihoods –notably food production and its consumption.</p>

scholarly journals Mentoring Women's Farmer Groups in Utilizing Yard Land as an Effort for Food Security in the Pandemic Period

2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-103
Author(s):  
Ratna Susanti ◽  
Suci Purwandari
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Implementation Team ◽  
Security Education ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Woman Farmer ◽  
Farmer Groups ◽  
Family Nutrition

The objectives of this community service are: 1. assisting women farmer groups in the use of yard land, 2. educating women farmer groups in efforts to food security during the pandemic. This community service was carried out for 3 months, namely April, May, and June 2021 through the following methods: 1) lectures by the implementation team for the Women Farmer Group in Baran village, Cawas, Klaten who attended a total of 52 people regarding food security education in during the pandemic, 2) distribution of assistance for a number of vegetable seeds to be planted in a predetermined yard, 3) assistance in planting and using vegetables as a source of family nutrition. The result of this community service is that the women in Baran Village, Cawas, Klaten who are members of the Women Farmers Group have an independent business in the form of vegetable plants as a source of nutrition that can be used as a share of crop yields: from, by, for the Woman Farmer Group members.

scholarly journals Potential impact of eradicating malaria on gender inequality within agricultural households in sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Derek W. Willis ◽  
Nick Hamon
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Malaria Burden ◽  
Agricultural Households ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

The international development community has shown an increased interest in the links between malaria and gender inequality over the past two decades. Working towards the ambitious goal of eradicating malaria by 2040, suppressing the malaria burden could accelerate progress in reducing gender inequality within agricultural households in sub-Saharan Africa. Although numerous studies have examined narrow aspects of the relationship between malaria and gender inequality, little progress has been made in understanding how eliminating malaria could affect gender inequality within agricultural households. This Open Letter focuses on the amount of time women farmers dedicate to caregiving for malaria cases among children in agricultural households, and how reducing time spent on this activity could reduce gender inequalities and impact agricultural productivity. We argue that a research agenda is needed to inform a multi-disciplinary approach to gain this understanding. We conclude by discussing the means through which a reduction in gender inequalities in agricultural households could impact the effectiveness of vector control interventions.

African Americans and the Crisis of Modernity

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Eric S. King
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Family ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity

This article examines Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun by exploring the conflict between a traditionally Southern, Afro-Christian, communitarian worldview and certain more destabilizing elements of the worldview of modernity. In addition to examining the socio-economic problems confronted by some African Americans in the play, this article investigates the worldviews by which these Black people frame their problems as well as the dynamics within the relationships of a Black family that lives at the intersection of racial, class, and gender inequality in Chicago during the latter 1950s.

Scheduled Castes: Social And Gender Inequality

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-362
Author(s):  
M.S. Shinde M.S. Shinde ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Scheduled Castes ◽  
And Gender

Exploring the South African Government Communication on Land Expropriation without Compensation

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lungisani Moyo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Food Security ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
South African Government ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
The South ◽  
Land Expropriation ◽  
African Government ◽  
Government Communication

ABSTRACT This paper used qualitative methodology to explore the South African government communication and land expropriation without compensation and its effects on food security using Alice town located in the Eastern Cape Province South Africa as its case study. This was done to allow the participants to give their perceptions on the role of government communication on land expropriation without compensation and its effects on South African food security. In this paper, a total population of 30 comprising of 26 small scale farmers in rural Alice and 4 employees from the Department of Agriculture (Alice), Eastern Cape, South Africa were interviewed to get their perception and views on government communications and land expropriation without compensation and its effects on South African food security. The findings of this paper revealed that the agricultural sector plays a vital role in the South African economy hence there is a great need to speed up transformation in the sector.

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