This document discusses the role of women in agriculture and the gender dynamics within rural economies. Some key points: - Women make up a significant portion of the agricultural workforce globally and in developing countries, comprising 43% globally and performing many labor-intensive tasks. - However, their contributions are often undervalued and they face numerous constraints that reduce their productivity, including less access to resources, education, and decision-making power compared to men. - Economic and social changes are transforming agriculture and increasing the demand for female labor in some areas like export crops, but women still tend to work in lower-paid, lower-status, and more insecure jobs than men. They have less land ownership and control over decisions

1. Gender and Agrarian
Relations
PROF. MELISSA REMEDIOS

2. Introduction
• Agriculture is an important engine of growth and poverty reduction
but the sector is underperforming in many countries in part because
women, who are often a crucial resource in agriculture.
• The rural economy, face constraints that reduce their productivity.
• Statistics show that 43% of the agricultural labour force globally and
in developing countries.
• The international development community has recognised that
agriculture is an engine of growth and poverty reflection in countries
where it is the main occupation of the poor.

3. Women in agriculture
• Women make essential contributions to agricultural and rural
economies in all developing countries.
• Their roles vary considerably between and within regions and are
changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and
social forces are transforming the agricultural sector.

4. Position of women
• Women play a significant role in the agricultural labour force and in
agricultural activities although to a varying degree, consequently their
contributions to the agricultural output is undoubtedly extremely
significant although again difficult to quantify with accuracy.
• It is often been claimed that women produce 60-80 percent of food.
• However assigning contributions to agricultural outputs by gender is
problematic because most households both men and women are
involved in crop production.

5. Gender difference within rural labour markets
• There is a clear difference in male and female labour participation
rates noted earlier times as also there are major gender differences in
employment patterns within labour markets for several reasons
which hold across cultures and regions.
• Those who do are also much more likely to engage in self-
employment activities rather than professional development and
reinforcing the discrimination towards these sectors as low pay and
low status occupations.

6. Women’s role in agricultural fields
• Rural women perform numerous labour intensive jobs such as
weeding, hoeing, grass cutting, picking, cotton stick collection,
separation of seeds from fibre, keeping of livestock and its other
associated activities like milking, milk processing, preparation of
ghee, etc.

7. Feminisation of agriculture
• The industrialization of agriculture falls mainly within typically male areas
of decision-making, including the economic risks involved. These areas
include the competitive use of machinery, agrochemicals and high-
breeding plant varieties; the cultivation of cash crops and the breeding of
large livestock for supra-regional markets.
• Men’s involvement in these often risky activities have in the past decades
brought about ruin for many farmers, forcing them to migrate to the slums
of the cities and causing many to commit suicide out of desperation.
Women in contrast tend to be more cooperative and cautious, and try to
minimize risks in food production, processing and supply, and they opt for
social self-help and preventive health care.
• Men’s forms of farming practice geared toward national and international
markets therefore often undermine female domains and competences.
Women frequently provide their families with food, from diversified
cultivation of vegetables, fruits, tubers and herbs in their gardens, as well
as from the rearing of small livestock.

8. Women’s innovation
• These kind of simplistic characterizations do no justice to the
complex gender relationships that differ according to region, history
and culture.
• However, they show some basic lines of future development, in
which the IAASTD recognises maybe the biggest potential for
innovation in order to achieve its goals of sustainability and
development.
• The chances of escaping hunger and misery disproportionately
increase if women become empowered in small-scale agriculture
and regional development systems oriented primarily towards local
markets and supply, and where agricultural production of export and
non-food crops is only a secondary possibility to achieve additional
income.

9. Gender & Development
• Gender, that is socially constructed relations between men and
women, is an organizing element of existing farming systems
worldwide and a determining factor of ongoing agricultural
restructuring. Current trends in agricultural market liberalization
and in the reorganization of farm work, as well as the rise of
environmental and sustainability concerns are redefining the
links between gender and development. The proportion of
women in agricultural production and post-harvest activities
ranges from 20 to 70%; their involvement is increasing in many
developing countries, particularly with the development of
export-oriented irrigated farming, which is associated with a
growing demand for female labor, including migrant workers.

10. Rural women division of labour
• The largest proportion of rural women worldwide continues to face
deteriorating health and work conditions, limited access to education
and control over natural resources, insecure employment and low
income.
• This situation is due to a variety of factors, including the growing
competition on agricultural markets which increases the demand for
flexible and cheap labor, growing pressure on and conflicts over
natural resources, the diminishing support by governments for small-
scale farms and the reallocation of economic resources in favor of
large agro-enterprises. Other factors include increasing exposure to
risks related to natural disasters and environmental changes,
worsening access to water, increasing occupational and health risks.

11. Changes in Agriculture
• A number of other changes will strengthen women’s contributions to
agricultural production and sustainability
• These include support for public services and investment in rural
areas in order to improve women’s living and working conditions;
giving priority to technological development policies targeting rural
and farm women’s needs and recognizing their knowledge, skills and
experience in the production of food and the conservation
of biodiversity; and assessing the negative effects and risks of
farming practices and technology, including pesticides on women’s
health, and taking measures to reduce use and exposure.
• Finally, if we are to better recognize women as integral
to sustainable development, it is critical to ensure gender balance in
AKST decision-making at all levels and provide mechanisms to hold
AKST organizations accountable for progress in the above areas.

12. Warriors of Indian agriculture
• Women are the backbone of any developed society. The central role of
women in any society ensures stability, progress and long-term
development of a nation. In agriculture sector primary focus is given to
only one gender. Male is the dominant decision maker of this industry and
benefit seeker of the policies.
• The kind of farming men practice is highly involved and commercially
active, geared towards domestic and international markets. Agriculture
sector as a whole has developed and emerged immensely by empowering
men with technology. But this emergence is incapable of lifting the status
of women labor as an integral part of the industry. In a developing country
like India, agriculture contributes 13.5% to the GDP of the economy. It
provides 55% employment in the country out of which a good number of
work force is shared by women. Role of women in this sector cannot be
ignored they comprise 33% of the agriculture labor force and 48% of the
self-employed farmers.

13. Women participation in Labour force
• In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ female work force but fails to
give them recognition of an employed or hired labor.
• Women constitutes 38% of the agricultural labor force in developing nations. It is also estimated that 45.3%
of the agricultural labor force consists of women only.
• Rural women work in farm, handles her responsibilities and also does her household activities.
• Among the household activities the primary job is of taking care of livestock or poultry farm. Livestock &
poultry not only feeds her family but also allows her to earn that extra income.
• Rural women single handedly performs the back breaking activity of cattle management in most parts of the
country.
• Cattle management involves cleaning of the shed & animals, watering the cattle, milking, fodder collection,
making of farm manure etc.
• Women play a dominant role in livestock production and poultry. With the increase in rural men migrating to
cities for better opportunities, women silently adorns many roles in the agriculture sector - from homemaker
to laborer to cultivator and even entrepreneur , roles of rural women is changing very rapidly in Bharat.
Women have started to predominate every level of agriculture and its value chain.
•

14. The invisible contributors
• But a large number of women still remain as the "invisible contributors” under the
cultural backdrop of Indian society. The Shanti’s, Nirmala’s, Janki’s , Padma’s and Gudia’s
working in Indian farmlands as daily wage earners are still the unknown and
ignored contributors to Indian Agriculture .
• Their employment is seasonal and provisional adding up to all sorts of uncertainties in
their income cycle. Yet the number of these “invinsible contributors” goes up every year,
about 80% of economically active women in India are employed in agriculture sector.
• To increase the productivity of Indian farmlands and double the farmer’s income gender
specific interventions should be made. Women inclusive policies, women centric loans
for small scale business, women driven entrepreneurial opportunities are the need of the
day for rural India.
• Women centric agriculture extension efforts will allow them to shift their efforts in the
right direction and establish their credibility in the rural society. When these women get
empowered with opportunities and choices to make with regards to their career – only
then will the society be liberated and the economy will grow with momentum. Only then
food security will become a reality and further prospects for the current and future
generations of women in rural society will evolve. Today, many countries tend to pay
more attention to the agricultural sector than ever before, Indian government has also
created policies understanding the role of women in agriculture and economy

15. Male Migration and women’s supportive roles
• The new vision of multiple and over-lapping domains gave rise to the
new constructs of multi-dimensional niches in the landscape defined
by space, time, specific products and end uses.
• Occupations of these niches was governed by legal for otherwise
formally codified property rights which were determined by the use
of the access of identity rights, social relations and power.

16. Land ownership
• Throughout most of the countries women are less likely to hold
formal title to land than men.
• It has been argued that women’s inability to obtain formal land titles
put them in a position of extreme dependence on men with respect
to access to forest resources
• Women may have little control over which crops are grown, where
trees are cut or planted or have fallows are managed without their
own title to land

17. Changing face of agriculture:
• Government has also started implementing various schemes to
improve the entitlements of women farmers which aim to bridge
the policy gaps that exits in the sector.
• The future of Bharat is changing and India is witnessing the
biggest transfer of power not only in metropolitan cities but also
in the countryside of our great nation. For you and me it is a
blessing to witness this revolutionary shift in our society that
was always biased to one gender. Gender equality now seems
a reality – not so far away.

18. Contd:
• 3.More Work, Less Pay: The estimates for changes in the last 5-7 years
show declines in employment ranging from 20 per cent to as much as 77
per cent.
• Employment in agriculture is thus available for fewer days per year. It is
therefore becoming essential for men to migrate in search of better-paid
work.
• Women are filling this vacuum. Women are forced to accept work in
agriculture in their own village under very bad conditions because they
cannot migrate as easily as men. The farmer is faced with the increasing
costs of production required for modern agriculture. He finds that he can
squeeze his labour costs by using lower-paid women workers.

19. Main Obstacles in Women Growth in
Agriculture Sector:
• Gender Discriminations: Another issue is the problem-ridden conceptualization of
women’s and men’s work in rural environments, in particular, the failure to
recognize the importance of their differing roles
• a) The productive role: this refers to market production and home/subsistence
production undertaken by women which generates an income.
• b) The reproductive role: this refers to the child-bearing and child-rearing
responsibilities borne by women.
• c) The community management role: this refers to activities undertaken by
women to ensure the provision of resources at the community level, as an
extension of their reproductive role.
• Another factor that needs to be taken into account is that certain tasks, activities
or enterprises may be regarded as “male or female”. For example, women
typically gather forest products for fuel, food for the family, fodder for livestock
and medicinal uses. Men more often cut wood to sell or use as building materials.

20. Contd:
• 4. Increased Trafficking of Women. One of the little known consequences of
globalization and liberalization will be an increase in the trafficking of women.
• As the number of girls decline, the atrocities like rape, molestation, sexual-
harassment, kidnapping will increase manifold. Girls will be afraid to leave their
homes. Women will be shackled at home.
• According to recent indications, India might soon be competing with Bangkok for
the undesirable of sex capital of the world.
• 5. Impact of Liberalization on Agricultural Women Workers. There is
apprehension that economic liberalization, which tends to induce privatization
andmarket-led technological change, may affect employment and income
prospects of rural women adversely.The impact of economic liberalization on
agricultural workers and women may be summarized as follows: 1. The volatility
of international prices of agricultural commodities has affected
agriculturalworkers in India adversely. The exports of agricultural commodities
have fallen.

21. Conclusion
• Rural women are the major contributors in agriculture and its allied
fields. Her work ranges from crop production, livestock production to
cottage industry. From household and family maintenance activities,
to transporting water, fuel and fodder. Despite such a huge
involvement, her role and dignity has yet not been recognized.
Women’s status is low by all social, economic, and political indicators.
Women’s wage work is considered a threat to the male ego and
women’s engagement in multiple home-based economic activities
leads to under remuneration for their work. Women spend long hours
fetching water, doing laundry, preparing food, and carrying out
agricultural duties.

22. Conclusion
• Women comprise about 43% of the global agricultural labour force
and of that in developing countries but it also masks considerable
variations across regions within countries according to age and social
class.
• Women comprise half or more of the agricultural force in many
African and Asian countries but the share is much less in some.
• As a result of discrimination against female labor, women are
concentrated in the secondary sector of labor market. Their work is
low paid, low status, casual, and lacks potential upward mobility. The
majority of women in the urban sector work in lowpaying jobs.

23. Recommendations:
• a) Recognition of labor work of working women in the rural economy may
be accounted in monetary terms. b) More facilities should be provided to
poor rural women for land, agricultural and livestock extension services. c)
Priority must be given to women in accessing credit on soft terms from
banks and other financial institutions for setting up their business, for
buying properties, and for house building. d) Measures should be taken to
enhance women's literacy rates. A separate education policy for women
may serve the purpose. e) Women must be involved in decision-making
bodies that have the potential to introduce structural changes. This action
will bring some changes in the gender relations in the society. f) Women
must be aware regarding their existing rights, access to judicial relief and
redress, removing discrimination through legal reforms, and providing legal
aid, assistance and counseling

24. Contd:
• g) Finally it is concluded that the rural women are exploited by land
lords for their personal good and enrichment.
• Women are treated as sub- servant or personal property. I
• n this regard government must formulate policies to enhance their
skills and their work should be counted in economic indicators.

25. THANK YOU!