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Gender issues

Click to download the FAO/IFAD study in pdf

Agricultural engineering

Agricultural engineering is traditionally viewed as a male-dominated technical discipline. In farming practice, particularly in Africa, much, if not most, of the field work (including the use of numerous tools and pieces of equipment) is managed and carried out by female farmers. Despite this, a lot of male agricultural engineers acting in their capacity as project practitioners, extension officers, researchers or policy makers, are not prepared to approach and work with women farmers. AGS has implemented a programme on gender issues. The outcome of the programme is a booklet and poster called "Making Each and Every Farmer Count - Participation in Agricultural Engineering Projects".

Labour saving technologies and practices

The amount of power (time and energy) and the knowledge base a household can raise has a major influence on the household's livelihood strategies and is a major determinant of livelihood outcomes. The challenge is to identify, promote and support opportunities to relieve the burden of labour shortages and enable households to become more resilient. It is a known fact that women and children are providing the bulk of time and energy for livelihoods strategies.
There is a new sense of urgency to revisit labour saving technologies and practices (LSTPs) which can reduce the burden of rural living, particularly for households and communities that are under severe labour stress. It is recognised that many LSTPs have been developed and are already in the public domain, for example, draught animals save time tilling land or relieve the burden of carrying heavy loads; conservation agriculture reduces the time spent on tillage and weeding; roof water harvesting reduces the need to carry water home; and mills save time and energy pounding maize. However, the gains made in reducing time and energy inputs are often offset by higher requirements for operator skills and knowledge.

FAO together with IFAD has conducted a study on the potential for improving production technology of farm women in Africa, titled Agricultural Implements Used by Women Farmers in Africa.

The study was carried out in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The meat chain

FAO is making every effort to take into consideration the different roles and activities undertaken by men and women in all the aspects of the meat chain. This approach is reflected in many field projects where women are the main stakeholders and where women's groups are involved in enhanced capacity building, have increased decision making power, as well as self-confidence and actively participate in local institution building.

A good example of gender balanced projects is a rural development and training programme which was designed by FAO to train women’s groups in Uganda, in small-scale value-added meat processing, to establish several village level meat processing pilot plants and educate the new entrepreneurs on marketing strategies.

Overall, the income status of the households in project villages have increased, which has benefit for all, old and young, through increased food security, levels of nutrition and increased wealth. The project continues to be a success and is now incorporating a larger network of villages. It is hoped that the lessons learned so well in Gambia could, in time, be applied elsewhere in Africa. FAO is also involved in livestock projects in Afghanistan, the Philippines and Mongolia which are highly gender inclusive.

Small-scale dairying

There is an increasing awareness of the important and long-standing traditional role of women in small-scale dairying all over the world. Dairying provides women with a regular daily income, vital to household food security and family well-being. Women are not only centrally involved in milk production, but also in collection, processing and marketing of dairy products, roles which were often overlooked by development programmes. In the past projects and programmes were directed towards men and changes introduced frequently resulted in higher labour input by women, while at the same time their control over the production process and its output diminished.

During the last decades, the gender issue has attracted the attention of many researchers, government agencies and development agencies and gender differences are now more often taken into account at the design stage. For small farmers, dairy production is a family operation where each member contributes to, and benefits from, the different activities involved in different ways.

FAO promotes and making every effort to take into consideration the different roles and activities undertaken by women and men in all the aspects of the dairy chain. This approach is reflected in many field projects where women are the main stakeholders and where women's groups are involved in enhancing capacity building and decision making power, as well as self-confidence. Good examples of gender balanced projects are given in the related links.

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