Role of agriculture in the economy
Women's roles and contributions to agriculture
Access to extension and other services
Women's enrolment in tertiary education
Higher agricultural education in Côte d'Ivoire
Higher agricultural education in Jordan
Higher agricultural education in Nigeria
This section examines and compares five case studies on the enrolment of women in higher agricultural education particularly in view of the possibilities of improving women's access to and benefits from higher agricultural education, extension services and training, agricultural research, and agricultural policy making. The case studies cover Côte d'Ivoire, Jordan, Nigeria, the Philippines and the University of the West Indies, which serves the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Agriculture has an important place in the economy of each of the four countries and the CARICOM, although its importance varies considerably from country to country. Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and the Philippines are largely dependent upon agriculture as a source of livelihood for their populations, while agriculture plays a much smaller role in the economies of Jordan and the CARICOM countries, although it is estimated that many more people are dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood than is reflected in the percentage of the population in the agricultural labour force.
Classified among the least developed countries, Côte d'Ivoire is primarily an agricultural country, depending on agriculture for a great part of its exports, Gross Donation Product (GDP) and employment. A major problem is the decrease in arable land, upon which a majority of the population depends for their existence. Cash crops include coffee and cacao, while the main food crops are manioc, rice, yam and vegetables.
In Nigeria, agriculture is the mainstay of a majority of the population, many of whom work in subsistence food production. Agriculture still provides a large percentage of the GDP and employment, in spite of the importance of petroleum to the economy. The share of agricultural exports fell from 80 percent in 1960 to 1.5 percent in 1990, due both to the rise in oil exports and the poor performance of the agricultural sector. Major crops include millet, sorghum, palm, yam and rice.
The economy of the Philippines is still largely dependent on the agricultural sector which provides 22 percent of the GDP. Nearly half of the labour force is employed in agriculture, and it is estimated that as much as 67 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture either to migration to urban areas or abroad, more than half the population of the country still resides in rural areas. The major agricultural products are rice, corn, coconut, sugar, banana, livestock, poultry and fisheries.
Jordan, on the other hand, depends upon agriculture for less than 10 percent of its GDP, although the agricultural sector makes up more than 20 percent of its exports and employs 15 percent of its labour force. Jordan is situated in an area which is semi-arid and has little arable land available for the expansion of agriculture.
The population of the CARICOM countries is largely rural but there are few data on the importance of agriculture to GDP and exports. The percentage of the labour force employed in agriculture, in the countries for which data are available, ranges from 11 percent in Trinidad and Tobago to 75 percent in Antigua and Barbuda. Trinidad and Tobago is largely dependent upon petroleum as a source of revenue, and agriculture contributes only three percent of the GDP. It is estimated that the populations of the CARICOM countries are more dependent on agriculture than appears from official statistics. One reason is because much of women's unpaid labour in food production is not counted.
TABLE 10 - Agriculture in the Economies of Côte d'Ivoire, Jordan, Nigeria, the Philippines and the CARICOM Countries
|
Rural popul. as % of total 1993* |
Agriculture as % of GDP 1993 * |
Agriculture as % of Exports** |
% of the Lab. Force in Agr. 1990* |
Côte d'Ivoire |
58 |
37 |
66 (no date) |
60 |
Jordan |
30 |
8 |
20.7 (1993) |
15 |
Nigeria |
62 |
34 |
1.5 (1990) |
43 |
Philippines |
48 |
22 |
46 | |
CARICOM |
||||
Ant. & Barb. |
64 |
75 | ||
Bahamas |
15 |
5 | ||
Barbados |
54 |
7 | ||
Belize |
53 |
34 | ||
Guyana |
65 |
22 | ||
Jamaica |
47 |
8 |
25 | |
St. Kit. & Nev. |
59 |
|||
Saint Lucia |
53 |
|||
Saint Vinc. |
55 |
|||
Trin. & Tob. |
29 |
3 |
11 |
*Source: UNDP Human Development Report 1996, Tables 8, 13 and 16.
**Source: Country Case Studies.
Women play important roles in agriculture in all of the countries studied.
In Côte d'Ivoire, women provide 80 percent of the labour for food production and are responsible for 60 percent of its marketing. Men are responsible for land clearing and preparation and for most of the work in the cash crops of cacao and coffee. Women are completely responsible for yams and vegetables, including sowing, weeding and harvesting, although in the south and eastern central areas, men help out with the sowing. Women do all of the work in rice production (sowing, weeding, harvesting and gathering), except in the west and southwest region, where men perform 75 percent of the harvesting. Women also assist with the cash crops, supplying 25 percent of the labour involved in weeding and drying, as well as all the labour in gathering and packing.
The roles of women farmers in Nigeria vary considerably by ethnic group. The Hausa Fulani women do little work in the fields because of the plough/grain culture and the restrictions on women of the Islamic religion. However, only the well-to-do urban Muslim women in seclusion do not engage in agricultural work of some kind. Poor Muslim women are heavily involved in food processing and preparation. The Yoruba women are becoming more and more involved in agricultural work with the increase of cash crop production and the expansion of food production and raw materials for industry. Among the Ibo, women play a dominant role in food production. In the traditional gender division of labour, men were responsible for land preparation while women engage in planting, weeding, harvesting, animal husbandry and food processing. With the involvement of men in cash crops, women are increasingly performing all the tasks involved in food production and processing, including those previously done by men. Most women's work in agriculture is unpaid, but some women are employed as agricultural labourers.
In the Philippines, women play a major role in agriculture, mostly as unpaid family workers or self-employed farmers, although about 17 percent are wage and salary workers. The crops with the largest number of women workers are rice, coconut and banana. In most farm systems, men and women share the same tasks. While there is considerable overlap and flexibility in the division of labour, men tend to be involved more in land preparation, applying fertilizers, repair and maintenance of infrastructure and irrigation, while women are responsible for much of the planting, weeding, harvesting, threshing and processing. In livestock, men take most responsibility for carabao and cattle, while women care for pigs and poultry. In fisheries, men do the catching while women process and sell the catch. In agro-forestry, women plant the tree species and sell the produce, while men care for the crop and transport it to market. In addition, women cultivate family plots to produce vegetables for their families (Illo 1995).
Women constitute only a small part of the agricultural labour force in Jordan, which employs only 15 percent of the entire labour force. A survey of women and agriculture in the Near East showed that most women engaged in agriculture in the region work on small subsistence farms in food production, care of small livestock and food processing(El-Fattal 1996).
Women in the Caribbean are responsible for more than 50 percent of food production and are also involved in food processing and marketing, including inter-island marketing. The percentage of female-headed of households is generally high, as much as one-third in Trinidad and Tobago. As these households are also among the poorest, the women cannot afford to hire labour and thus usually shoulder all agricultural tasks themselves.
In Côte d'Ivoire, women's work in agricultural production is undervalued and largely unpaid. Even in the performance of essential tasks in cash crops, women are considered to be helping the male farmers, rather than as partners or as farmers in their own right. Consequently, women are largely ignored by the extension services and information programmes which have been developed for and are delivered almost exclusively to men.
In Jordan, cultural restrictions limit women's access to male extension workers, and since there are few women extensionists, women farmers have little access to extension.
Women in Nigeria also have little access to productive resources. A major constraint is their lack of land titles. Women have, at best, only usufructuary rights and not permanent land tenancy. Most women use a part of their husband's land and consequently their plots are generally very small. Less than ten percent of women have access to extension, improved seedlings, fertilizers, herbicides and training. Less than seven percent have access to credit.
Very few women in the Philippines have access to extension and other services. In 1993, only six percent of the participants attending activities conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute were women, ranging from three percent of the participants in on-farm research to 15 percent of those attending day training. The traditional assumption has been that women are housewives and therefore the major services extended to them have been through home management technicians and Rural Improvement Clubs. This perception is gradually changing and the home management technicians are now known as agricultural technicians and receive basic training in agriculture. Bank-managed credit programmes are out of the reach of most women, but small credit schemes run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are making small loans available to women (Illo 1995).
In the CARICOM countries, women's access to land ownership varies. In the Cayman Islands and in St. Kitts and Nevis, there are relatively similar numbers of male and female landowners. In other countries, far fewer women own land than men, and in all cases, women's landholdings are smaller. While women have less access than men to public loans, there are a number of traditional rotating credit schemes where women predominate, such as the "sou-sou" in Trinidad and the "partner" scheme in Jamaica.
Since literacy and access to basic education are the prerequisites for any type of higher education, it is important to note what percentage of women in these countries have this prerequisite for going into higher agricultural education. A look at the adult literacy rates and enrolment rates of men and women in the age groups for primary and secondary education reveals significant differences among the countries studied (see table 11).
Literacy rates and access to primary and secondary education in the CARICOM countries, for which data are available, are high and the data indicate that girls in the region have nearly equal, and sometimes greater, access to basic education than boys. While data are not available on male and female gross enrolment rates at primary and secondary school levels in the Philippines, the high adult literacy rate for both men and women indicates that basic education ratios are probably also high. In Jordan, both boys and girls have a high degree of access to first level education, but this drops sharply, although about equally, at the secondary level. Data from the Jordan case study indicate that in 1993/1994, 55 percent of the students enrolled in academic secondary education were female, as were 35 percent of those enrolled in vocational secondary schools.
TABLE 11 Literacy and Enrolment at Primary and Secondary School Age
Country |
Adult Literacy Rates (%) Males, 1993* |
Adult Literacy Rates (%) Females, 1993* |
First Level Educ. Gross Enrolment Ratio (%) M- 1992** |
First Level Educ. Gross Enrolment Ratio (%) F- 1992** |
Second Level Education Gross Enrolment Ratio (%) M- 1992** |
Second Level Education Gross Enrolment Ratio (%) F- 1992** |
Côte d'Ivoire |
47.6 |
27.4 |
81 |
58 |
32 |
16 |
Jordan |
- |
- |
94 |
95 |
52 |
54 |
Nigeria |
64.7 |
43.8 |
100 |
79 |
30 |
25 |
Philippines |
94.6 |
93.9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CARICOM |
||||||
Bahamas |
98.4 |
97.8 |
100 |
103 |
95 |
95 |
Barbados |
97.9 |
96.4 |
105 |
105 |
93 |
83 |
Belize |
- |
- |
111 |
107 |
46 |
48 |
Guyana |
98.4 |
97.0 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Jamaica |
79.9 |
83.3 |
109 |
108 |
62 |
70 |
Trinidad & Tobago |
98.6 |
96.6 |
95 |
95 |
77 |
80 |
*Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 1996, Table 2.
**Source: UNESCO, World Education Report 1995, Tables 4 and 6.
It is in Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria where the greatest disparities between men and women can be seen. Adult literacy rates are low in general and far fewer women than men are literate. In Côte d'Ivoire access to primary and secondary education is low for both boys and girls, especially at the secondary level, with girls' enrolment ratio considerably lower than that for boys. Nigeria has a high gross enrolment ratio for boys at the primary level, but the gross enrolment ratio for girls is only 79 percent. Enrolment drops sharply for both boys and girls at secondary level, with a lower percentage of female enrolment as compared to males enrolment.
Thus, except for Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, a high percentage of women in the countries studied have the basic requisites for tertiary education and should thus also have the same opportunities to participate in higher agricultural education as men.
In the countries in which women's enrolment is as high as or higher than that of men, the pattern varies considerably in tertiary education. In Barbados, the Bahamas and the Philippines, the enrolment of females in the age group 18 to 23 years as a percentage of male enrolment increases, whereas it decreases considerably in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. In the Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, which have a low female enrolment ratio at the primary and secondary level, this decreases even more dramatically at the tertiary level. Two major factors for this are the greater or fewer educational opportunities for women in some countries, and greater need and/or opportunity for women or men of this age group to enter the labour force.
TABLE 12 - Female Enrolment at Tertiary School Age as Percentage of Male Enrolment, 1990
Country |
Tertiary School Age (18 -23) |
Côte d'Ivoire |
36 |
Nigeria |
53 |
Philippines |
1 13 |
Barbados |
149 |
Bahamas |
149 |
Trinidad and Tobago |
69 |
Jamaica |
79 |
Source, UNDP, Human Development Report 1995, Annex Table A2. 1
The Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique (ENSA) was established in Abidjan in 1965. In 1989, ENSA was transferred to Yamoussoukro. The purpose remained that of providing training to the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors, as well as research, expertise and advice in agricultural development in Côte d'Ivoire and the subregion. In addition to its academic and research facilities, ENSA maintains greenhouses irrigated practice farms and a palm plantation.
Entering students are required to have a good record in science studies. The course of study includes two preparatory years, followed by two years of basic agronomics which includes an eight week internship, and finally one or two years of specialization. Graduates obtain diplomas as Agricultural Engineers. The school also offers continuing education courses and carries out research.
The first admission of a woman to ENSA occurred in 1974. Out of 663 Agricultural Engineer diplomas delivered by ENSA, 52 (7.8 %) have been given to women. Women tend to specialize in Agricultural Economics (28.8 %), since this leads most often to administrative positions. Other preferred specializations include Plant Production, Plant Protection, Agro-Industry, Animal Production and Forestry. Of the 52 women graduates, 3 are employed in international bodies, including FAO; 9 in research and higher education; 2 in secondary education; 27 in government development bodies; and 9 in the private sector. Only two are unemployed, of which one is a recent graduate seeking her first job and the other is married and living abroad.
Established in 1996, l'Institut Agricole de Bouaké (JAB) is a public institution of higher agricultural education and research. Although it was moved to Yamoussoukro and is situated on the premises of ENSA, it remains independent. IAB trains students to work as civil engineers or in the fields of agricultural production, livestock, water and forestry, management, extension, planning, research, marketing and food processing. It also directs training to agricultural producers and their organizations, offering study possibilities and technical advice.
Students come to IAB following one preparatory year at ENSA or at a university and obtain a diploma in technical engineering after successfully completely the three-year course of studies. To date, IAB has awarded 804 diplomas, 31 of them to women (4 %). It has also given training to 950 interns and advice to 50 farms. In 1995/96, there were 124 students, including 12 women (9.7 %). All the graduates are working in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in the Côte d'Ivoire or Benin.
IAB places more emphasis on practical work than does ENSA, with 40 percent of the students' time spent in field work as interns. The continuing education department directs its training to agricultural and rural development agents and emphasizes management and communications in the rural environment. A unit on farm management is directed to graduates who are currently running farms. The emphasis of IAB's practice farm for interns is farm management rather than the demonstration of techniques.
Agronomic research is carried out in two institutes, the Institut des Savannes (IDESSA) and the Institut des Forêts (IDEFOR). In 1990, less than five percent of the 216 researchers were women. The Faculty of Science and Technology of ENSA also engages in research. Lack of funding, uncertainty regarding promotion, and low salaries act as disincentives in this Faculty.
There are very few female teachers at the university level. Out of 53 teachers at ENSA, only six are women (11 %). There are no women on the teaching staff of JAB. Women agronomists are more likely to find jobs in departments of the Ministry of Agriculture or related agencies. NGOs, such as INADES-FORMATION, and the private sector also employ women agricultural graduates.
Obstacles to improving women's access to higher agricultural education stem from two main sources: low educational levels of girls and the difficulties women encounter in pursuing careers in agriculture. Côte d'Ivoire has a generally low level of school enrolment with gross enrolment ratios of 69 percent at the primary level and 24 percent at secondary level. The disparities between males and females at both levels are great (see Table 11).
A major cause of the overall low school enrolment is the economic crisis affecting the country and the consequent lack of purchasing power of families. Enrolments rates vary considerably by region, however; the forested zones where cash groups are grown has a high rate of primary enrolment whereas the poorer Savannah zones have an extremely low rate. The reasons for the low rate of female enrolment are:
· Lack of infrastructure and great distances of schools from the homes.
· Reluctance to entrust girls to a tutor.
· Stereotypes of girls as being confined to household roles and of schools as being reserved for boys.
· The daily household tasks assigned to girls.
· Pregnancies which prevent girls from attending school regularly.
There are very small numbers of women, therefore, who have the basic educational prerequisites to enter higher agricultural education.
Given the importance of agriculture to the population of the country, opportunities for agricultural training at the secondary level are insufficient. There are two structures providing such training: The Centre de Formation Rural (CFR) with an intake of 59 pupils in 1995, including 9 girls; and the Lycée Agricole de Bingerville with a student body of 152 in 1995, including 42 girls.
At the level of the National University, only 10 percent of the female students chose to study science and technology in the years 1981 to 1992. This decreases the potential number of women who might take up agronomic sciences.
The reasons that few of the women who do have the basic education to enter higher agricultural studies choose to do so include:
· Low remuneration in the field of agriculture in comparison to other fields of specialization.
· Prejudices with regard to the ability of females to master scientific studies.
· Lack of information: Surveys show that little information is given to girls about careers in agriculture by schools or other sources. It is significant that the rural areas have the lowest rates of school enrolment.
· Obstacles to benefiting from agricultural education: Surveys have shown that many women have not been able to find jobs in which they can make optimal use of their agricultural studies. Moreover, women are far less likely than men with the same qualifications to occupy higher level positions in their fields. Only one woman was found to hold a position of director (in a private company) and only one to hold the position of sub-director.
Recommendations for improving women's access to higher agricultural education and career opportunities in agriculture include:
Increasing the-enrolment of girls and women at all levels through:
· Making universal education obligatory for all children, and government sensitization of parents to the importance of education.
· Provision of sex education with a view to reducing unwanted pregnancies among school-age girls.
· Campaigns to sensitize the population on the problems of young marriages.
· Economic assistance for the schooling of girls in areas with low rates of schooling.
· Improvement of educational materials and continuing education of teachers.
· Creation of special science classes for girls to prepare them better for high levels of science education.
· Recruitment of students for higher agricultural education, with particular emphasis on girls.
· Establishment of a greater number of agricultural secondary schools in order to increase the number of potential candidates for higher agricultural education. This presupposes that the secondary school programmes are revised and adapted to the needs of higher education.
Greater dissemination of information on careers in agriculture through:
· The formation of associations by women agronomists and engineers to undertake scientific and cultural activities, and organize training seminars for girls. This would be an encouragement to parents to recommend agronomy as a career for their daughters.
· Expanding and strengthening information services on agricultural careers.
· More forceful recruiting by ENSA and IAB of students in secondary schools.
· Encouraging girls to participate in agricultural fairs.
Financial support through:
· NGOs offering scholarships for agricultural studies to female secondary school graduates, as well as scholarships for regular short internships abroad which would open new perspectives to female graduates. Unmarried women researchers could be enabled to go abroad for training.
· The creation of an award for excellence to encourage girls to take up careers in agriculture.
Improvement of training through:
· Taking into consideration agricultural administration.
· Reinforcing practical training.
· Gender sensitization so that the roles of women in society, and especially in rural areas, are better understood. Men must learn to work with women at the professional level, and women must cease to be resigned, while still taking into
Greater employment opportunities through:
· Financing for women to set themselves up in agricultural enterprises.
· Projects to help women become established as farmers. This is especially important since women's lack of access to land ownership is a major obstacle to their taking up farming. Such farming projects should be supported by the -state and NGOs.
· Opening decision-making positions in administration to women.
· Involving women agronomists in politics and changing attitudes towards women and their role in society through:
· Going beyond symbolic actions, such as the creation of a Ministry on the Condition of Women and considering women in their totality.
· Improving the condition of women at all levels.
· Training women as managers.
The important roles of women in agriculture and in the economy of the country, the economic environment and natural resources which favour agricultural activities, an expanding private sector and the development of professional agricultural organizations all justify taking women into account in development and training programmes.
The main focus of the case study on women and higher agricultural education in Jordan was the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Jordan, the oldest institution offering degrees in agriculture in the country. In addition to the University of Jordan, three public community colleges and one private and three public universities offer agricultural diplomas or degrees.
Founded in 1962, the University of Jordan established its Faculty of Agriculture in 1972. In the 1995/96 academic year, the percentage of women in the total enrolment in the university was higher than that of men at the undergraduate level (57.4%). The percentage of female enrolment at the MSc level dropped to 30.6 and at the PhD level to 16.8.
The percentage of female enrolment in the Faculty of Agriculture was 60.6 percent at the BSc level and 23.9 percent at the MSc level. There were no women enrolled in the PhD programme in agriculture. The reasons for the sharp decline of women students at the higher levels
The reasons for the sharp decline of women students at the higher levels are reported to be: marriage, moving to another city or country with the husband, pregnancy, and lack of interest in continuing.
More women specialized in Nutrition and Technology, Plant Production, Agricultural Economics, and Extension than in the departments of Plant Protection, Animal Production and Soil and Irrigation. The choice of specialization appears to be strongly influenced by the opportunities women have to benefit from their agricultural education through employment. Most women graduates in Nutrition and Food Technology work in related public sectors, hospitals, schools and bakeries, while graduates in Plant Production work in flower shops, plant nurseries and shops dealing in agricultural inputs.
A survey of 163 randomly-selected female graduates from 1978 to 1995 found that 73 had worked immediately after graduation and another 63 had worked at sometime since, while 27 had not worked at all. Most of those surveyed were working in the public sector, a significant number in the private sector and a very few on their own. Most of the women were working in their field of specialization and almost all were working full time. Some 85 percent of the women surveyed responded that they had found no difficulties in getting jobs because they were female and 93 percent said that they did not encounter difficulties as females in their most recent jobs.
A significant finding, however, was that most of the working women were working morning shifts and not in field work. The reasons for this are the social restrictions on women which do not permit women to work outside the home in the evenings, to have contact with male farmers or to ride in vehicles driven by men. These social restrictions prevent women from working in extension services and benefiting equally with men from their education.
Although the University is an equal opportunity employer, women make up only 13.3 percent of the staff of the Faculty of Agriculture, and only 2.9 percent of the PhD holders on the staff are women. The low percentage of PhD holders on the staff is due to the very low number of women agricultural graduates with PhDs.
Box 13 - Wasted Investment If we do not enable female graduates to make use of their education and capabilities, we will be wasting the resources, money and time invested. (Snobar, Jordan Cave Study, 1996) |
Since Nigeria is still primarily an agricultural country, it is not surprising that the majority of its universities offer agriculture as a field of study. Since more than 60 percent of the labour force in agricultural production are women, it would also make sense to find a similar proportion in agricultural studies. This, however, is not the case. In fact less than 25 percent of those studying agriculture are women.
The Nigeria case study focuses on agricultural studies at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, founded in 1962, and its two affiliated institutions: the Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan and the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure. All three institutions require good preparation in sciences and mathematics for admission of students.
The OAU offers degrees in a wide range of agricultural subjects, while the Federal Colleges have traditionally been oriented more towards training middle-level agricultural extension workers and other junior, middle and high-level professionals in the agriculture sector. At present, the Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan, offers two-year programmes: the Higher National Diploma Programme in Agricultural Engineering (Farm Power and Machinery Option) and the Higher National Diploma Programme Agriculture (Crop Production Technology Option), while the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, now offers a one-year National Diploma Programme in Agricultural Technology.
Only 14.7 percent of the staff of the Faculty of Agriculture of OAU are women, and the majority of these are in the home economics department. The same is true of the affiliated institutions where women hold lower-level positions as instructors and demonstrators.
Data on enrolment at the three institutions are scanty due to poor record keeping and insufficient gender-disaggregated data on the student body. Data from the graduation records of the OAU show the percentage of female graduates ranging from 8.5 to 16.7 percent. The majority of women were in the Agricultural Economics Department, followed by Soil Science, Animal Science, Agricultural Extension and Plant Science. Female enrolment at the Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan, reached a high of 20 percent in 1994. At the Federal College of Plant Science. Female enrolment at the Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan, reached a high of 20 percent in 1994. At the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, 16.2 percent of the student body was female in 1993.
A survey on what motivated women to enrol in agricultural found that 42.8 percent of the students had taken up agricultural out of interest. The second most cited reason (]6.3 %) was patriotism and desire to improve the national economy. This was followed by the desire to go into private practice of farming (9.8 %) and the hope that it would afford them independence (6.8 %). Only 4.7 percent said that they had no other choice open to them. Other reasons given included encouragement by friends and family members, to earn a living, the admissions policy, and the desire for gender equality and to break men's monopoly of the field of study.
Significantly, the perception of the teachers (the vast majority of whom are male) was quite different. They were of the opinion that female students enrol in agriculture simply to have a degree and rarely to practice farming. In spite of the positive motivations of the majority of women to study agriculture, paradoxically, 44.7 percent said that they would have chosen another course of study had it been offered to them. interestingly, many of the alternative choices cited were in fields stereotyped as women's work and where more jobs are open to women (e.g., pharmacy, medicine, food science and accounting).
Constraints on women students in agriculture were cited by both the teaching staff and the women themselves. It is interesting to note that a major constraint on women was considered to be the physical work and stress involved in agriculture: "Policy makers and administrators pointed out that it was not the norm for women to carry out the heavy duties. As employees, they are not allocated stressful jobs such as operating a tractor or driving a truck or working in forestry which is very hazardous. At the initial stages of produce marketing women were not given a place in the subsector because they were regarded as not being physically fit to stand the stress of produce management which demands quality" (Afonja and Olusi, 1995).
It would be interesting to consider the reasoning of policy makers and administrators as to why operating a tractor or driving a truck is more physically taxing to women than hauling large loads of fuel, water, crops and produce on their backs and heads for long distances -which is the lot of an immense number of women farmers throughout the world, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Why, too, is marketing quality produce considered more stressful than having to manage a multitude of daily tasks including farming, fetching fuel.
Box 14 - Breaking the Myth of Agriculture as a Man's Occupation "Although in reality women perform agricultural duties on a regular basis, agricultural occupations are regarded as male occupations and development strategies continue to target them. Women's restriction to the subsistence sector and the definition of what they do as part of household chores are disincentives to the choice of the agricultural sector for employment. '`African men project a pragmatic approach to the gender division of labour in agriculture. The argument has been that women play dominant roles in agriculture because their duties are light and that men usually take on the heavy duties....disregarding the fact that women are now performing a wide range of tasks and are breaking down this myth of the pragmatic African male. It is not surprising then that the proportion of female graduates in rural areas is very low". (Afonja and Olusi, 1995) |
Other constraints cited were:
· The perception of agriculture as a male profession.
· Lack of sufficient finances, books, facilities and infrastructure.
· Inadequate physical resources for training women and the lack of boarding facilities for female postgraduate students.
· Cultural norms which require married women to devote more time to taking care of husbands and children, leaving them with insufficient time to handle the study load.
However, 73 percent of the women students interviewed said that they encountered no problems with the programme of study. Only 3.3 percent complained that there was too much practical work. A number of female students even complained that the practical work was not thorough enough and that there was insufficient materials for the practicals. Other complaints were lack of finances for study, and transportation problems.
At the policy level, there is a gap between policy and practice in the area of female education. While the policy is to facilitate the education of girls and women at all levels, no special measures have been taken or sufficient funding allocated for this purpose. Insufficient encouragement of science studies among girls also lowers the potential number of qualified women for higher agricultural studies.
Opportunities for women agricultural graduates appear to be limited. Surveys of work prospects as perceived by women undergraduates as well as their aspirations revealed that the aspirations
Opportunities for women agricultural graduates appear to be limited. Surveys of work prospects as perceived by women undergraduates as well as their aspirations revealed that the aspirations of the undergraduates corresponded with what they perceived to be their job prospects. Heading the list of career paths were banks and financial institutions, followed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Agro-Allied and oil companies, research institutes and the Ministry of Education. Less often cited were teaching, private practice and government farms. Most of the jobs cited were office jobs rather than work in the field.
Several factors influence these perceptions and aspirations. On the one hand, women appear to have few opportunities to benefit from their agricultural education; on the other hand, the economic crisis in Nigeria makes the financial sector very attractive because of high salaries. On the policy level, there appears to be too few women agriculturists to make any significant impact on agricultural policy, or to overcome the obstacles facing women in agriculture and rural development.
Box 15 - A Vicious Circle The fact that a small proportion of skilled manpower in agriculture are women further makes it difficult for women farmers to derive the benefits of new technologies since women's problems and needs are usually not well understood by male policy makers and implementors. (Afonja and Olusi, 1995) |
Recommendations to improve women's access to higher agricultural education and their opportunities to use and benefit from this education include:
· Imparting a new set of social values about the work of men and women to avoid job stereotyping, which presently discourages women from taking up agriculture. Such reorientation needs to start at the primary level to popularize agriculture as an appropriate profession for women.
· A more liberal admissions policy oriented towards a gender balance in enrolment.
· More vigorous implementation of the government policy of promoting science education for girls and women.
· Career counselling at the secondary level to motivate females to take up higher agricultural education.
· Professionalization of agricultural occupations to make them more attractive.
· The reorganization of agricultural education to create courses that will attract women and for which they have an aptitude. For instance, specialized aspects of agriculture such as forestry and wood technology can be introduced early into the course content to stimulate the students', especially female students', interest in such specializations.
· Organization of programmes to allow women to cope with domestic responsibilities including allowing more flexibility in choosing the place of one's internship, part-time study, and the possibility of stretching the course over several years.
· Improvement of accommodation facilities for female postgraduate students.
· Provision of fellowships, scholarships, loans and other types of financial support.
· Improvement of infrastructure in rural areas to attract women to work in rural areas.
· Payment of higher salaries and emoluments to those working in rural areas.
· Facilitation of the work of female agricultural workers by providing farm inputs to their clients, mechanizing agriculture, providing logistics support, forming associations and clubs to articulate the interests of women in agriculture and rural development, and developing appropriate technology in food storage and processing to reduce the drudgery of women's work.
· The organization of female graduates of agriculture into professional associations that can act as a pressure group, promote increased enrolment of women in agricultural education, liaise with government and other professional bodies and organize public information programmes.
The implementation of these recommendations should also lead towards a larger number of women policy makers and implementors in agriculture.
The University of the Philippines (UPLB) was established in 1909 as a College of Agriculture. Over the years, a number of other colleges evolved from the College of Agriculture, transforming it into a full-fledged university with seven colleges. In addition to the College of Agriculture, there are at present Colleges of Forestry, Engineering and Agricultural Technology, Arts and Sciences, Human Ecology,
Veterinary Medicine, and Economics and Management. Today, the University offers 25 undergraduate programmes, 49 masters, 20 doctoral and five diploma or certificate programmes. The College of Agriculture offers Bachelors of Science degrees in Agriculture, Development Communication and Food Technology as well as a Diploma in Agriculture.
Research priorities of the of the are:
· Promotion of sustainable agricultural productivity and efficient use of resources.
· Development and promotion of appropriate technologies for processing industries and/or efficient utilization of resources.
· Promotion of an ecological balance through conservation and efficient management of natural resources.
· Recommendation of programmed and policies for rural development, especially for promoting equitable socioeconomic systems and strengthening rural institutions.
· Study and promotion of the enrichment of Philippine culture, particularly in the Southern Catalog region.
More than half of the research projects in 1994 were conducted by women, but most of these were in fields traditionally dominated by women. Only a few women carried out research in animal sciences, forestry and environmental sciences or engineering and physical sciences.
TABLE 13 - Research Conducted by UPLB Faculty and Researchers in 1994 by Gender and Field
Field |
Male |
Female |
Total |
Percent |
% Fem |
Plant Sciences |
345 |
477 |
822 |
76 |
58 |
Socio-Economics and Arts |
2 |
66 |
68 |
6 |
97 |
Food and Nutrition |
22 |
27 |
49 |
5 |
55 |
Farming Systems |
25 |
20 |
45 |
4 |
44 |
Forestry & Enviro. Sciences |
32 |
12 |
44 |
4 |
27 |
Animal Sciences |
27 |
11 |
38 |
4 |
29 |
Engin. & Physical Sciences |
14 |
4 |
18 |
2 |
22 |
Total |
467 |
617 |
1084 |
100 |
57 |
Source: Mancebo et al 1995, Table 17.
The University also carries out programmes with extension components which enable faculty and staff to work directly with rural people in testing innovations, techniques, strategies and approaches before they are recommended for wider application. These extension services include training programmes, projects, information dissemination and publications, university-community relations programmes, volunteer work and technical assistance.
UPLB has long had a high percentage of women on its faculty. In 1985, 43 percent of the faculty were women, and this had risen to 47 percent in 1994. Men dominate the highest ranks of the faculty, however. Women constitute two thirds of the Research, Extension and Professional staff(e.g., guidance counsellors, librarians, etc.).
The University has been implementing the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Programme (STFAP) since 1989, which is designed to democratize student admissions and provide increased subsidies for poor and disadvantaged students.
Women constituted 58 percent of the undergraduate student enrolment of some 17,000 students at UPLB in 1994-1995. Men predominated in those colleges traditionally considered the domain of males: Colleges of Engineering and Agricultural Technology, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, while women dominated the traditional female career preferences which are more related to home and family responsibilities: Human Ecology, Arts and Science and Economics and Management. Interestingly, women also predominate in the College of Agriculture, a traditionally male-dominated field.
At the graduate level, men slightly outnumbered women. While the breakdown by faculty generally reflects the traditional male-female domains, it is interesting to note that at the PhD level, there were more women than men in the Physical Sciences.
TABLE 14 - UPLB Graduate School Enrolment by Field and Gender, 1994- 1995
Field |
MA/MSc Total |
% Female |
PhD Total |
% Female |
Arts and Social Sciences |
624 |
58 |
192 |
61 |
Plant Sciences |
253 |
40 |
211 |
43 |
Animal Sciences |
104 |
36 |
51 |
37 |
Biological Sciences |
84 |
65 |
30 |
58 |
Forestry & Environmental |
202 |
46 |
98 |
21 |
Sciences |
||||
Physical Sciences |
210 |
43 |
54 |
61 |
Total |
1,476 |
48 |
636 |
47 |
Source: UPLB Graduate School, Mancebo et al, 1995, Table 22.
A study of student profiles in the Colleges of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine showed that, regardless of gender, more than half the students came from urban areas and the majority were from developing as opposed to economically depressed parts of the country. Most of them had attended public primary schools and private secondary schools and had graduated in the top 25 percent of their class. The majority of the students also came from small families and their parents were mostly college degree holders and employed as professionals and businessmen.
Financial considerations and educational background of the families affect the opportunities of both men and women to study agricultural subjects. Much of the rural population lives in poverty and has fewer means and aspirations to take up agriculture as a career.
A survey of students revealed that most of them, regardless of gender, had made their own decisions on pursuing a career in agriculture and that they chose to study at UPLB because they believed it to be the best university in the country. Their main reasons for pursing college education were to have a better life in the future with a decent and stable job. The majority of students agreed that the university admissions test was a good method to screen the most qualified students. Some, however, felt it favoured the rich who had the means to get a higher quality secondary education than the poor. The payment policy of the university was also considered to be unfair to poorer students.
Attitudes towards gender issues were measured in a survey of 14 faculty members and 377 students. The results showed that overall both male and female faculty and students held positive attitudes about the equality of men and women. Among the faculty, while men agreed, women felt more strongly about the following propositions: 1) wives should be allowed to work; 2) women are equally capable leaders and managers as men; and 3) women should not face discrimination in entering male-dominated jobs.
The major employer of the UPLB graduates has traditionally been the government. In the past three decades, 48 percent of the women graduates and 35 percent of the men were employed in government service, particularly the Department of Agriculture, although the private sector is increasingly employing agricultural graduates. Other employers include educational institutions, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and international institutions.
The division of jobs follows the typical traditional roles of men and women. The research and management jobs were dominated by men, while women were found mainly in extension services, teachings and sales. There are wide income-earning disparities between men and women. More men than women belong to the highest income earning bracket, whereas 60 percent of the women and only 34 percent of the men fall into the lowest income bracket. Overall, women earn about half of what men earn.
Women's high literacy rates and equal access to basic education, which is both guaranteed by law and culturally accepted, gives them the basic requisites for higher agricultural education. This is reflected in the high enrolment rates for women in all fields of higher agricultural education, although there is still a tendency for men and women to follow traditional male and female fields of study.
Higher agricultural education, however, attracts fewer students than other fields of study, probably due to perceptions of agriculture as a less prestigious and profitable profession. These attitudes are more prevalent in rural areas where farming has been the mainstay of the population and where much of the population still lives in poverty.
Women's equal access to education does not guarantee them equal opportunity to use and benefit from their education. Women still remain concentrated in farm, sales, service and production work. Even in government service where women dominate the "feeders" to the top, only one-third of the top level positions are filled by women.
A number of important measures and legislative acts have been passed to encourage the greater participation of women in public life and to guarantee them equality before the law. These include:
· Creation in 1975 of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) with a mandate to work towards the full integration of women in social, economic, political and cultural development on the basis of equality with men.
· In 1980, the Philippines signed the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
· The 1987 Constitution states that: "The State recognizes the role of women in nation-building and shall ensure the fundamental equality of women and men before the law" (Section 14, Article II).
· The Philippine Development Plan for Women, formulated in 1986 under the coordination of the NCRFW, includes policies, strategies, programmes, projects and mechanisms to ensure the mainstreaming of women in the planning and implementation of government programmes and services across all sectors.
· In the area of employment, legislation passed in 1989 prohibits discrimination against women in terms and implementation of government programmes and services across all sectors.
· In the area of employment, legislation passed in 1989 prohibits discrimination against women in terms and conditions of employment, promotion, training opportunities? and study and scholarship grants.
· The Civil Service Commission has taken measures to allow government employees to work flexible hours, adopted a policy programme on equal opportunities and treatment of men and women, and established the EQUADS (Equality Advocates) Programmes to look into complaints of discrimination in the public sector on account of gender, political and sexual harassment.
· The Women in Nation Building Act of 1992 strengthens the government's commitment to mainstream women's issues and concerns in development. Among its provisions are the equal opportunities accorded to women in entering all kinds of contracts, applying for credit, and joining social and cultural clubs.
· The Anti-Sexual Harassment Law of 1995 declares sexual harassment to be unlawful in the employment, education or training environment.
In spite of these measures, a situation of inequality of opportunity persists, particularly in decision-making and policy-level positions, in employment and in public life. This is not to disparage the importance of positive measures and laws to promote equal opportunities for women. Undoubtedly these measures are helping to gradually break down the social and structural barriers to the empowerment of women. It takes time, however, to change long-engrained attitudes and habits, as well as the political will to ensure that laws are enforced and other measures are effectively implemented.
Box 16 - Male-Dominated Social Structure "There are still factors that limit women to rise to the top positions and to develop their full potentials. Despite their large numbers in some fields such as agriculture, they are unrecognized and thus do not enjoy the benefits of their training and their acquired technology. This could probably be traced to the centuries-old discriminatory attitudes, laws and traditions which, consciously or unconsciously, still prevail in the male-dominated social structure". Mancebo, et al, 1995 |
Most of the students come from the CARICOM countries and in the total registration of the University females outnumber males. At the St. Augustine campus, there are nearly equal numbers of men and access to higher agricultural education of women from the disadvantaged regions of the country, improving career advancement, and changing the socio-cultural climate which maintains a male-dominated social structure. These recommendations, addressed mainly to government but also to NGOs, are:
· Promoting education and training in modernizing agriculture with preferential attention given to women coming from the disadvantaged regions of the country who desire to pursue higher education in agricultural sciences and technologies offered under the National Agricultural Education System (NAES). This should include proportionately allocating places based on the population of the province and facilitating financial assistance and services through implementation of the Electronic Voucher System that has been proposed in the longer-term higher education development plan (1996-2005).
· Incorporating Gender and Development concerns and programmes for students, academic and non-academic personnel of the NAES institutions and their training centres.
· Establishing a network of Community Education and Occupational Development Centres in strategic locations to provide, among other things, training in entrepreneurial skills to rural women and women managers of agricultural enterprises. This should contribute to the development of self-employment opportunities for women' as well as women's career advancement.
· Promotion and/or expansion of government and non-government agencies and corporations which are providing financing to women entrepreneurs to include those engaged in agricultural enterprises.
· Creating and strengthening a network of village women's organizations to promote women's welfare.
International organizations could support these measures through the provision of technical assistance in the overall process of capacity building and global networking in resource exchange and utilization. Specifically, international organizations could:
· Provide technical assistance to NAES institutions in developing standardized selection instruments for the admission and mainstreaming of women in agriculture; the development of the Electronic Voucher System; and the
· Provide technical assistance to NAES institutions in developing standardized selection instruments for the admission and mainstreaming of women in agriculture; the development of the Electronic Voucher System; and the feasibility of establishing a network of Community Education and Occupational Development Centres.
· Provide in-country training of trainers for the promotion of gender equity.
· Develop training materials, agricultural tools and machineries appropriate for women's use in increasing labour productivity.
· Organize exchanges of resource persons and experts in various aspects of gender development.
· Facilitate the participation of women farmers? field staff, scientists, academic personnel and policy makers in conferences, workshops and exchange visits.
· Facilitate information exchange and networking through Internet, E-mail and other means of computerized access to knowledge and materials addressing the various aspects of women and development, gender issues and sustainable and entrepreneurial development under a modernizing Philippine agriculture.
The University of the West Indies is a regional university serving 14 Caribbean territories, members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM): Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Its three semi-autonomous campuses are located in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Founded in 1948 in Jamaica as the University College of the West Indies, it incorporated the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago in 1960, while a third campus in Barbados was opened in 1963. In addition, the University has a Centre of Hotel and Tourism management in the Bahamas and university centres in 11 Caribbean countries. The system is served by a network of satellite communications: The University of the West Indies Distance Education Facility (UWIDITE).
TABLE 15 - Student Registration, University of the West Indies, 1993/94
Males |
Females |
% Female | |
Entire University |
6211 |
8775 |
58 |
St. Augustine Campus |
2699 |
2562 |
49 |
Undergraduate degrees |
1943 |
1914 |
49 |
Higher degrees |
486 |
3 59 |
42 |
Diplomas |
52 |
72 |
58 |
Advanced diplomas |
17 |
18 |
51 |
Source: Reddock and Deare, 1996.
The Centre for Gender and Development Studies was established in 1993 with units on each of the three campuses and a regional coordinating unit in Jamaica. This Centre was established as a result of eleven years of efforts on the part of women staff on all three campuses through the Women and Development Studies Group. Its undergraduate courses include a course in Gender Issues in Agriculture.
The Faculty of Agriculture emerged from the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in 1960. In 1975, most of the research staff moved to the newly formed Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Unit (CARDI). Today, CARDI is engaged in applied research and development while the Faculty of Agriculture is responsible for teaching and training agricultural scientists and technicians with a view to addressing the problems of agricultural and rural development in the Caribbean region. The Faculty offers undergraduate training, postgraduate training, continuing education training, and international exchanges. It also undertakes research and development, outreach activities, and conferences and publications.
At the undergraduate level, the Faculty offers BSc degrees in Agronomy, Crop Production, Agribusiness Management, Livestock Production and Human Ecology (Home Economics, Nutrition and Dietetics). The graduate programme offers MSc degrees in Agricultural Economics, Crop Protection, Tropical Commodity Utilization, and Livestock Science and Production. The M. Phil and PhD degrees are awarded for two to three years of research.
Initiated in 1989, the Continuing Education Programme in Agricultural Technology (CEPAT) offers short courses of one to three weeks that aim to meet the training needs of farmers, managers, agro-processors, extensionists, traders and associated technical and managerial staff. More recently, the External Programme in Agriculture (EPA) was established in 1994 with a post-graduate programme for advanced training in Agricultural and Rural Development in collaboration with Wye College, University of London. This distance processors, extensionists, traders and associated technical and managerial staff. More recently, the External Programme in Agriculture (EPA) was established in 1994 with a post-graduate programme for advanced training in Agricultural and Rural Development in collaboration with Wye College, University of London. This distance learning programme offers a post-graduate diploma, course certificates and MSc degrees.
The International Student Exchange between the Faculty of Agriculture and the University of Wisconsin began in 1987 and offers students from each university the opportunity to spend a semester of study at the other.
TABLE 16 - Enrolment in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of the West Indies 1995/1996
Male |
Female |
Percentage Female | |
Undergraduate Programme |
140 |
156 |
52 |
Masters Degrees |
70 |
50 |
41 |
PhD |
20 |
5 |
25 |
External Programme in Agriculture |
47 |
15 |
24 |
Exchange Programme |
5 |
3 |
60 |
Source: Reddock and Deare, 1996.
As the University has no gender policy on admissions in the Faculty of Agriculture, the high intake of females is probably related to the large number of qualified women graduates at the secondary level. The percentage of women drops to 25 percent at the PhD level, however, and 24 percent in the External Programme in Agriculture. The latter situation is a matter of serious concern since women constitute the majority of food producers in the region. More study is needed to explore the reasons for this low participation of women and to formulate policy to correct it.
Problems reported by women students included sexual harassment. No services exist to deal with complaints of harassment or to assist women victims of violence. The lack of support facilities and child care centres were also cited as problems for parents of young children.
Although the University Charter explicitly prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, men far outnumber women in senior academic and administrative positions. In the Faculty of Agriculture there were 35 men on the staff and 6 women in 1992/93. All professors, readers and senior lecturers were male.
Caribbean has lessened the demand for agricultural graduates in many countries. Jamaica is an exception where the demand for agricultural graduates is still high. Unlike other countries in the region, Jamaica has a significant number of women in key management positions. Grenada is also exceptional in having two women in positions of permanent secretaries in agriculture. In a 1990 survey of women graduates in managerial positions, many women indicated that managerial training courses and internship programmes during the degree programme would have prepared them more adequately for their jobs. Additional training to upgrade skills was also seen to be important.
The survey noted that only 29 percent of the women graduates were involved in policy or decision making at the organizational level and only 2 percent at national level. Nevertheless, the majority of women respondents felt that they did not encounter unequal treatment in the workplace. They did, however, perceive a lack of support for working mothers and pregnant women.
Box 17 - Women's Organizations Can Play a Role "Despite the recognition by the government of the obstacles to the progress of women, women's organizations play a key role in making women's issues public and lobbying for the government to implement necessary changes. For example, in Trinidad and Tobago there is no maternity leave law.... 'Rural women in particular are least reached by the activities of women's organizations although women's groups organize outreach programmes to rural communities. Some women farmers' groups have been formed to assist women in their productive work. Such groups include the Paramin Women's Group, the Arena Women's Group and the organization of Women in Rice. Professional women agriculturists have also formed themselves into an organization -The Organizations of Professional Women in Agriculture (OPWA)". Reddock and Deare, 1996 |
