Posted September 1999

16th Session of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics
Conakry, Guinea
28 June-1 July, 1999

Integration of gender concerns in agricultural data collection: Conceptual/methodological issues

1. Introduction

It is more and more recognised that "gender questions" need to be addressed not only to overcome existing disparities between men and women's participation in the development process, but also to ensure an enabling environment for sustainable development of Nations as a whole. Hereto, gender disaggregated statistical data are required:

1. to understand the economic, social and political differences existing between men and women;
2. to ensure that such understanding is based on facts; and
3. to allow for the planning of development programmes which take the specific situation of both sexes into account.

The importance of such data is especially relevant for the agricultural sector of African countries, where it is believed that women farmers produce between 60 and 80 % of the food production.

A number of countries have tried to overcome this gap in gender differentiated information and I will give some examples of how they have tried to do this. Furthermore, it is important that conceptual and methodological aspects of data collection, their analysis and dissemination are reviewed to increase the accuracy of gender differentiated recording of factors concerning agricultural production.

The context for such changes is favourable as present day users have a better understanding about the need for gender statistics and advance in clarifying their data needs. Data producers have become more open for, what is commonly called, "gender questions" and try to integrate these aspects in their workprograms, as we clearly see from the attention this subject is given by 15th and the current AFCAS meeting.

This presentation will first go into some conceptual changes required, which are derived from numerous efforts FAO has undertaken in technically strengthening agricultural data collection exercises. It will then look into some methodological aspects with scope for improvement. Thirdly, I will provide you some feedback from experiments undertaken in Bénin, Burkina Faso, Guinée and Tunisia, before concluding with some points for discussion by this meeting.

2. Concept and definitions

Before doing so, I would like to explain that, though I will be talking about improving "data concerning women farmers", this does not imply that we do not need information concerning men farmers. National agriculture production is ensured by men and women farmers. Initially, agricultural data collection focused on production figures. This changed to some degree when questions concerning the farm households were introduced, usually through interviewing the male head of household. Often no distinction was made between the individuals in such households and women's participation in the agricultural production remained under reported. Hence the need to try to address this lacuna while continuing to report on men farmers. ==> Information on both is required to be able to present a realistic picture of who does what, with what and providing which returns?

I will be looking into the following concepts/definitions:

1. agricultural holding
2. household, agricultural household and head of household,
3. agriculturally active person, and
4. head of plot

2.1 Agricultural holding

• one agricultural holding can contain several agricultural households, and
• one agricultural household can operate on several agricultural holdings.

  a recording must allow for more production units on one agricultural holding, so that the work of ALL farmers (men and women) will be recorded. Women farmers often manage sub-production units of agricultural holdings but still need to be recorded as individual farmers

• less agricultural households (agricultural labourers)
• homestead production
• urban agriculture
• hatcheries/small scale animal production
• tree cultures

  more women farmers work in these sub-sectors than men. Care must be taken that all agricultural production is captured in data collection.

2.2 Household, agricultural household, head of household and Agricultural household

in case this definition is strictly adhered to, all those households just mentioned as often excluded from a list of 'agricultural holdings', should be captured.

Head of household. A tendency has been observed that the eldest male household member (whether usually present or not), is automatically recorded as the 'head of household'. This socio-cultural bias among interviewers and respondents, may have contributed to the following low figures of female headed households:

Guinea possesses additional information: women take up 55 - 70 % of the agricultural population in the 20 to 49 years age bracket. This would indicate that the percentage of female headed households should be much higher. No additional information is available from the other countries. However, a World Bank publication estimates that at least 40% of the smaller agricultural holdings in developing countries are managed by a woman.

interviewer training and sensitization of respondents is required to overcome this socio-cultural bias in the identification of 'head of household' and provide more realistic recording of the number of households headed by a man or a woman.

2.3 Agricultural active person

The UN definition of productive work has changed over the years and activities previously classified under 'household activities' have been shifted to the category: 'productive work'. The most recent adaptation, from 1993, includes under productive work:

• production of agricultural produce, gathering of fruits etc. and their storage;
• processing of primary products (produced or bought) and the collection of water;
• other processing activities, sold or not, like weaving, dress making and furniture making.

  thorough training of interviewers will be required to ensure maximum recording of productive activities of work undertaken by women.

2.4 Head of plot

The most common definition of 'Head of plot' reads as follows: "the person who cultivates a certain plot, gets its products, but is not necessarily the owner of the plot."

sufficient training will be required to familiarise interviewers with this concept and its application.

3. Methodological aspects

• There is scope to increase the geographical and the 'statistical' coverage of surveys and census. Examples mentioned earlier are: urban agriculture, vegetable production.

• Cases have been reported of a gender bias in the establishment of the sample frames (based on tax registers). Stratification most commonly takes place through a two level sampling technique:
  • selection of primary units: villages or statistical areas, followed by
  • a selection of secondary observation units: agricultural holdings.
  Statisticians may want to look into incorporating gender concerns especially into the second level of sampling to enhance realistic recording of men and women's participation in agricultural production. One should note that the variable 'sex' is not an additional variable as it already forms part of the basic indispensable characteristics of each farm household.

• Gender biases with regard to the identification of economic active population, head of household and head of a sub-farm have already been highlighted.

• Lastly, the possibility of gender biases needs to be reviewed in the formulation of the questions and their answering categories, the choice of the respondents and the information campaigns accompanying agricultural surveys, census. These campaigns can contribute to reinforce respondents awareness on the need to report all agricultural activities, whether undertaken by men or women farmers and thus reduce socio-cultural biases in their responses.

4. Case studies

• how different Member Countries have attempted to open up their agricultural data collection to gender concerns;
• what approaches and procedures were used;
• what effects these experiments have had on the regular agricultural data collection exercises; and
• what conclusions one can draw with regard to operational strategies to best integrate gender concerns in agricultural data collection, analysis and dissemination.

The case studies concern annual agricultural surveys, implemented in the selected countries in specific years. The current preparations for the next round of agricultural census also include various efforts to integrate gender concerns in these and other countries, but these will form the subject of future evaluations. Furthermore, I expect that other Member Countries may have the same or complementary experiences in integrating gender concerns in their Agricultural Surveys. Unfortunately, due to the scope of this paper, we could not take all into account and I hope that we will hear about them during the discussion following this presentation.

As you have seen, the approaches to improve the availability of gender disaggregated agricultural data varied in these countries:

• from extensive questions, analysis and dissemination, (Benin & Tunisia) to
• detailed questions, but limited analysis and dissemination, (Burkina Faso) to
• a limited number of detailed questions with separate analysis and dissemination (Guinée).

The solution will be in finding a combination of the first and the third approach. A regular data collection with a limited number of detailed questions on access to production factors and returns, ensuring a frequent stream of essential information for planning of sustainable development efforts. A less frequent but more detailed data collection for complementary information on:

• control over the use of the returns, (including whether any returns remain available for investments or whether all is needed for household expenses)
• time-use
• others

5. For consideration by the 16th AFCAS meeting

• Review National statistical data collection tools and methods to identify and address existing gender biases.

• Reinforce agricultural surveys with selected questions concerning gender aspects of agricultural production:
  • integrate the concept "head of plot" by sex, to allow for gender differentiated data collection, analysis of production factors and returns;
  • include sex of holder as a variable in sampling;

• Enhance interviewer training on men and women's participation in agricultural production to reduce gender biases in data recording and expand respondents' information campaigns to reduce socio-culturally acceptable replies, resulting in under reporting of women's agricultural work.

• Reinforce user-producer contacts and provide support to users within the National Women's Machinery on the identification of practical indicators on women's participation in the agricultural production.

• Plan 5 yearly detailed agricultural surveys, covering gender disaggregated information on time-use and control over returns from agricultural assets.