Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

As per the given topic, In South region of Asia women play a dominant role in child care, nourishment of their children and better production, and also have role in livestock production and management activities. In dairy production, women account for about 93% of total employment, almost always unwaged, because she need dairy byproducts for their children growth and better health. Rural women engage in cutting fodder, cleaning livestock, managing sheds and watering and milking animals. Despite their significant involvement, women’s contributions to livestock production and management are undervalued. As women’s livestock management work is unpaid it is not considered worthy of investment. Despite the government’s 2007 Livestock Development policy, which focuses on the training and capacity building of women in livestock management. Within the household, women lack access to information that could help lead to balanced diets for their kids, because for rural women livestock is main source of complete diet (milk) for their children. so, Improved dairy management techniques could help women address poverty, as well as improve their own health, their families, their children diet and position in communities.

According to ground realities regarding our south Asia Region, the empowerment of women at village level is not imaginary thoughts, it is achievable task. To empower the women through provision of productive assets to vulnerable and deserving women at village level and better production from productive assets will support to their families nutrition and children health to utilise products and generate income. The beneficiary vulnerable women would be self-sustained by milk production for self-consumption and sale to generate income. Income from the sale of male calves will be utilised to run livelihood expanses, better family nutrition,and  improved children health. 

Challenge: The main focused challenge is to involve men at village level and conduct capacity building training of men and women both through gender prospective view to achieve task of women empowerment in agriculture sector.   

Dr.Muhammad Haseeb                   

PLAN international Pakistan.

Rural Women Economic Empowerment through enhanced participation in dairy sector Project, 

Vehari Office, Pakistan.

Contact No.  +92 334 6758606

There are several very interesting dimensions emerging from this discussion. Haris has picked up the issue of women's work, gender divisions of labour, and its links to both technology and wage markets. This is probably an area that needs more systematic research to understand its impacts on nutrition, as much research in south Asia points to the differential impacts of wages in terms of empowerment, linked partly to the motivation for work - whether it is out of necessity or choice - and the type of work. When new technologies are introduced, why do particular tasks/activities often shift to men, and consequently their value too rises? Can the better designed cotton bag described by Mahesh lead to significant improvements in women's health, but will it also lead to sharing of the cotton picking task by men?

Thanks Mahtab for raising the issue of nutrition awareness and education. This is crucial, however, rather than using a standardised approach, there is need to contextualise it in line with local food cultures and availability. The differential food preferences emerge also from some of the other contributions, especially from Africa. While several NGOs in India have been successful in working with groups of women to deveop nutrition-sensitve agriculture as well as awareness strategies, could these potentially be upscaled? The issue of sensitisation for men, raised by Barnali and Bhavani, is important, as despite women's work and incomes, sometimes it is the men who go to the markets and make the household purchases. Final decisions on what is consumed then often lies with the men.

It is very good to hear about the food safety act of Bangladesh. I think this is an important dimension, as despite all efforts, lack of adequate safety measures in both production and food processing/handling, can have adverse consequences for health and nutrition.  

I would like to hear a little more about the seasonality dimension. Recent Lansa research in India seems to indicate that there are seasonal changes in food availability and consumption, leading to temporary energy stresses. whether these have any longer term outcomes is however not clear.

This is very important topic because, in Afghanistan, most of organizations are working for the development of agriculture business in local communities and most of Afghan families are working with agriculture. Afghan women are working together with their family members and can bring changes to their economy.

For the development of Afghan women in agriculture, Afghan women need to join the economic mainstream, they need education, skills and self-confidence. Their families must support their going to school and work. Their community must give them places to work and the country must provide the legal framework, institutions and ministries that support women's economic inclusion.

In response to my friend Nigel from UK I need to mention that yes seasonality does affect not only the nutrition but also the overall agricultural productivity and thus the food security as a whole. In Bangladesh, the agricultural productivity of an unfavourable rain fed ecosystem (monsoon season) is much lower than the irrigated ecosystem (winter season). The available option of growing vegetables and fruits is much higher in winter than in monsoon season. To tackle this seasonality we may take few indigenous and as well as modern technological approaches.  Like using low cost greenhouse techniques to grow vegetables and fruits in hot summer as well as in cold winter season. Likewise, in flooded conditions indigenous techniques of growing vegetables in floating gardens may be a unique example. I would like to copy below a case study on floating gardens published in recent BRAC Annual Report of 2015. 

Floating farms that fight climate change

Flooding and water logging are common occurrences in Gopalganj district in central Bangladesh. Parts of the region stay submerged for months on end during the monsoon season, resulting in reduced crop production. People have adopted a new method of cultivation called floating agriculture to overcome this. Plants are grown in the water and derive nutrients from the water instead of soil. Floating agriculture is not only climate-adaptive, but can also lead to sustainable, large-scale crops. Monika Kirtoniya is one of many who started a floating farm on her 33 decimals of land upon after receiving training on floating vegetable cultivation. Aquatic plants like water hyacinth are grown on soil-less rafts on water, providing a platform to sow seedlings in. Plants get nutrition from either composted organics or from the water. Field crops often perish during water logging, but floating farms survive. Monika used to follow traditional rice cultivation methods. The land she cultivated on would stay waterlogged for up to six months every year, leading to an unstable income. Managing three meals a day for her family was often impossible during those months. When waters around her home began to rise again last year, she turned to floating farms. Both Monika and her husband work in her floating farm. She cultivates red amaranth, water spinach, indian spinach and okra, producing 3,900 kg of crop per acre. She makes a net profit of USD 865 (BDT 67,500) per acre. Floating farms have meant not only securing three meals a day, but the freedom of having vegetables all year round. 

It is good to read about Dr Nangraj's work on women agricultural extension workers in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is important agricultural policies and programmes acknowledge the contribution of women to agriculture.

This is also an opportunity for noting the link between women's work and nutrition. According to DHS data from Pakistan, children of mothers who work in agriculture tend to be far more likely to be stunted than those whose mothers do not work. This, I believe, is because agricultural work is undertaken out of sheer necessity and want, and is not because it is a positive economic opportunity. Women agricultural workers must make very cruel choices between earning an income and taking care of their own and their children's health.

In many parts of South Asia women's work in agriculture is an extension of unpaid or low paid drudgery associated with domestic work - in fact it is more exhausting and taxing on their health and the health of their children.

What Joan P Mencher notes about changes in the gendered division of labour once implements are introduced has some resonance in our observations in Pakistan.  I believe that at the core of this gendered division of work lies the deeply structural social segmentation of labour - with women being paid lower wages than men. I believe that in many parts of South Asia gender wage discrimination in agriculture is probably more severe than it is in other sectors. The problem with labour markets is that they need to appear to be fair. So work that is particularly drudgerous (is that a word?) is often seen by social norm as women's work.  Men's work, by contrast, tends to be less of a drudgery and somewhat better paid. I believe that Nitya's observations about the gendered division of work can also be interpreted in this way. The observation of men having almost exclusive access to digital technology (Joanna Kane-Potaka) might be a manifestation of the same tendency.

Here is a blog I wrote on this subject on cotton harvesting based on LANSA research:

http://researchcollective.blogspot.com/2015/08/womens-work-and-wages.ht…

The backdrop, of course, is that agricultural work in general is drudgerous and low paid - for women AND men. So, in a way what Akmal Nazir says has an element of truth - that we should focus on the welfare of the household. But nevertheless, there is a strong reason in many parts of South Asia to focus on women agricultural workers. As economies get diversified those who are left in agriculture - men and women - are the ones who command low wages and poor working conditions due to their weak socio-economic positions. Within this group women are at a particular disadvantage. So, by focussing attention on women agricultural workers might be a very efficient way of reaching some of the most disadvantaged segments of society.

My friend Sirajul from BRAC Agriculture Programme has highlighted the nutri-garden model for year-round production of fruits and vegetables cultivation. It is an exciting opportunity.

I am working in Afghanistan, where seasonality is a major challenge: there are parts of Afghanistan where little or nothing grows for 3, 4, 5 or even 6 months of the year due to cold and snow.

Actually I am writing from Edinburgh in Scotland, which is 400 miles north of where I live in the south-east of England, and the differences of seasonality were something I was talking about this morning with research colleagues: the growing season up here is much shorter than in England, and the range of crops that can be cultivated is much smaller. Seasonality affects agriculture and limits what can be tried.

So my question in relation to this forum is: in what ways does seasonality affect women in agriculture in other parts of the world?

I was excited to read Abdul Mazid’s contribution on OFSP and other bio-fortified crops. These have real potential to improve nutrition, and can be implemented through working with women. I know of other work done in Africa on OFSP, and of the BRAC efforts to promote OFSP in Bangladesh.

Abdul Mazid seems to point to the difficulties of promotion of novel crops, creating nutritional awareness, and gaining consumer acceptance. Are there any short-cuts to accelerate this process and ensure success? What is required?

Promoting Agricultural technology for Drudgery reduction in Farm Women

Women are the backbone of agricultural workforce and a vital part of Indian economy. Studies have shown that Indian women work up to 14 hours a day to carry out the most arduous activities on farm and at home. Rural women perform field operations like preparatory work for sowing, transplanting, weeding, inter-culture, harvesting and threshing and primary processing of agro produce. All these tasks are time consuming and drudgery ridden.

Cotton picking is one of the laborious tasks performed by farm women in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Cotton picking is a tedious job and it is done manually and women’s deft hands are required for quick collection. On an average, a woman spends approximately 6-8 hours daily  collecting 30-35 Kg of cotton in a  ‘Jholi’,  a traditional  ‘conventional bag’ made out of their own garments and soft clothing which is tied in the form of a bag across their shoulders and back. The whole process is very time consuming and back breaking.

After observing the problems of farm workers while picking cotton in the fields, a cotton picking bag was designed for farm women by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) Nagpur, keeping ergonomics’ in mind. Ergonomics is a discipline that aims at improving efficiency at work and minimizes health hazards. The cotton picking bag was then tested in the field and found to be user friendly and better than existing method of cotton picking. The cotton picking bag is designed as per anthropometric measurements of female farm workers. Shaped pockets are provided in front and below waist level to hold things. The straps on the shoulders make it comfortable to carry the weight of cotton. This innovation promotes workers’ comfort and safety and helps improve efficiency.

These cotton picking bags were introduced on pilot basis in all villages under the Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) study of LANSA in Wardha district of Vidarbha in 2015-16 following field demonstration and discussions with the women farmers.  Feedback from women farmers who tried them out was positive: reduction in pain in wrist, upper back and shoulders; the bags are more amenable for tying, picking, emptying, load carrying and more efficient compared to other back and front loaded traditional bags; they were able to harvest more cotton per day and cover more area/hour than under the traditional system. The bag is more efficient in cotton picking with higher output of cotton harvested and cotton harvest area covered among all cotton pickings.

There is now demand from more women for these bags. More innovations of this type that can help reduce the burden and drudgery of women farmers are urgently required.

I would like to explore if there is any experience of male sensitization program that was found to be effective in empowering women and improving nutrition?