ABSTRACT
The success of the agricultural economy in many developing
countries is challenged, mainly because women who represent a crucial resource
are largely constrained in the access to productive resources Researchers have
demonstrated that cultural norms and values strongly influence access to
productive resources. Development agencies in response to productive
constraints provide programmes to improve rural livelihoods. The outcomes of
these projects are however not always successful. The study sought to explain
how agricultural production relations shape gendered responses to rural livelihood
interventions in the Sunyani Municipality. The study adopted the qualitative
research approach and specifically, the explanatory design. The purposive
sampling technique was used to select respondents for focus group discussions,
in-depth and key person interviews. The secondary data was analysed using
gender analytical tools from the Moser Framework and the Social Relations
Approach. The primary data was thematically analysed. The study found that men
as household heads structurally controlled production relations and therefore
had better access and control than women. All but one of the selected
interventions was gender aware. Responses to interventions were gendered with
men inclined to crop related interventions and the women, to those offering
off-farm livelihood diversification. The study concluded that production
relations affected the nature of responses to any intervention. It recommended
that interventions should be planned in view of contextual production relations
so as to address relations between men and women. Women farmers should also
endeavour to form farmer groups to develop their agency.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Agricultural Production Relations influence access to
productive resources (Carr & McCusker, 2009), often leaving rural women
disadvantaged. In response, various development agencies have provided policies
to better the livelihoods, specifically for women owing to the key roles they
play in agricultural production. However, the decision to participate in an
intervention is informed by the ownership and control of productive resources
emerging from existing production relations. According to Ajadi, Oladele,
Ikegami and Tsuruta (2015), social norms and values inform the relations that
moderate the role and livelihood activities of both women and men, as well as
their access to land and other productive resources. Distinct social
ascriptions for women, in addition, influence their decisions to adopt
agricultural interventions as alternatives to their livelihood strategies.
These social ascriptions, according to Marxists, inform how individuals relate
to the means of production (Berbeshkina, Yakovleva, & Zerkin, 1985).
There exists literature on the various constituents of
production relations (access to, control over ownership of and decisions
regarding productive resources) and theirm resulting constraints (Umeh, Chwuku,
& Oselebe, 2015; Ajadi, Oladele, Ikegami, & Tsuruta, 2015; Carr &
McCusker, 2009). Such literature discusses the constituents independently in
relation to responses to interventions. Studies rarely attempt to aggregate
these individual constituents as a total unit for examination. However,
experience shows that the various components are highly interdependent, making an examination of production relations and how they
shape differences in responses to livelihood interventions an important
exercise.
Background to the Study
Agriculture is vital for comprehensive development because it
produces food, as well as provides economic wealth for many of the world’s
poorest people. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
(2006), wealth produced from agricultural activities can be utilised in
investing in improvement to education, healthcare, infrastructure and
environmentally sound practices. The success of the agricultural economy in
many developing countries is challenged, mainly because women who represent a
crucial resource in this economy are largely constrained as far as access to
productive resources is concerned (Team & Doss, 2011).
Women, relative to men, make essential contributions to the
agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries (Okali, 2011).
Their roles differ significantly between and within regions, and are changing
rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are
transforming the agricultural economy. They are, however, over represented in
unpaid, seasonal and part-time agricultural work. Available data on rural and
agricultural feminization shows that this situation is more pronounced in
sub-Saharan Africa (Team & Doss, 2011).
Rural women in Sub-Saharan Africa often manage more complex
households and pursue multiple livelihood strategies as compared to rural men.
Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending
animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or
other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and
marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes (Doss &
Morris, 2011). Regarding labour for food production, women in the Sub Sahara
contribute between 60 and 80 percent, both for household consumption and for
sale. Furthermore, subsistent agriculture is becoming a predominantly female
sector activity as a consequence of faster male out-migration and predominance
of unskilled labour (FAO, 1998). Women now constitute the majority of
smallholder farmers, providing most of the labour and managing a large part of
the farming activities on a daily basis (Diao, 2010).
Researchers argue that the contribution made by women is
considered an effective engine for social change in sub-Saharan Africa
(Dobermann, Nelson, Beever, Bergvinson, Crowley, Denning, Lynam, 2013). This
view underlies the need to focus on gendered productivity. Despite women’s
significant role in farming and post-harvest activities in most countries in
the region, the varied set of social and cultural norms prevailing within rural
communities dictate the division of labour between women and men. According to
Mullaney (2012), an understanding of women farmers' role, their importance and
their constraints are prerequisites to devising policies that would improve
productivity and socioeconomic development.
The 1995 World Conference on women, popularly known as the
Beijing Conference, proposed gender mainstreaming as the policy strategy of the
future to transform social and institutional structures in order to make them
more gender responsive and improve their beneficial outcomes (Sachs &
Alston, 2010). This was meant to avoid treating women as victims of
circumstance and rather regards them as agents, responding to the constraints of their
circumstances. What this meant was that policies were not to just focus on
women’s participation and perceived challenges but to acknowledge their needs
and their positions in the production system. This clearly indicates that if
the position of women in the farm household is not correctly analysed,
development policies will continue to have unintended, negative outcomes.
Production relations are vital to the understanding of women’s positions within
the farm households and should be clearly analysed in order to plan for women's
integration into the development process.
In Ghana, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) (2007)
states that agriculture is predominantly practised on smallholder, family-operated
farms, using rudimentary technology to produce about 80 percent of the
country’s total agricultural output. It is estimated that about 2.74 million
households operate a farm or keep livestock only (Ghana Statistical Service
(GSS), 2012). Agriculture is also a critical sector for women as nearly half
(48.7%) of the total female population are self-employed in agriculture, with
the majority being engaged in food production (GSS, 2014). A majority of
Ghanaian women in agriculture have limited access to productive resources such
as land, labour and capital due to cultural and institutional factors. Allodia
rights, which are the ultimate right to land in Ghana are mainly (78%)
controlled by clans and family heads as well as land priests who are predominantly
males (Bugri, Yeboah, & Agana, 2016).
According to Quisumbing, Otsuka, Suyanto, Aidoo and
Payongayong, as cited by Britwum, Tsikata, Akorsu, & Aberese (2014), access
to land is often restricted to usufruct rights only. Women cannot provide
collateral for credit because they may not have legal ownership of tangible assets.
Their reproductive roles, which are usually defined by culture, interfere with
their productive roles. In the absence of the financial capability to hire
labour, women also suffer a labour deficit. In many regions, men may pose
roadblocks to women earning and controlling higher incomes. Due to their lack
of visibility as farmers as well as other social constraints, development
interveners usually miss women, even when policies are targeting gender issues
(Escobar, 1995). Some projects have, however, sought to incorporate men in
order to mitigate tensions between men and women as well as produce more
sustainable results for women (Dobermann, et al., 2013).
In the Sunyani Municipality, agriculture remains a main
source of livelihood for a majority of households, due to the rich soil and
favourable climatic conditions. This is gradually being taken over by the
service economy leading to diversification of the local economy. Despite this
trend, GSS (2014) reports that as high as 34.3 percent of households in the
municipality are engaged in agriculture. In the rural localities, eight out of
every ten households, making up 72.2 percent of the total population, are
agricultural households, while in the urban localities; the proportion is 28.0
percent of households. Women in the Sunyani Municipality dominate in the
agricultural economy, as is characteristic throughout the nation, however,
their productivity is constrained by cultural factors (GSS, 2012).
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