TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN FARMERS IN AFRICA: LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS; WITH AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY



It is a challenge to determine the extent to which
differential use of inputs by men and women results from
the different constraints they face. To disentangle these
issues, it is important to ask the following questions: How
is credit obtained? What collateral is required? Do men
and women have equal access to the collateral? Are there
specific constraints that limit women’s access to these
inputs because of their gender, such as legal restrictions on
women’s access to credit based on marital status? Is access
to specific inputs dependent upon other characteristics of
farms or farmers that may be correlated with gender, such
as the size, and productivity of the farm? Does the quality
of inputs, such as extension, differ for men and women?
Answers to these questions will help us to sort out whether
the constraints to increased input use are directly related to
gender
per se or to other factors correlated with gender.

Outputs

Given access to inputs, the choice of which ones to use and
in what quantities will be affected by the objective
function of the individual farmer. Farmers may try to
maximize profits, maximize returns to labor, or maximize
household food security. Given markets that are not
perfect, farmers will usually choose to produce for both
household consumption and market sales. As discussed
earlier, men and women may emphasize different traits in
their production choices for either home or market. When
growing crops that will be sold immediately post-harvest,
the primary concern will be yield;, but when growing
crops for home consumption, storage, processing, and taste
considerations may also be important. Thus, to the extent
that gender influences the end use of the crop, men and
women may have different preferences regarding varietal
traits.

Many researchers have argued that women would benefit
from improved storage qualities in maize. However,
relatively little information on preferences regarding
storage exists in the literature. Existing storage
technologies may not be well-suited to high-yielding
varieties. A model McHugh (1993) develops suggests that
the adoption of improved seeds is inadvisable because of
quantitative and qualitative losses incurred during storage.

It is not clear whether it would be more efficient to
develop varieties that store better using existing techniques
or to develop new storage technologies.

Processing characteristics will affect varietal selection.
Women are almost universally charged with the processing
of maize; thus they may be especially concerned about
processing characteristics. People in both Zambia (Jha et
al. 1991) and Malawi (Hirschmann and Vaughan 1984)
report that the dent hybrids are more difficult to pound.
Kumar (1991) notes that the new varieties are often not
compatible with existing processing methods. The extent
to which new processing technologies could result in the
acceptance of these varieties is unclear. Processing includes
pounding, milling, and in some areas, fermentation. In
Ghana, Tripp (1993) notes that the new varieties require
longer soaking periods for fermentation, which particularly
affects small-scale food processors and sellers.

Smale (1995) has done extensive work in Malawi on
farmer preferences in maize characteristics. Smallholders
produce maize for home consumption and market sales;
thus they are concerned about both yield and texture. The
traditional local varieties of maize have a flinty texture,
which means they have higher flour-to-grain extraction
rates and they store better under traditional methods,
while most of the introduced hybrids have been dents that
produce higher yields in the field. When storage and
processing concerns are considered, however, the flint
varieties ultimately display higher yields for household
consumption. The development of semi-flint hybrids in
Malawi is resolving some of these constraints.

The new varieties may taste different (Bukh 1979;
Hirschmann and Vaughan 1984), but in Africa, taste
per se
is rarely noted as a reason for choosing one variety over
another. Some issues regarding taste may be considered as
processing concerns.

The introduction of mills may influence the selection of
varieties and may also affect time allocation within the
household. Because processing maize by hand is time-
intensive, we might expect that mills would be widely
accepted, however, women’s time is not highly valued and

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