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

labor for these activities, although they may not control all
of the processes. Innovations that increase the productivity
of women’s labor in these areas may benefit women,
however, the benefits will depend on what activities will
replace the hours formerly spent processing and cooking
food. Improved storage characteristics may also improve
women’s well-being, although again the dynamic effects of
such changes are not clear.

This analysis suggests that many of the early
pronouncements about what we should do to benefit
women farmers were overly naive. The past 25 years of
research have succeeded in identifying many of the factors
that are now, and will continue to be, important for
women, such as access to land, credit, fertilizer, and
extension services. The literature also demonstrates that it is
important to consider women farmers individually, but at
the same time, it is increasingly clear that we need to
understand the decisions and constraints they face in the
context of their households and communities. The simple
dichotomies of men’s crops and women’s crops, cash crops
and food crops, or male- and female-headed households do
not provide sufficient insight. Gender relationships change,
and we do not always thoroughly understand how they will
respond to the introduction of new technologies.
Acknowledging this provides both substantial challenges for
social science research on gender issues in the future and
exciting opportunities to understand these complex
relationships.

References

Abbott, S. 1976. Full-time farmers and week-end wives: An
analysis of altering conjugal roles. Journal of Marriage and
the Family. 165-73.

Alwang, J., and P.B. Siegel. 1994. Rural Poverty in Zambia: An
Analysis of Causes and Policy Recommendations.

Washington, D.C.: Human Resources Division, Southern
Africa Department, The World Bank.

Arene, C. J. 1992. Comparative economics of maize and rice
production among resource-poor farmers in Anambra state
of Nigeria. African Development Review 4(1): 102-13.

Baksh, M., C.G. Neumann, M. Paolisso, R.M. Trostle, and
A.A. Jansen. 1994. The influence of reproductive status on
rural Kenyan women’s time use. Social Science Medicine
39(3): 345-54.

Barnes, C. 1983. Differentiation by sex among small-scale
farming households in Kenya. Rural Africana 15/16: 41-
63.

Barrett, H.R., and A.W. Browne. 1994. Women’s time,
labour-saving devices and rural development in Africa.
Community Development Journal 29(3): 203-14.

Baser, H. 1988. Technology, Women, and Farming Systems.
Ottawa: Agriculture Canada.

Baumann, H. 1928. The division of work according to sex in
African hoe culture. Journal of the International Institute of
African Languages and Cultures 1(3): 289-319.

Berio, A.J. 1984. The analysis of time allocation and activity
patterns in nutrition and rural development planning.
Food and Nutrition Bulletin 6(1): 53-68.

Blackie, M.J. 1994. Realizing smallholder agricultural
potential. In M. Rukuni and C. K. Eicher (eds.),
Zimbabwe’s Agricultural Revolution. Harare, Zimbabwe:
University of Zimbabwe Publications.

Bleiberg, F.M., T.A. Brun, S. Goihman, and E. Gouba. 1979.
Duration of activities and energy expenditure of female
farmers in dry and rainy seasons in Upper Volta. The
Nutrition Society 43(71): 71-82.

Boserup, E. 1970. Women’s Role in Economic Development.
New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Boughton, D., T. Reardon, and J. Wooldridge. 1997.
Determinants of diversification of urban sahel diets into
maize: A contingent valuation study of processed maize
demand in Mali. Paper presented at International
Association of Agricultural Economists, at Sacramento,
California.

Bryson, J.C. 1981. Women and agriculture in sub-Saharan
Africa: Implications for development (an exploratory
study). In N. Nelson (ed.), African Women in the
Development Process. Totowa, New Jersey: Cass.

Bukh, J. 1979. The Village Woman in Ghana. Uppsala,
Sweden: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.

Burton, M., and D. White. 1984. Sexual Division of Labour
in Agriculture. American Anthropologist 86(4): 568-83.

Celis, R., and C. Holleman. 1991. The effects of adopting
technology on the household use of labor. In R. Celis, J.T.
Milimo, and S. Wanmali (eds.), Adopting Improved Farm
Technology: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Eastern
Province Zambia. Washington D.C.: IFPRI.

Chipande, G.H.R. 1987. Innovation adoption among female-
headed households: The case of Malawi. Development 18:
315-27.

Davison, J. 1987. “Without land we are nothing”: The effect
of land tenure policies and practices upon rural women in
Kenya. Rural Africana 27: 19-33.

Davison, J. 1988. Who owns what? Land registration and
tensions in gender relations of production in Kenya. In J.
Davison (ed.), Agriculture, Women and Land: The African
Experience. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Davison, J. 1992. Changing relations of production in
Southern Malawi’s households: Implication for involving
rural women in development. Journal of Contemporary
African Studies 11(1): 72-84.

<<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   >>

More intriguing information