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

Burton, M., and D. White. 1984. Sexual division of labour
in agriculture. American Anthropologist 86(4): 568-83.

This paper reviews many of the anthropological
explanations for why there is a sexual division of labor in
agriculture. The authors claim that the number of dry
months and the importance of domesticated animals to
subsistence are the most important predictors of women’s
contribution to agriculture. The use of the plow and crop
type are also important. Population density has only weak
effects.

Byerlee, D., and P.W. Heisey. 1996. Past and potential
impacts of maize research in sub-Saharan Africa: A
critical assessment. Food Policy 21(3): 255-77.

This review of maize research over the past 20 years and the
adoption patterns of improved maize technology concludes
that many countries have had considerable success.
However, there is room for additional gains to be made,
especially in the areas of maintaining soil fertility and
increasing labor productivity. Raising agricultural
productivity depends on policy, institutional, and
infrastructural development. Many of the issues raised are
of concern to women farmers in Africa, although gender
issues are not addressed specifically. In particular, the post-
harvest characteristics of improved varieties and the
seasonality of labor are issues affecting women farmers.

Byerlee, D., and C.K. Eicher (eds.). 1997. Africa’s Emerging
Maize Revolution. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner
Publishers.

This edited volume provides case studies of maize adoption
in Africa and a series of chapters focusing on the lessons
that can be learned in the areas of research priorities, soil
fertility and fertilizer use, the maize seed industry, and
marketing and pricing policy. The editors emphasize that
the lessons for achieving food security in Africa and the
prescriptions for a green revolution cannot be obtained by
looking at the Asian Green Revolution experience, but
instead must be drawn from case studies in Africa. This
book provides a framework through which to examine these
lessons.

Campbell, C.C. 1991. Food insecurity: A nutritional
outcome or a predictor variable. Journal of Nutrition
121: 408-15.

Food security is the access for all people at all times to
enough food for an active, healthy life. At a minimum this
includes a readily available supply of safe and nutritionally
adequate foods and the assurance that personally acceptable
foods can be procured in a socially acceptable way. Risk
factors for food insecurity include factors that limit
household resources such as money, information, time, or
health factors that constrain the proportion of resources
available for food acquisition. This paper discusses measures
of food insecurity at several levels: household hunger,
women’s hunger, and children’s hunger. Although this article
discusses the issue of food insecurity in the USA, it is readily
applicable to the many nations, communities, households,
and individuals in sub-Saharan Africa that face food
insecurity. In addition, by noting that different individuals
within a given household may face different levels of food
security or insecurity, the paper underscores the importance
of looking at intrahousehold factors and gender issues.

Celis, R., J.T. Milimo, S. Wanmali (eds.). 1991. Adopting
Improved Farm Technology: A Study of Smallholder
Farmers in Eastern Province Zambia. Washington D.C.:
IFPRI.

This is a collection of articles based on primary data
collected in Eastern Province, Zambia in 1985/1986. The
articles examine the physical, institutional, and policy
environment of the province. In addition, they examine
determinants and effects of technology adoption, especially
the adoption of hybrid maize and related inputs.

Households are characterized as adopters or nonadopters of
hybrid maize and/or oxen, contact or noncontact farmers,
and male- or female-headed households. Among their
results, they find that the cultivation of hybrid maize
requires substantial amounts of labor, especially women’s
labor, and that there is a welfare disadvantage to women and
children living in households that grow hybrid maize.
Policies that would reduce inequities in the region are
proposed.

Cheater, A. 1981. Women and their participation in
commercial agricultural production: The case of
medium-scale freehold in Zimbabwe. Development and
Change 12: 348-77.

Most of the literature concerning women’s role in African
agriculture focuses on smallholder peasant families. This
paper takes a different approach; it examines women’s
participation in commercial agricultural production,
especially in polygamous households where nonfamilial
labor is hired less frequently. The high labor requirements of
women are accompanied by less decision-making power and
financial independence than in monogamous or peasant
households. This is particularly true of junior wives, who
have little decision-making power and are economically
dependent upon the farm owner and senior wives. The roles
of women as workers, farm owners, and farm managers are
examined, with particular attention to their varying degrees
of decision-making power. The ways in which traditional
customs and culture reinforce the increased appropriation of
women’s labor by their kin suggests that the situation is
stable.

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