social and ritual rights but have gained income through cash
crop production and wage employment. In this group,
resources may be available for the adoption of improved
maize, and the willingness of men in this group to invest in
agriculture is promising. The third group is composed of
large landowners who enjoy the greatest benefits of
development efforts. In this group, women have lost their
decision-making roles but have gained social power, status,
and economic security within the community. Men have
greatly expanded their decision-making power both within
and beyond the local area. Farmers within this group are
typically “modern farmers” who are wealthy enough to
adopt and realize the benefits of new agricultural
technology.
Koopman, J. 1991. Neoclassical household models and
modes of household production: Problems in the
analysis of African agricultural households. Review of
Radical Political Economics 23(3, 4): 148-73.
The models of agricultural households as unified production
and consumption units are fundamentally misspecified for
Africa. In particular, the assumptions of shared preferences
and of pooled incomes and resources are misrepresentative.
Instead, in southern Cameroon, the adults of the household
conduct separate enterprises, earn individual incomes, and
manage separate budgets. The agricultural household
models do not recognize that a farmer’s access to the
resources, productive services, and markets affected by state
policy varies significantly according to his or her social
position within the household. This paper makes no
mention of the relations surrounding maize production (it
mentions cocoyam and cocoa production), but it provides
useful insights for analysis of intrahousehold issues.
Koopman, J. 1993. The hidden roots of the African food
problem: Looking within the rural household. In N.
Folbre, B. Bergmann, B. Agarwal, and M. Floro (eds.),
Women’s Work in the World Economy. New York: New
York University Press. Pp. 82-103.
This paper examines the contribution of women farmers to
household food security and stresses the need for gender-
specific analysis of food production constraints. It attributes
the decline of Africa’s traditional agricultural sector to
policies and institutional constraints that neglect the
resource needs of women food farmers. In most African
smallholder economies, men’s and women’s agricultural
enterprises and incomes remain separate. This impacts the
food sector and makes standard agricultural household
models fundamentally misspecified. Despite serious
economic and social constraints, African women remain
highly motivated to increase food production as
demonstrated in a case study of maize farmers in Malawi.
This paper demonstrates how intrahousehold differences in
resources, constraints, and decision-making power impact
the issue of food security and technological adoption in sub-
Saharan Africa.
Koopman Henn, J. 1983. Feeding the cities and feeding the
peasants: What role for Africa’s women farmers? World
Development 11(12): 1043-55.
In the farming systems of the Beti peoples of southern
Cameroon and of the Haya of northwestern Tanzania,
women and men face different access to land and labor.
Since women work more hours than men, increasing the
productivity of women is essential. However, as women’s
productivity increases and their incomes rise, husbands may
simply make their wives responsible for more family
expenses. Women with access to food markets produce three
times as much food as women in similar economic
situations where surplus produce can not readily be sold.
Women farmers’ efforts to enter the cash economy are
frustrated by a lack of marketing facilities and modern
production inputs and by traditional patriarchal systems
that limit women’s control of cash incomes, their access to
land, and control over their own labor. In the long run, the
author favors policies specifically designed to free women of
economic subordination. In the short run, the author
stresses that many policies can disadvantage women, and, at
the very least, attention should be paid to the possible
impacts of policies upon women.
Kranz, J., and K. Fiege. 1983. The work never ends:
Problems of women in the farm economy of the Ivory
Coast. Development and Cooperation 6: 12-13.
This article provides a very general description of the social
status of women in the Ivory Coast. Increased investment in
cash crops has undermined women’s ability to provide
enough food for themselves and their families. The sexual
division of labor is quite fluid; women engage in harvest
activities, transport, farm work, and even clear fields.
Women are sometimes paid in cash or cloth for work on
their husband’s export crops, but this cash is almost
immediately reinvested in the household. The relaxation of
the gender division of labor has increased the burden of
rural women. While women have assumed many “male”
tasks, men have not taken on tasks traditionally performed
by women. Marriage is viewed as undesirable and many
women leave their husbands to return to their natal villages.
Because marriages are precarious, many women hesitate to
invest in land.
Kumar, S.K. 1987. Women’s role and agricultural
technology. In J.W. Mellor, C.L. Delgado, and M.J.
Blackie (eds.), Accelerating Food Production in Sub-
Saharan Africa. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins
University Press. Pp. 135-47.
This chapter provides an excellent overview of the issues
concerning the adoption of agricultural technology by
women. The author suggests that it is important to develop
technology packages that address women’s labor constraints
and ensure them access to the given technology.
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