Secure tenure systems, for instance, are based on discriminatory policies. While most African states have considered agriculture the backbone from the economies and acknowledge the significant role of women in the agricultural sector, few have paid much attention to the land tenure systems which might be discriminating against women.
Women's access to loans and other credit facilities for agricultural improvement is actually constrained by their inability to own land.
The impact of discriminatory land tenure systems relating to agricultural production; and specifically on production of food crops; is an area which needs conscientious analysis by policy makers and planners. This problem is more pronounced in countries where the migrant labour system has caused an increase in female heads of household who lack power and control over the secure they work. This condition is worsened by the fact that the existing rural credit policies are likewise blind to the existing discriminatory systems. Women agricultural producers are not benefiting from rural credit facilities this kind of limits their contribution to promoting sustainable development in this sector.
Agriculture continues to be all the backbone of African economies. According to a 1989 World Bank report, agriculture provides about 33% about African GDP and 40% of its exports, and has great potential for expansion. Most African communities have tried gender specific roles in agricultural production. Land clearing is normally assigned to men, while males and females participate in tilling the land. Weeding is normally done by women, who are also chargeable for transporting crops from the farm to the home or to cooperative units. In terms about division of labour, studies have indicated that women have been contributing more time in all the agricultural cycle than men. A recent study done for the World Bank, for instance, estimated that ladies in sub-Saharan Africa produce up to 80% of all staple foods but own less than 10% for the land. In another study, on the world economic crisis and its impact on women, it was further estimated that women in this area contribute up to 30% of labour in ploughing, 50% of labour in planting, 60% about labour in weeding, 85% of labour in processing and preserving food, while performing up to 95% at all domestic chores. Indeed, throughout rural Africa, women's labour input is estimated to be three conditions that of men. This was neatly expressed by the former President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, 1 so, who said, "It would be appropriate to ask our farmers, especially men, how many hours in one week or how many weeks in a year they work. The truth is that women on the villages work very hard, 12-15 hours in a day. They even work on Sundays and additionally public holidays. Women who live in the villages work harder than everybody else in Tanzania. But men who have the villages are on leave for half of their lives. "
Development policies on this continent had been functioning under the assumption that women's labour supply is elastic. Increasing labour demand, as certainly as increased infant mortality rates, have been forcing women to produce more children. The time about biological reproductive tasks constrains women's involvement in other productive activities. In Tanzania, for instance, approximately an average woman devotes up to 17 years to pregnancy, breastfeeding and caring for teen siblings. Women's biological and social reproductive roles are supposed to go hand in hand by their other productive activities. The present food insecurity cannot be isolated from the existing gender division of labour which is certainly forcing women to increase the child population as a source of future labour. This has produced an imbalance between food production and population growth. Sound population policies should not ignore existing inequities on the sexual division of labour.
Where the migrant labour system prevails, such as in Lesotho, Bostwana, Namibia and additionally Swaziland, women have been forced to manage all agricultural activities single-handedly as most of the men have migrated to mining industry in South Africa. This condition is worsened by the fact that the tools of labour utilised by women have never been improved. As a matter of fact, mechanization of agriculture has marginalized wives. The small handhoe has been the main farm implement used by women. Their backs and heads had been the major means of transporting food and agricultural outputs from the farm to the household and also the market.
But despite the fact that women contribute more labour in agricultural production, they constitute a minority of formal employees in this sector. A study done in Tanzania in 1989, an example, showed that only 47 women were employed in the agricultural sector in the Ministry's hq, compared with 80 men. Of all these employees, not a single woman was a Necessary Agricultural Officer.
A UNICEF study and analysis of the condition of women and children in Namibia showed that women constitute a small minority of formal agricultural employees even when they are a majority of rural producers. Figures for 1988 show that out of 37, 388 employees in the agricultural sector; equivalent to 20. 77% of the total labour trigger; only 1885 or 4. 45% are women. 2
Marginal participation of women as formal employees encourages gender insensitivity on the planning and development of this sector. Studies have shown that there are socio-cultural barriers in which limit male extension officers in providing technical advice to female farmers. In many parts for the continent, extension services have been biased in favour of male farmers; a factor which explains male biases on the sector's technologies.
Traditional methods of preserving foods have also been ignored and substituted by modern techniques which you should never extend knowledge of preserving female-grown perishable crops, such as vegetables. This has contributed to food insecurity at household level throughout the region and during a period when lots of the countries in the region have already been hard hit by drought. Most agricultural technology, an example, has been directed towards certain 'cash' crops, which are male dominated, and little input is actually directed to food crops, especially the traditional and staple foods normally referred to as kind crops. Hardly any research has explored ways of improving such crops as cassava, sweet oranges, a variety of yams and traditionally grown peas, beans, vegetables and so forth.
But lots of the work which women do in this sector is not valued or recognized. The very idea of work is socially constructed. The Zimbabwe Bureau of Statistics defines 'work' as "a remunerative activity usually done inside umbrella of formal or informal organizations, government or private, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). " All the bureau further defines the formal sector as registered business, while the informal sector would come to be unregistered business.
Tanzania's Human Deployment Act of 1984 defines employment as "any gainful activity which enables an able-bodied adult to make a profit and which can result in an increase in productivity. "
The narrow definition of work excludes lots of the work performed by women and thus implies that women's activities are not part of all the mainstream planning. This means that they do not benefit from the allocation of financial strategies.
Women's access to loans and other credit facilities for agricultural improvement is actually constrained by their inability to own land.
The impact of discriminatory land tenure systems relating to agricultural production; and specifically on production of food crops; is an area which needs conscientious analysis by policy makers and planners. This problem is more pronounced in countries where the migrant labour system has caused an increase in female heads of household who lack power and control over the secure they work. This condition is worsened by the fact that the existing rural credit policies are likewise blind to the existing discriminatory systems. Women agricultural producers are not benefiting from rural credit facilities this kind of limits their contribution to promoting sustainable development in this sector.
Agriculture continues to be all the backbone of African economies. According to a 1989 World Bank report, agriculture provides about 33% about African GDP and 40% of its exports, and has great potential for expansion. Most African communities have tried gender specific roles in agricultural production. Land clearing is normally assigned to men, while males and females participate in tilling the land. Weeding is normally done by women, who are also chargeable for transporting crops from the farm to the home or to cooperative units. In terms about division of labour, studies have indicated that women have been contributing more time in all the agricultural cycle than men. A recent study done for the World Bank, for instance, estimated that ladies in sub-Saharan Africa produce up to 80% of all staple foods but own less than 10% for the land. In another study, on the world economic crisis and its impact on women, it was further estimated that women in this area contribute up to 30% of labour in ploughing, 50% of labour in planting, 60% about labour in weeding, 85% of labour in processing and preserving food, while performing up to 95% at all domestic chores. Indeed, throughout rural Africa, women's labour input is estimated to be three conditions that of men. This was neatly expressed by the former President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, 1 so, who said, "It would be appropriate to ask our farmers, especially men, how many hours in one week or how many weeks in a year they work. The truth is that women on the villages work very hard, 12-15 hours in a day. They even work on Sundays and additionally public holidays. Women who live in the villages work harder than everybody else in Tanzania. But men who have the villages are on leave for half of their lives. "
Development policies on this continent had been functioning under the assumption that women's labour supply is elastic. Increasing labour demand, as certainly as increased infant mortality rates, have been forcing women to produce more children. The time about biological reproductive tasks constrains women's involvement in other productive activities. In Tanzania, for instance, approximately an average woman devotes up to 17 years to pregnancy, breastfeeding and caring for teen siblings. Women's biological and social reproductive roles are supposed to go hand in hand by their other productive activities. The present food insecurity cannot be isolated from the existing gender division of labour which is certainly forcing women to increase the child population as a source of future labour. This has produced an imbalance between food production and population growth. Sound population policies should not ignore existing inequities on the sexual division of labour.
Where the migrant labour system prevails, such as in Lesotho, Bostwana, Namibia and additionally Swaziland, women have been forced to manage all agricultural activities single-handedly as most of the men have migrated to mining industry in South Africa. This condition is worsened by the fact that the tools of labour utilised by women have never been improved. As a matter of fact, mechanization of agriculture has marginalized wives. The small handhoe has been the main farm implement used by women. Their backs and heads had been the major means of transporting food and agricultural outputs from the farm to the household and also the market.
But despite the fact that women contribute more labour in agricultural production, they constitute a minority of formal employees in this sector. A study done in Tanzania in 1989, an example, showed that only 47 women were employed in the agricultural sector in the Ministry's hq, compared with 80 men. Of all these employees, not a single woman was a Necessary Agricultural Officer.
A UNICEF study and analysis of the condition of women and children in Namibia showed that women constitute a small minority of formal agricultural employees even when they are a majority of rural producers. Figures for 1988 show that out of 37, 388 employees in the agricultural sector; equivalent to 20. 77% of the total labour trigger; only 1885 or 4. 45% are women. 2
Marginal participation of women as formal employees encourages gender insensitivity on the planning and development of this sector. Studies have shown that there are socio-cultural barriers in which limit male extension officers in providing technical advice to female farmers. In many parts for the continent, extension services have been biased in favour of male farmers; a factor which explains male biases on the sector's technologies.
Traditional methods of preserving foods have also been ignored and substituted by modern techniques which you should never extend knowledge of preserving female-grown perishable crops, such as vegetables. This has contributed to food insecurity at household level throughout the region and during a period when lots of the countries in the region have already been hard hit by drought. Most agricultural technology, an example, has been directed towards certain 'cash' crops, which are male dominated, and little input is actually directed to food crops, especially the traditional and staple foods normally referred to as kind crops. Hardly any research has explored ways of improving such crops as cassava, sweet oranges, a variety of yams and traditionally grown peas, beans, vegetables and so forth.
But lots of the work which women do in this sector is not valued or recognized. The very idea of work is socially constructed. The Zimbabwe Bureau of Statistics defines 'work' as "a remunerative activity usually done inside umbrella of formal or informal organizations, government or private, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). " All the bureau further defines the formal sector as registered business, while the informal sector would come to be unregistered business.
Tanzania's Human Deployment Act of 1984 defines employment as "any gainful activity which enables an able-bodied adult to make a profit and which can result in an increase in productivity. "
The narrow definition of work excludes lots of the work performed by women and thus implies that women's activities are not part of all the mainstream planning. This means that they do not benefit from the allocation of financial strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment