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Women in Agricultural Production and Food Security in Rural Cameroon

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Women in Agricultural Production and Food Security in Rural Cameroon International Journal of Agricultural Policy and Research Vol.5 (3), pp. 70-79, March 2017 Available online at https://www.journalissues.org/IJAPR/ https://doi.org/10.15739/IJAPR.17.008 Copyright © 2017 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN 2350-1561 Original Research Article Women in agricultural production and food security in rural Cameroon Received 25 November, 2016 Revised 12 January, 2017 Accepted 17 January, 2017 Published 14 March, 2017 Mbu Daniel Tambi*1, This study attempts to investigate the effects of Women in Agricultural Johannes Tabi Production on Food Security in Rural Cameroon. Women in agriculture are 2 principally in charge of the cultivation of basic food crops; however, the Atemnkeng burden of this function on women is so heavy that they need to be medically and and agriculturally empowered though this has not been the case in most Mary-Juliet Bime3 rural Cameroon. As a step to solving this problem, we have as objectives: (a) to explore the determinants of Women in Agricultural Production, (b) 1Department of Agricultural examined the contribution of women working in Agriculture on food Economics; University of security in rural Cameroon and (c) derived policy implications on the basis Dschang, Cameroon. of our analysis. To tackle these objectives, use is made of instrumental 2Department of Management variable (2SLS) model. Empirical results are based on 2011 Demographic Science; University of Buea, and Health survey collected by the government’s statistics office and Cameroon. Department of statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural 3Department of Agribusiness Development. Results show that women in agricultural production are Technology; University of associated positively with food security, overall. Other variables that are Bamenda, Cameroon. associated significantly with food security in rural Cameroon are maternal participation in the labour market, mother’s education, family size and *Corresponding Author father’s presence in the household. The determinants of women in Email: [email protected] agricultural production include: mother’s age, health of status of mothers, married women place of residence and farm size respectively. In terms of policy, Women in Agricultural Production are indeed working machine in terms of crop production (food security) in Cameroon, like any other machine, they need fuel to function well. The decision makers must put at the top of their agenda women empowerment and support programs, as well as medical services at the disposal of women to permit them do their job effectively. This is a gateway towards ameliorating standards of living among women and poverty alleviation in rural households. Key words: Women, agricultural production, food security, rural Cameroon. INTRODUCTION Women are a precious asset to humanity, due from their especially in rural Cameroon. It is estimated that in triple indispensible role in the society; they make Cameroon, rural women supply about 90 percent of the enormous contributions to productivity (food security); food needed for subsistence by the population (Prakash, they are the principal source of child bearing otherwise 2006). During the high growing season, women devote 6 to known as population growth and their major role of 8 hours a day to agriculture in addition to their household domestic care (cooking, washing, serving, fetching and work while the men work mainly in the cash crop sector grooming). In these functions, women working in (Logo and Bikie, 2003). Women bear the entire agriculture give in more than other labour occupations responsibility for food production and also help men with Int. J. Agric. Pol. Res. 71 land preparation, harvesting and other works in cash crops. identified with macro-level instruments such as national In the fishing and animal domestication domain, while men and international storage of food and balance-of-payments are primarily responsible for fishing and livestock, women support for countries facing temporary food shortages are in charge of fish processing and marketing, raising (Valdes, 1981). However, it was observed that a large poultry and small livestock and share in the processing of segment of a population could be living in hunger, though milk products, both for home consumption and for sale. In the country had sufficient food in aggregate during normal general, rural women work 1.5 to 3 times longer than men times meaning food adequacy at the aggregate level does (FAO, 2000). not necessarily ensure adequacy at the household or In executing their functions, women in agricultural individual level. production face many challenges as they are among the In this light, a special committee of the United Nations most marginalized labour groups. They leave home in the comprehensively underscore that; a household is food morning walk for long distant farms, work the whole day, secured when it has access to the food needed for a healthy come back home to get to the kitchen to begin preparing life for all its members (adequate in terms of quality, food for the household. In the night, these female farm quantity and culturally acceptable) and when it is not at workers usually have to face sexual harassment from their undue risk of losing such access (ACC/SCN, 1991). Further, male counter parts. These same women are expected to rise a household can be said to be nutritionally secure if it is early in the morning, fetch and broke firewood, cook and able to ensure a healthy life for all its members at all times. prepared children for school and finally serve their Nutritional security thus requires that household members husband’s food and other people in the home before have access not only to food, but also to other requirements preparing to go work in the farm. The danger of these is for a healthy life such as health care, a hygienic that this exercise may go on and on for years and may be environment and knowledge of personal hygiene. As noted described as a type of modern day slavery (Bafana, 2012; earlier, women play a greater role in food security in Fon and Edokat, 2012; Logo and Bikie, 2003). Cameroon. For instance, while the men are more interested In rural areas, women working in agriculture practice in cash crops production such as cocoa and coffee the both peasant and subsistence farming. Peasant farming is women are interested more in the production of food crops the growing of crops and rearing of animals on a small scale such as maize, rice, cassava, yams, irish potatoes, sweet mainly for sale while subsistence farming is the rearing of potatoes and coco yams to satisfy their households. Table 1 animals and growing of crops on small scale for personal or shows the total quantity of basic food crop production in family consumption. This type of farming system, is not tons in 2011, Cameroon. only physically demanding and often dangerous occupation, From Table 1 we observed that almost all regions in but the natural conditions that arise from it being an out- Cameroon are producing staple food crops however, the door job create these circumstances. Prolonged sun quantity of rice, yams, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes exposure is a common concern, and a factor that is consumption is still low as compared to other food crops accompanied by severe health risks. Heat can be one of the (GOC, 2013). Rice being widely consumed is strongly most arduous aspects of farm labour, and the reoccurring encouraged to be cultivated by all communities and in large case of inadequate breaks contributes to this dilemma; quantity. Adamawa and North, Far north are observed to be heatstroke has been reported as the leading cause of work- least in the production of basic food crops. The production related death among farm workers (Arcury, 2010). of these basic food crops has gone a long way to not only to Women play a critical role in food security in Cameroon reduce malnutrition problem but food security issue. by fulfilling their role as food providers. There are 2 basic Despite these endeavours, the struggle of household variants of household food production systems in consumption vis-a-vis women reproductive ability and Cameroon and other parts of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA): (1) other preoccupations still remain a major challenge in women are responsible for production of all or most food Cameroon. Further, in Cameroon, most of the existing crops; (2) men and women jointly cultivate staple food studies in this domain of study are in the natural sciences crops in fields controlled by male household heads. In this and sociology literature or out of Cameroon (Prakash, 2003 type, male household head controls the output. Further, 3) for Asia; Ueyama, 2006 for Malawi), we are not aware of men are responsible for food production, while women any major study trying to quantify the link between women specialize in food processing. This variant is mainly in agriculture and food security. To address this problem of encountered where Islamic practices of female seclusion women involvement in resolving the food security problem, prevent women from engaging in fieldwork (Bafana, 2012). we have explored the following objectives: (a) examined Economically, when the issue of food security was first the contribution of women in agricultural production on highlighted in the seventies, the question was whether a food security in rural Cameroon; (b) find out the nation could command enough food to meet the aggregate determinants of women in agricultural production and (c) requirements of its people. During this time, attention was derived policy implications on the basis of our analysis. paid to fluctuations in aggregate food supply and food security interventions were primarily concerned with Literature Review providing effective buffer mechanisms against such fluctuations. So food security measures came to be Empirically, it has been revealed that the determinants of Tambi et al.
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