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Agriculture, Trade and Gender1 Chapter 3 AGRICULTURE, TRADE AND GENDER1 INTRODUCTION Millions of people around the world depend on agriculture, directly or indirectly, for their livelihoods. According to FAO estimates, farming is the only source of income for an estimated 70 per cent of the world’s rural poor, many of whom are small farmers. Therefore it remains a sector of major concern for many developing countries, especially least developed countries (LDCs). Since women and men in developing countries play different roles in agriculture, and historically have different degrees of access to and use of productive resources, trade liberalization necessarily will have different impacts on the two genders. Moreover, since women and men often have different levels of education, income and abilities, their capacity to respond to policy changes also varies. Thus, in some instances trade liberalization will result in a widening of the gender gap and in others it will cause it to narrow, depending on the activity and circumstances. Agriculture throughout the developing world is struggling. Estimates of per capita agricultural production for domestic and export markets showed it to be declining throughout the 1990s. In particular, LDCs continue to be marginalized from world agricultural markets; they accounted for only 1 per cent of global agricultural exports in the late 1990s. Indeed, despite all the economic opportunities associated with increased globalization and international trade, small farmers in developing countries are often unable to 1 This chapter reflects preliminary findings and analysis of a more long-term initiative undertaken by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Gender and Population Division, in collaboration with the Trade and Commodities Division. It has been prepared by Zoraida GARCIA, with contributions from Jennifer NYBERG, both of the FAO, Rome. 78 Trade and Gender compete in overseas markets, and, frequently, even in their own domestic markets they are unable to compete with foreign imports. Small farmers – both women and men – in many developing countries face a particular set of constraints relating to lack of credit, inadequate rural infrastructure, lack of technology, lack of adequate land-tenure systems and, in some cases, civil conflict. All these constraints have an impact on employment, household food security and income. More significantly, agricultural subsidies and tariffs utilized by many developed countries to support their own farming sectors continue to have an adverse impact on the sustainable development of agriculture in many of the world’s poorest countries and may threaten women’s and men’s livelihoods and food security in different ways. All these challenges are often exacerbated by agricultural systems where the gender-based division of labour tends to be inflexible and where traditional approaches are increasingly undermined by globalization processes. Furthermore, there are pronounced differences in how women and men participate in the cultivation of food crops compared to the commercialization of cash and export crops. In sub-Saharan Africa, food crops produced for household consumption or for the local market, such as vegetables and tubers, generally tend to be cultivated and marketed by women, while commercial or industrial crops, cultivated on a much larger scale either for direct export or for further processing (e.g. cotton and sugar), are more frequently the economic domain of men.2 The lack of gender-disaggregated statistics in agriculture continues to be one of the major constraints on generating an in-depth analysis of the gender- related dimension of the current transformation of the agricultural sector, and of the possible implications of ongoing agricultural trade reforms. However, assessments are needed of the gender-differentiated impacts of trade liberalization and adjustments, particularly as “seemingly neutral market 2 FAO estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, as much as 80 per cent of basic foods are produced by women, and in South and South-East Asia 60 per cent of cultivation work and other food production is done by women. Agriculture, trade and gender 79 mechanisms and macroeconomic policies can reinforce social biases and inequalities.” (Gammage et al., 2002). This chapter on gender-related issues within the context of agricultural trade liberalization is organised as follows: section 1 provides contextual information with a brief review of women’s contribution to agriculture; section 2 examines the gender implications of trade liberalization by analysing the experiences of selected developing countries; section 3 considers the main agriculture-related features of trade agreements, both multilateral and regional; section 4 takes a broader look at the main implications of agricultural trade for small-scale farming, the opening up of economic opportunities for women and other aspects of relevance to a gender perspective. Finally, section 5 presents some conclusions and recommendations. 1. WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURE Agriculture continues to play an important role in most developing economies, both as a major contributor to their export earnings and as a source of employment and livelihood. Official statistics often underestimate the value of women’s work and overall contribution to national wealth. Women still provide a large proportion of the labour that goes into agriculture, 3 including, as self-employed food producers or as workers (for the situation in the fisheries and forestry sectors, see box 1). Two thirds of the female labour force in developing economies is engaged in agricultural activities (FAO, 2003a). Box 1. Gender-based division of labour in fisheries and forestry Fisheries Women are extensively, though not exclusively, engaged in post-harvest handling, preservation (such as salting, smoking and drying), processing (such as making fish paste and cakes) and marketing activities. Although processing and marketing offer many opportunities for making profits, these require access to capital 3 Women have always worked as producers of food and other products in rural areas. However, official statistics are determined by reporting according to official definitions of agricultural work, which often tend to exclude women’s contribution to agricultural activities, despite efforts to improve gender-differentiated data in agricultural census and household surveys. 80 Trade and Gender equipment, technology, know-how and education, which women do not generally have. For a similar reason they tend to be involved mainly in semi-processing due to the large capital investment required in full processing. Women’s involvement in the fish trade and in onshore activities is being transformed by modernization. Just as in other food sectors the effects of sophisticated sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and hazard analysis and critical control point standards, entail high costs that tend to exclude small producers and processors from the export supply chain. With modernization, landing of fish has become increasingly centralized at fish ports instead of along beaches where women have traditionally participated in hauling, sorting, processing and sale of fish. The transportation of large quantities of fish would require considerable capital, which women normally do not possess (Vera, 1999). Women are mainly involved in artisanal and inland fisheries. In Africa, they fish the rivers and ponds. In Asia, where fish is an integral part of the diet of many cultures, women are active in both artisanal and commercial fisheries. In parts of India, women net prawns from backwaters; in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, they fish in canals; and in the Philippines, they fish from canoes in coastal lagoons. In many areas, women have also assumed a leading role in the rapid growth of aquaculture. They often perform most of the work of feeding and harvesting fish, as well as in processing the catch. In Lesotho and other Southern African countries, women are prominent as managers of small household ponds. The fish produced in these ponds are either eaten by the family or sold to purchase other foods. It is also observed that if a fishery activity is enlarged or mechanized, it often becomes the domain of men (FAO, 2004). Forestry While the principal commodity obtained from forests is timber, non-timber products such as fruits, nuts, rattan, medicinal plants, and fuelwood are a significant source of livelihood for forest populations, both as income generators and for domestic use. Many developing regions, and particularly Africa, are dependent on wood for use as fuel. For example, over 50 per cent of the rural population in Central America, 62 per cent in Honduras and 57 per cent in El Salvador depend on wood for energy (Thrupp and Mayorga, 1994) Men are generally responsible for cutting large trees, clearing land for agriculture and extracting commercial timber. In contrast, women are only occasionally involved in forest enterprises. They tend to work as wage labourers or as marketers of non-wood products from trees. This gender-based division of labour is rooted in both cultural traditions and socioeconomic disparities. Women’s use of forest products for fuel, food and medicinal purposes has provided them with a unique knowledge of such products, enabling them to be custodians of forest resources. Therefore, they tend to have a vested interest in ensuring and Agriculture, trade and gender 81 improving a sustained supply of trees and tree products
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