Productivity of women farmers in West and Central Africa

Theme: The fact that women farmers may have lower yields than their male counterparts should not be interpreted to mean that they are less productive than men.

Guinea-Fouta Djallon Agricultural Rehabilitation Project
Women farmers weeding a maize plantation inside a 'tapade' (an intensely cultivated house garden) in the Labé area. IFAD Photo by Roberto Faidutti The differences found in yields between male and female farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are often viewed as an indication of lower labour productivity by women. But results of research on gender differences in productivity are not consistent. Some studies show that female farmers are just as productive as male farmers. One study, conducted in the Mossi Plateau of Burkina Faso, even found that female labour in farming was six times more productive than male labour. This study explained this difference by the women’s younger age and the competition among co-wives. Conversely, other research, as that in a different part of Burkina Faso, concluded that women were less productive, with a value of production 15% lower than that of men. Lower yields for women than men have been found in such countries as Gambia and Nigeria and in many countries in East and southern Africa.

IFAD’s 1999 Assessment of Rural Poverty in West and Central Africa argues that lower yields should not be interpreted as indicating lower productivity among women farmers. Further, the study suggests that the gender differences in yields are not a result of biological differences in productivity between women and men or of how hard men and women work, but of:

the intra-household allocation of resources, such as of the quality and quantity of land;
women’s greater difficulties in accessing financial resources, which helps limit their purchase of inputs, such as fertilizer and tools, and their ability to pay hired labour; and
women’s shortage of labour owing to their multiple responsibilities and their poor control over family labour.

These conclusions are borne out by other studies and IFAD evaluations, including an IFAD/FAO/Government of Japan study of agricultural implements used by women in Africa. That study included extensive consultations with men and women farmers, and others, in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It found women farmers to be at a severe disadvantage.

Land constraints. While there is some variation, rural women in sub-Saharan Africa usually receive land use rights from their husbands upon marriage, with the idea that they will use this land to grow crops to feed the family. Often this land is less fertile, as a result of its having been cultivated for several years (studies in Côte d’Ivoire, northern Ghana and Burkina Faso), rocky, and farther away from the home, requiring hours of travel.

Women’s limited access to inputs such as fertilizer, seeds, draught animals and hand tools. Women’s poorer access to formal financial services is well recognized. This affects their access to equipment and inputs. In most sub-Saharan African countries, women farmers rarely use draught animals, for financial, cultural and other reasons. When men have access to animal traction, they do not always use it to plough women’s fields as well as their own. For the most part, women farmers in the region rely on hand tools such as hoes. Even these tools are not designed for women’s use in terms of their weight and other factors. Or women use old tools that are passed on to them by men and are no longer as sharp or effective. Also, women, and particularly women heads of households, do not have enough tools because of the tools’ expense, cultural taboos or the women’s lack of access to purchase points. For instance, it is estimated that women heads of households in Nigeria have less than one half of the total farming equipment of male heads of households. Again, although women have poorer-quality land, many studies have shown that they rarely use fertilizer on it because of financial and knowledge constraints. A study in Burkina Faso found that most of the fertilizer bought by the household went to men’s plots.

Labour constraints. Studies in Burkina Faso and Nigeria show that rural women’s domestic responsibilities tend to take up one third to one half of a women’s days (cooking, cleaning, childcare and fetching water and fuel wood). Women’s poor health and workloads drain their energy. Married women often have to tend to their own plots last, particularly during the busiest agricultural season, in order to help their husbands. The theory is labour exchange between husbands and wives, but women are rarely paid back on equal terms. Studies in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria have found that women were unable to carry out important operations on their own land in time because of obligations to help their husbands. Nor did they have the same command of children’s labour for help in the fields. Therefore, the employment of labour on women’s fields is at sub-optimal levels and often not well timed.

Applied research in Burkina Faso on men and women who grew the same crop on individual plots provided more detailed findings. Among them: most of the inputs such as labour and fertilizer went to the men’s plots. However, female labour was more productive in growing vegetables. Overall – and this is significant for planners – the study estimated that the total household output could be increased by 10-20% if some of the inputs from the plots controlled by men went to the plots controlled by women. The IFAD poverty assessment points to evidence that shows that when they are available, resources such as organic fertilizer and credit are better managed by women than by men.

What these findings indicate is that women’s crop yields may be lower not because women are less productive, but because of several other intervening factors that result from the intra-household division of resources. As prioritized by IFAD’s West and Central Africa Division, this argues for the direct transfer of resources and knowledge to women, without excluding men. The inclusion of men is important for avoiding a backlash, which is already a problem in some African countries.

Adapted from:

IFAD - West and Central Africa Division. 1999. Assessment of Rural Poverty in West and Central Africa. Rome.

IFAD/FAO/Government of Japan. 1998. Agricultural Implements Used by Women Farmers in Africa. Rome.

Hot links