Abstract
To support gender analysis in agriculture, household surveys should be better designed to capture gender-specific control and ownership of agricultural resources such as male-, female- and jointly-owned assets. This chapter offers guidelines on how to improve data collection efforts to ensure that women farmers are interviewed and that their voices are heard. Researchers need to clarify who should be interviewed, how to structure the interview, and how to identify which people are involved in various activities, as owners, managers, workers, and decision makers. It is important not simply to assume that one particular individual does these activities based on social norms, but instead to ask the questions to allow for a range of answers that can demonstrate how the gender patterns in agriculture are changing. To assist in these efforts, the chapter provides an overview of relevant questions to include, emphasizing that whenever questions are asked about ownership and access to resources, answers should be associated with individuals. Finally, collecting data on the institutions that are related to agricultural production and marketing allows analysis of the gender-based constraints and opportunities that they present.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Many small-sample farmer surveys are collected through the CGIAR Centers. The analysis by Doss and Morris (2001), discussed later in this chapter, is based on a survey where the unit of analysis was maize farmers in Ghana.
- 2.
The World Bank Living Standards Measurement Surveys are examples of multipurpose household surveys that usually include a substantial agricultural module or modules.
- 3.
The labor force results may be affected by how the questions are asked and to whom they are addressed (Bardasi et al. 2011).
- 4.
The publication, Agricultural Censuses and Gender: Lessons Learned in Africa (FAO 2005b) raised many of the issues about collecting agricultural census data that can be used for gender analysis. Some of these concerns have been incorporated into the FAO recommendations.
- 5.
See Doss (2001) for a discussion of how the categorization into men’s and women’s crops varies depending on whether the definitions are based on the sex of the head, landholder, decisionmaker, or person who keeps the revenue.
- 6.
As cell-phone availability increases rapidly in rural areas, it is not at all clear how this will have an impact on decisionmaking on farms, since a person would not have to be physically present in order to be involved in the process.
- 7.
Women are less likely overall to adopt the improved technologies because of their lower levels of education, access to land and labor, and contact with extension; see the review in Peterman et al., Chap. 7.
- 8.
See Meinzen-Dick et al. (1997) for a discussion of property rights and gender in the context of natural resources.
- 9.
For a discussion of time use surveys in developing countries, see Hiway (2009).
- 10.
These are discussed in more detail in Doss, Chap. 4.
- 11.
References
Alderman H, Chiappori PA, Haddad L, Hoddinott J, Kanbur R (1995) Unitary versus collective models of the household: is it time to shift the burden of proof? World Bank Res Obs 10(1):1–19
Bardasi E, Beegle K, Dillon A, Serneels P (2011) Do labor statistics depend on how and to whom the questions are asked? Results from a survey experiment in Tanzania. World Bank Econ Rev 25(3):418–447
Beaman L, Dillon A (2012) Do household definitions matter in survey design? Results from a randomized survey experiment in Mali. J Dev Econ 98(1):124–135
Blackden CM, Wodon Q (eds) (2006) Gender, time use, and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. World bank working paper no 73. World Bank, Washington, DC
Bomuhangi A, Doss C, Meinzen-Dick R (2011) Who owns the land? Perspectives from rural Ugandans and implications for land acquisitions. IFPRI discussion paper 01136. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC
Budlender D (2003) The debate about household headship. Soc Dyn 29(2):48–72
Deere CD (2005) The feminization of agriculture? Economic restructuring in rural Latin America. Occasional paper 1. UN Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva
Deere CD, Alvarado GE, Twyman J (2010) Poverty, headship, and gender inequality in asset ownership in Latin America. Working paper 296. Center for Gender in Global Context, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Doss C (2001) Is risk fully pooled within the household? Evidence from Ghana. Econ Dev Cult Chang 50(1):101–130
Doss C, Morris M (2001) How does gender affect the adoption of agricultural innovations? The case of improved maize technology in Ghana. Agric Econ 25(1):27–39
Doss C, Truong M, Nabanoga G, Namaalwa J (2012) Women, marriage, and asset inheritance in Uganda. Dev Policy Rev 30(5):597–616
Duflo E, Udry C (2004) Intrahousehold resource allocation in Côte d’Ivoire: social norms, separate accounts and consumption choices. Working paper 10498. National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., Washington, DC
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2005a) A system of integrated agricultural censuses and surveys, vol 1. World programme for the census of agriculture 2010. FAO, Rome
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2005b) Agricultural censuses and gender: lessons learned in Africa. FAO, Rome
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2011) The state of food and agriculture 2011. Women in agriculture: closing the gender gap for development. FAO, Rome
Fisher M, Reimer J, Carr E (2010) Who should be interviewed in surveys of household income? World Dev 38(7):966–973
Haddad L, Kanbur R (1990) How serious is the neglect of intrahousehold inequality? Econ J 100(402):866–881
Hiway I (2009) Time use surveys in developing countries: an assessment. In: Antonopoulos R, Hiway I (eds) Unpaid work and the economy: gender, time use, and poverty in developing countries. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, pp 252–324
Hoddinott J, Haddad L (1995) Does female income share influence household expenditure patterns? Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 57(1):77–96
McPeak J, Little P, Doss C (2011) Risk and social change in an African rural economy: livelihoods in pastoralist communities. Routledge, New York
Meinzen-Dick R, Brown LR, Sims Feldstein H, Quisumbing AR (1997) Gender, property rights, and natural resources. World Dev 25(8):1303–1316
Peterman A, Quisumbing AR, Behrman J, Nkonya E (2011) Understanding the complexities surrounding gender differences in agricultural productivity in Nigeria and Uganda. J Dev Stud 47(10):1482–1509
Quisumbing AR, Payongayong E, Aidoo JB, Otsuka K (2001) Women’s land rights in the transition to individualized ownership: implications for the management of tree resources in Western Ghana. Econ Dev Cult Chang 50(1):157–182
Schultz TP (1990) Testing the neoclassical model of family labor supply and fertility. J Hum Resour 25(4):599–634
Sen A (1990) Gender and cooperative conflicts. In: Tinker I (ed) Persistent inequalities: women and world development. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 123–149
Udry C (1996) Gender, agricultural production, and the theory of the household. J Polit Econ 104(5):1010–1046
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Doss, C. (2014). Data Needs for Gender Analysis in Agriculture. In: Quisumbing, A., Meinzen-Dick, R., Raney, T., Croppenstedt, A., Behrman, J., Peterman, A. (eds) Gender in Agriculture. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8616-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8616-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8615-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8616-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)