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DISCUSSION No. 130 • FSN Forum digest No. 1243
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Transforming gender relations in agriculture through women’s empowerment: benefits, challenges and trade-offs for
improving nutrition outcomes
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until 15 July 2016
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CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
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Kuruppacharil
V. Peter, World Noni Research Foundation, India
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KV Peter describes the increasingly prominent role of women in rural communities especially in India and in Kerala in
particular, where the Agricultural University has established a centre for gender concerns which conducts research on women empowerment.
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In his second contribution, KV Peter points to some references on women self-help groups.
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Elvis
Njabe, Cameroon / Denmark
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Elvis questions on how policy makers can tackle the cultural stigma which limits women's access to land rights, education,
agro-credit. Indeed, these are strong limiting factors in the way of empowerment of rural women.
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Paul
Ridterink, Potomac Technical Advisors, USA
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Paul is involved in a project with You Tube vocational videos which capture experiences about women’s roles in agriculture
and agribusiness value chains in order to shape policies and interventions to recognize and support women’s contribution to livelihood security. An example of this approach can be found in the ECHO Tropical Video Series (Part 2 of 6) - Grafting Tropical Fruit
Trees and Avocados at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BbSjTVEDCc
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Sirajul
Islam, BRAC, Bangladesh
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Sirajul notes that, despite the fact that women have a relevant role in agriculture, in Bangladesh this role is seldom
recognized. Women's engagement in agriculture is often treated as household work and even in paid labour there are huge wage differences between men and women. Societal norms and traditions need to change to ensure nutrition outcomes, which cannot be achieved
without agriculture.
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Joan
P. Mencher, The Second Chance Foundation, USA
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Joan brings up a very important issue she has been witnessing throughout her long experience in India, especially in
Kerala and Tamil Nadu: cultural attitudes towards women being allowed to make use of animal power and implements (such as some of the new ones being devised for agricultural intensification). Once implements are introduced, women lose work in agriculture.
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Hira
Iftikhar, University of Agriculture, Pakistan
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Hira informs us that in the University of Agriculture Faisalabad there are programmes for women's empowerment and gender
sensitization in which rural women focus on agribusinesses, health and sanitization, education and malnutrition issues.
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Mebit
Kebede, Jhpiego Ethiopia, Ethiopia
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Focusing on question # 4 (link between dietary diversity, women’s engagement with agriculture, and access to ecosystem
services), Mebit elaborates on how women's empowerment can improve the household dietary diversity score and shares evidence from studies carried out in Ethiopia. Findings show that agriculture programmes empowering women and enabling them to have greater
control over asset and other decision-making will likely see improved dietary diversity.
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Joanna
Kane-Potaka, ICRISAT, India
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Joanna highlights the huge gender bias in digital technologies; since mobile phones and smartphone affect information
on health and nutrition for rural communities, the issue of how to support women in accessing the internet.
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Bhavani
R Vaidyanathan, Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
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Bhavani points at the slow uptake of initiatives on gender sensitization and calls for a women farmers entitlement act
to support women's access to land.
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Barnali
Chakraborty, Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC and LANSA, Bangladesh - co-facilitator of the discussion
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Barnali notes that often women themselves don't value their involvement in agriculture and underestimate their contribution
to income and to household nutrition. Therefore it is important to address this aspect and generate context-specific guidelines.
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Mar
Maestre, Institute of Development Studies, UK
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Mar shares some insights from her recent research on women's unpaid care work and how it intersects with agriculture
or nutrition related programmes or policies through impacts on time, mobility and agency. A key recommendation which will be included in the report (forthcoming) is to combine interventions to directly address unpaid care, with others that support changes
in the agricultural value chain to adapt to existing care responsibilities.
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