The Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: The Role of Market Imperfections

Abstract

Artículo de publicación ISISin acceso a texto completoThis paper hypothesises that labour and credit market imperfections - by discouraging off-farm income-generating activities and restricting access to inputs, respectively - affect female farm productivity more deeply than male productivity. The paper develops a theoretical model, which decomposes the contribution of various market imperfections to the gender productivity gap. Empirically we show that agricultural labour productivity is, on average, 44 per cent lower on female-headed plots than on those managed by male heads. 34 per cent of this gap is explained by differences in labour market access and 29 per cent by differences in credit access

How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women?

“…This might, for example, be the case if labor is mainly hired for plowing, which is often considered a male activity, or if community labor exchange programs are confined to males only. Furthermore, missing or incomplete labor markets (Dillon and Barrett, 2014, Palacios-Lopez and Lopez, 2015) may affect female-managed plots more than male-managed plots. Similarly, if the substitution of capital for labor is gender-sensitive, the use of labor-saving technologies, such as agricultural implements, might affect the level of women’s labor input into agriculture.…”

“…Domestic responsibilities, such as childcare and caring for the sick, water and firewood collection, and cooking, are usually in the female domain. They are easier to combine with on-farm work close to the homestead than with off-farm employment (Blackden and Morris-Hughes, 1993, Palacios-Lopez and Lopez, 2015). To capture the potential effects of these dynamics on the female agricultural labor share, the number of children in the household under 5 and between 6 and 14 years old are included as well as the percent of female and male adults suffering from chronic diseases.…”

Corporate social responsibility and the role of rural women in sustainable agricultural development in sub‐Saharan Africa: Evidence from the Niger Delta in Nigeria

“…Gender disparities in agriculture are mainly characterized by unequal access to agricultural inputs (Killic, Winters, & Carletto, 2015;Kristjanson et al, 2017). Pervasive inequality, especially over the ownership of agricultural land, continues to limit women's contribution to household food basket (Palocios-Lopez & Lopez, 2015). Most women do not have access to agricultural inputs, apart from their own labour (Rufai, Salman, & Salawu, 2018).…”

Gender gap in agricultural productivity in Nigeria: A commodity level analysis

“…The World Bank and the United Nations warn that the "failure to recognize the [gender] roles, differences and inequities pose a serious threat to the effectiveness of the agricultural development agenda" (World Bank, FAO, IFAD, 2009). African Development Bank (2015) also acknowledges that the increased integration to be that female farmers have lower yields than their male counterparts largely due to differentiated: (i) access and use of agricultural inputs and land, (ii) market and credit market access, (iii) labour market discriminations in terms of off-farm wages, (iv) institutional and cultural contraints, v) physical and human capital (Peterman et al, 2011a; Palacios- Lopez and Lopez, 2014). However, many of the past studies in the literature assessing the gender disparities in agricultural productivity are fraught with conceptual and methodological flaws in assessing gender differences in agricultural productivity.…”