Module 11 Agriculture 11.1 Introduction There are many issues and topics on which gender statistics are relevant and needed. In this chapter, we will look at a selection of topics in which a gender perspective is particularly important. For each topic, we will examine what it is, why it is important, the value that is added by gender statistics, how to improve data collection, and provide suggestions for further reading. A number of gender equity issues relate to the field of work and employment. These are described separately in the first four sections: Size, structure and characteristics of the labour force Informal employment Unpaid household service and volunteer work, and Reconciling work and family life. The first section - Size, structure and characteristics of the labour force provides an overview of the concepts used to describe the labour force and how they are linked to productive activities as defined by the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA). It explains that the measurement of the currently active population groups the population into two mutually exclusive categories: employed and unemployed; and that these two categories, together with the population not currently active make up the total population of a country. It then illustrates the issues which are relevant to gender. Gender equality is not only a matter of equal access to the labour market, and of equal opportunities to access jobs in the broadest range of industries, occupations, and professional levels, with adequate and comparable remuneration and decent working conditions. It is also a question of becoming self-empowered, a necessary step towards achieving equality between the sexes in all population groups. Occupational segregation and the gender pay gap, how to avoid underreporting of women s contribution to the national economy, biases that may arise in applying the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) and the International Status in Employment Classification (ICSE) are all covered in this section. Informal employment is a primary source of livelihood for many people, particularly women. Because workers in informal employment are not fully covered by formal labour arrangements, they lack protection, rights and representation. Statistics need to be detailed enough to show the different conditions of employment of women and men. However, adequate measures of the informal sector are often lacking. This section defines the relevant concepts and refers to questions which can be used to capture informal types of work. The section on unpaid household service and volunteer work refers to productive activities that are beyond the SNA production boundary but inside the general production boundary. These activities are often referred to as unpaid care work and volunteer work although this is imprecise as will be seen. Women tend to perform the bulk of the unpaid household service work, but since this is excluded from labour statistics as currently defined, their full contribution to the economy is often undervalued. Reference is made to the International Labour Organization s Resolution concerning the measurement of working time, within and beyond the SNA production boundary. Statistics on volunteer work are also lacking, despite its contribution to the economy and to quality of life. Reference is made to the International Labour Organization s recommendations concerning the measurement of volunteer work. Reconciling work and family life is a crosscutting issue dealt with in the next section. Family responsibilities are a major constraint on participation in the labour force. Childcare
services and leave facilities can promote reconciliation between work and family life, as will taking co-responsibility for sharing the burden of work required in the home between men and women (girls and boys). Labour Force Surveys provide basic statistics relating to employment but Time Use Surveys shed light on all activities and the balance between them, whether conducted at work, home or elsewhere. Other topics relevant to gender issues covered in this chapter are: Entrepreneurship Decision-making Agriculture Access to assets Information and communication technology Education, research and science Health Gender based violence; and Gender attitudes. The concluding sections of this chapter deal with two cross-cutting issues: Minority groups; and Social exclusion. 11.2 Agriculture 11.2.1 What it is Historically, agriculture has provided a livelihood for the majority of the world s rural population and indeed continues to do so in many developing countries. Consequently, most national statistical systems compile, tabulate and disseminate a wide range of statistical information on agricultural production, prices and markets, as well as on the structure of the agricultural sector. However, in many countries there is a need for more data on the lives of people engaged in agriculture. Such areas include data on the situation of women and men in relation to the farm labour force, farm ownership and inheritance, the ongoing availability of education and IT training, and the availability of public and private rural transport for access to urban areas for educational, medical and other purposes. The production and use of accurate sexdisaggregated data on the agricultural sector and rural areas is an essential step for the elaboration of sustainable development programmes, crucial for genuine gender mainstreaming, and a powerful way to combat the persisting invisibility of rural women in the planning process. Agricultural statistics cover both commercial agriculture (production primarily for sale) and farming for own consumption. In more developed countries, thresholds relating to size of the area being farmed are often used to exclude very small farms in surveys, on the basis that they contribute very little to agricultural production. However the labour input of these farms, and their contribution to rural society, requires that they should be included in agricultural censuses. In many countries where agriculture makes a single figure contribution to national GDP, agriculture is sometimes merged with related areas such as forestry, food and environment. For the purposes of this manual, our focus has been solely on agriculture with particular attention given to issues of concern to women involved in farming. 11.2.2 Why it is important In less developed economies, agriculture is often of primary importance in the sustenance of predominantly rural populations. The availability of agricultural work and resources, land for families to rear livestock and grow crops, are crucial elements in the wellbeing of these populations. More developed economies, while less dependent on agriculture, often have a more diversified involvement in farming. Many statistical offices have tried to improve the availability of agricultural labour statistics by collecting data on the sex and age of agricultural labourers and the type of labour provided, e.g. family versus non-family labour, paid versus non-paid labour, permanent, seasonal and occasional labour, and labour support groups. Such data contribute to a better understanding about labour relations in the agricultural sector in general and women s involvement in agricultural production in particular, irrespective of their access to productive resources. Moreover, this information is essential for realistic planning of sustainable agricultural development. Social changes in rural areas resulting in declining (and ageing) farm populations and the shrinking of viable employment prospects on-farm in the European region have prompted policy makers to place greater emphasis on the use of agricultural
statistics in their social context. Within the EU and throughout the European region, sociallyrelevant agricultural statistical information is becoming increasingly important for both agricultural and rural policy formulation. For example, Hill (2002) has noted that: Policies involving agriculture require information about production of commodities and about the farms that produce them. Understanding the behaviour of the family-farm is central to many issues and increasingly relevant as objectives evolve and the pluri-active nature of farm households is recognised. An FAO review of rural gender issues in different world regions identified a number of rural characteristics and issues that have gender relevance and should concern agricultural and rural policy makers and analysts: Population issues (gender and age structure and dynamics) Rural population is often in the majority Rural-urban migration (especially among youth) Rural population ageing Rural economic issues (gender structure and dynamics) Rural unemployment Commuting Below-average agricultural incomes Rural poverty dimensions Agricultural characteristics Declining importance of agriculture Dual farm structure Subsistence farming economy Fragmented holding structure Land ownership issue Lack of investment capital Invisibility of women in agriculture Gender issues - rural Europe Feminisation of agriculture Gender-based inequalities in access to productive resources Gender-based inequalities in off-farm employment opportunities Capacity building Participation, political status Quality of life, domestic violence Rural women Work in black or grey labour markets Self-employment in rural areas Female farm-heads in transition countries Rural/farming women s access to resources Land rights/use Domestic violence in rural areas Human trafficking (rural) Women s representation in decision-making; farm/agricultural organizations 11.2.3 The value-added of statistics More sex-disaggregated data need to be produced on ownership of, access to and control over productive resources, whether land, water, equipment, inputs, information and/or credit in order to gain greater insight into intra-household decision-making processes. This is essential for the planning and development of agricultural interventions and poverty reduction strategies. Data collected during the 2001/2002 Annual Agricultural Survey undertaken in Burkina Faso showed that male farmers managed and cultivated on average more land and larger holdings than female farmers. This is likely to be the result of gender-based differences in access to and control over land. Detailed statistics on land ownership and access are required if such differences are to be fully understood. The relative importance of agriculture to an economy and to a society can vary significantly across different statistical measures. Gross value added (GVA) in agriculture represented 1.9% of total GVA for the EU-25 in 2005, a decline from 2.8% in 1995 (Eurostat 2007a). Agricultural products are relatively low in value-added compared to high technology products. However, using a measure such as annual work units generally results in a larger contribution from agriculture at EU level, while using the number of persons working in agriculture (including on a part-time basis and on own account) further increases the importance of agriculture to the European economy. Moving to a concept such as the share of total land used for farming shows how important agriculture is to domains such as the environment and biodiversity. Hence, policymakers and economists need to take a multidimensional view of agriculture looking not only at its impact on the economy but also on society and the environment.
For example, over 90% of the population of countries such as Bhutan and Nepal lived in rural areas in 2004 and more people were involved in agriculture than lived in these rural areas (FAO, 2007). At the other end of the scale, many of the EU countries had under 5% of their population living in rural areas. In more developed countries the relative sizes of the rural and agricultural populations 1 vary considerably, however care should be taken to note whether persons are being classified to agriculture on the basis of their principal occupation or on the basis of performing any agricultural work during the year. Overall at World level for 2004, 40.8% of persons were engaged in agriculture, and the ratio of the agricultural population to the rural population was 79.5%. 11.2.4 Implications for data collection The integration of gender concerns into the objectives of agricultural censuses is of crucial importance for ensuring the production of sexdisaggregated agricultural data. It dictates a gender-aware review of the statistical methodologies and tools used, and determines the analysis, presentation and dissemination of such data. Gender concerns tend to be ignored or overlooked when they are not specifically referred to in the objectives of the census. Systematic under-reporting of women farmers involvement in agricultural production has occurred especially when censuses focused on commercial rather than on communal or subsistence farming activities (on large-scale agricultural production units, omitting smallscale units), and when censuses excluded periurban and urban agricultural activities. In many developing countries, women farmers tend to be more actively involved in small-scale subsistence and peri-urban farming. At times agricultural censuses fail to accurately capture existing gender interactions, differences and inequalities in the agricultural sector due to gender biases in the way standard statistical 1 Agricultural population is defined as all persons depending for their livelihood on agriculture, hunting, fishing and forestry. It comprises all persons economically active in agriculture as well as their non-working dependents. It is not necessary that this referred population exclusively come from rural population. Rural population refers to the population residing in non-urban areas. See FAO Glossary at http://faostat.fao.org/site/379/default.aspx concepts and definitions are applied. Often such biases can be reduced by improving the use of standard concepts through better training of interviewers and supervisors, drawing their attention to gender concerns in the agricultural sector and in particular in interview situations. Census sensitization campaigns could stress the importance of reporting on both men s and women s work in the agricultural sector, requesting that responses by the head of the household or household reference person be complemented with information provided by other household members directly involved in agricultural production. Wherever possible, a national gender consultant experienced in both gender and statistical analysis should work with the census team on various activities, including: the need for sex-disaggregated data preparation of a gender statistics component for enumerator training review for gender biases of questionnaires, sampling and definition; facilitation of contacts between statisticians and gender planners preparation of outlines of publication tables; and review of final publications and distribution plan. Data on the size of all holdings, even those without land, need to be covered in order to construct a complete picture of holding types by size alone, or by correlating size with other variables such as income or work on the holding. A holding with no land can be extremely significant in different types of situations; for example, in the case of the poorest farmers (who are poor precisely because they are landless) or farms based on new, high-yielding techniques that require little land. Also, many women may work holdings with no or only tiny areas of land, rearing livestock or poultry or growing vegetables. This type of holding may also be found in urban areas. These issues may need to be investigated through supplemental surveys. Agricultural censuses and surveys are two of the most important sources of sex-disaggregated agricultural data. An agricultural census is best
suited for the collection of structural data (such as areas of holding, land use, livestock numbers, use of machinery and farm labour inputs) rather than performance data (such as prices, production, farm costs and farm incomes). Performance data are best collected through frequent sample surveys. Consequently, agricultural censuses may not be able to produce all the required sex-disaggregated agricultural data and more in-depth data may need to be obtained from thematic agricultural surveys. As a result, the World Programme for the 2010 Round of Agricultural Censuses encourages countries to plan such surveys as an integral part of agricultural census planning. The complexity of the agricultural holder concept has been recognized in the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 2010 and has resulted in an amendment of the agricultural holder definition. The new definition allows for the possibility that a group of people be considered as the holder. Important definitions As in other areas of statistics, it is important to use standard definitions to ensure comparability (FAO, 2005). Box 11.1: Agriculture survey in Ireland The following is an example of a filled-in section from a postal farm questionnaire* that collects information on the agricultural workforce in Ireland, within an annual survey on farming activity required by a EU Council Regulation. Line 1 is used to collect information on the farm holder, line 2 to collect data on the spouse, lines 3-6 to collect data on other family workers and lines 7-12 to collect data on nonfamily workers. Limited space is devoted to the work-force in the questionnaire, but it should be kept in mind that this example comes from an EU country. An interview-based survey in a country where agriculture is of high importance to the economy and society, such as a developing country, would need to examine these issues in greater detail. * See http://www.cso.ie/surveysandmethodologies/surveyforms/ag_form_surveyjune.htm The agricultural holder is defined as the person or group of persons who make the major decisions regarding resource use and exercise management control over the agricultural holding operation. The novelty about this definition as proposed by the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 2010 is the possibility that a group of people be considered as the holder, and this may make a difference in the resulting gender composition of agricultural holders. The sub-holder and sub-holding concepts have been introduced into the World Programme for the 2010 Round of Agricultural Censuses in order to obtain a better understanding of the roles of selected household members, especially female members, in the management of a holding. These concepts, which may not be applicable to all countries, need to be developed and tested in accordance with national agricultural practices. A sub-holding is defined as a single agricultural activity or group of activities managed by a particular person or group of persons in the holder s household on behalf of the agricultural holder. A sub-holder is the person or group of persons responsible for managing a sub-holding on the holder s behalf. The sub-holder does not necessarily have to be the formal owner of the productive resources used. Identifying each subholding and sub-holder in the holding requires answering a series of questions on the role of each household member in the management and operations of the holding during the census reference year. Concepts such as holder and manager can be used to distinguish between ownership of the farm and responsibility for management of the farm. Similarly, concepts such as persons and annual work units can be used to identify the level of part-time and casual labour that takes place in agriculture. Often farmers may also have
occupations outside of farming and in more general surveys, such as a Labour Force Survey, their principal occupation may be nonagricultural, such as teaching or farm-tourism activities. Box 11.1 shows an example of a section from an Agricultural survey that collects information on the agricultural workforce in Ireland.