Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project

(GAAP) under the Cereal Systems Initiative in

South Asia in Evaluating the Impacts of Agricultural Development

Programming on Gender Inequalities, Asset Disparities and Rural Livelihoods

Mid Term Workshop-Nov 3-6, 2011

BRAC Centre, Rajendrapur Thelma Paris, Valerian Pede, Joyce Luis

and Abha Singh

CSISA

• Cereal System Initiative for South Asia

• Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates and

USAID (IRRI, CIMMYT, ILRI, IFPRI, NARES)

– India

– Bangladesh

– Nepal

– Pakistan

• CSISA expansion Bangladesh

– Funded by USAID

CSISA’s goal

• Increase food and income security through – accelerated development and deployment of new

cereal varieties

– sustainable crop and resource systems management practices and better access to information

• This goal will be difficult to achieve if wide gender inequities to key assets persist as major constraints to adoption of technologies.

Promoted technologies

• Resources Conserving Technologies

(RCT)

– Direct seeding

– Zero tillage

– Laser land leveler

– Residue management

– Quality fodder

– Improved crop varieties

Key questions that we would like to address as

part of this GAAP Initiative:

• What assets (tangible and intangible) are important to men and women in order to sustain their livelihoods?

• Who has access to and control (how assets were acquired, who makes decision on when, how to use/dispose) over these key assets/resources?

• What are the current effects or anticipated effects of the technologies/interventions under CSISA project on men and women’s access to and control of these key assets?

• How do women and men respond or adjust due to changes in the assets as a result of project interventions introduced by the CSISA project?

Selection of villages: Baseline survey

HUB

District 1 District 2 District 3

Block 2 Block 3 Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 1

C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC

1 Hub

3 Districts

3 Blocks

9 CSISA villages (C)

9 non-CSISA villages (NC)

Proposed study sites

Districts

/No of

villages

CSISA Non-CSISA Total

Villages

Kushinagar 1 1 2

Deoria 1 1 2

E.Champaran 1 1 2

Study sites

Map of Uttar Pradesh

Districts:

Siddhartnagar

Maharajganj

Gorakhpur

Map of India

Methods of collection of information

on assets

• Interviews using structured

questionnaire – either husband and wife

in the same household

• Use of pictures of assets – separately for

husband and wife in the same

household

Physical assets

Natural, social, financial and human

assets Natural

Financial Human

Social

Use of pictures

• The set of pictures was given to the

husband/wife

• The husband/wife was asked to choose from

the pictures the assets that he/she owns and

have access to

• The assets chosen were placed in the first pile

while the rest were placed in a second pile

• The assets in the first pile were noted down in

the form

Qualitative method

Form

Pictures of assets

Assets owned or have access to

• The husband/wife was asked to choose the top

10 most important assets

• The husband/wife was asked to rank the top 10

assets where 1 is the most important and 10 is

the least important

• The husband/wife was asked specific questions

on the top 10 assets

Questions on ownership

accessibility/attendance

• Whose name is written in the land title, bankbook

• Who spends or keeps the money

• Who owns or takes care of the animals

• Who uses or has access to irrigation water or machines

• Who attends to meetings or trainings

• Who buys in the convenience or agricultural shop

• Who has a degree and works for a living

• Who is a member of an association

Assets owned or have access to

• The husband/wife was asked who make

decisions in disposing assets that they own

• The husband/wife was asked the reason

why these assets are the top 3 most

important assets

Gender difference in asset

ownership

• Type of family – absolute nuclear and

joint families

• Caste – Upper, backward and others

• Type of farm ownership – marginal,

small and large

Succession of land

Father

Other relatives as brother/nephew

Grandson Son

In case of more land

If husband

expired, a

case in a

nuclear family

Wife Son

Daughter

(if there is no son)

Initial analysis

• Computation of the mean average rank of the

assets owned or have access to by the

husband and wife

• Frequency count of ownership, accessibility,

attendance and decision making of assets

disposal by husband/wife

• Gender difference in mean rank and

frequency counts were analyzed by caste,

type of family and type of farm

Initial findings

• Farm land is basically owned by male head of the family and title of land is under Male head/Father

• In joint families, large animals are owned by male head

• In nuclear families, husband and wife make decisions on how to dispose large animals

• Ownership and animal care including decision making of small ruminants is generally done by women

• Assets as Farm land, house, large animals and machinery decisions were generally taken by male heads of family in all castes specially in Upper castes however in nuclear families and other castes decision taken jointly

Initial findings (cont’d)

• Important assets ranked by men and women respondents are Farm Land, House, Cash in hand, Savings and machinery

• Household assets were used by whole family but disposal of assets generally decided by head male and female

• Women are owner and user of gold and silver jewelries but decision related to disposal is generally taken by female /wife and jointly in case of nuclear family

• Big machines as tractor, diesel pump, LSTs and motorcycles are owned and used by Male heads /members of household and decisions regarding disposal is taken by male heads

Women’s participation in decision making, EUP

•Women are involved in decision making in

crop and livestock productions

•There are areas where women joins the

husband or other household members in

making decisions

•However, there are also areas where

women fully participates in making

decisions

Women’s participation in decision making, EUP

Areas where majority of the women

reported to have full participation are:

•Employing labor in the farm

•Managing livestock feeding

•Managing milk

•Deciding on use of dung as fuel

Women’s participation in decision making, EUP

Areas where majority of the women reported to have partial participation are:

•Selecting crop varieties

•Purchasing machinery

•Adopt technology

•Selling grains

•Deciding what to feed livestock

•Sale of livestock

Female heads in EUP

• Most of the households interviewed are

male headed households

• Female heads meet the extension worker

at least once a year

• Female heads do not have access to

training

Women’s participation in decision making (%)

Activities Full Partial

Selecting crop varieties 12 49

Purchasing machinery 7 37

Adopt technology 8 32

Employing labors in farm 28 24

Selling grains 6 30

Selling of crop residue 8 19

Using crop residues as feed 15 21

Deciding what to feed livestock 30 33

Managing livestock feeding 33 28

Managing milking 35 15

Decision on sale of milk 15 18

Deciding on use of milk income 11 19

Deciding on sale of livestock 11 29

Deciding on use of dung as fuel 33 12

Deciding on lease/share of land 7 11

Deciding on sale of land 7 10

Successes

• Use of assets pictures was effective

– excitement of women to respond

– encourage other women to participate

– empower women to express themselves

– enhance capacity of social scientists

• Open doors to other gender issues

related to promotion of technologies

• Involvement of husband and wife

Timeline (2011) May - October (last

week)

November

Nov -Dec

Selecting the villages and establishing rapport

with village leaders, households, men and

women; Preparation for logistical

arrangements, local assistants for PRA

etcQualitative work to explore concepts of

gender access to assets in 6 villages in

Mahrajganj, Deoria and E. Champaran (CSISA

and non-CSISA)

Presentation of results based on qualitative

GAAP in workshop in Bangladesh

Analysis and drafting of report based on

qualitative work;

Submission of 1st working paper using

qualitative information Development of gender

asset gap questionnaire and pre-testing;

Nov - Dec Revision of 1st working paper for publication;

Training of enumerators, finalization of the

questionnaire; preparation of midline surveys

Time line (2012)

2012 Jan –June -Conduct of midline surveys of 324

farming households in villages for

which baseline information exists,

including GAAP questions;

--Editing of questionnaires will be

done as soon as data have been

collected for quick validation of

results; training of date encoders;

data entry;

July – Sept

Oct – Dec

-Analysis of quantitative data;

- Generation of descriptive tables

Analysis of both qualitative and

quantitative information