Gendered participation in the rice value chain. New insights from Kyela, Tanzania

Presented by Mesia Ilomo (UDBS), as part of the Annual Scientific Conference hosted by the University of Canberra and co-sponsored by the University of Canberra, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research, Canberra, Australia, April 2-4, 2019

Doing and undoing gender in rice business and marketplaces in Tanzania

This paper contributes to the gender-and-marketplace literature by exploring whether and how the ongoing, under-researched food-to-cash crop transformation of rice in Tanzania reinforces or challenges the "doing of gender". We apply Acker's "doing gender" framework, where gender is done by following normative conceptions and undone by challenging them. We analyze women and men's everyday practices and relations in terms of identities, divisions, symbols and interactions. The empirical material includes observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with women and men traders, farmers and key informants at two rice markets in Kyela, south-western Tanzania. We find that this transformation of rice has resulted in more processes of doing than undoing gender. Too, more women than men undo gender. Since men and masculinity are constructed as superior to women and femininity, this makes it more difficult for men to undo gender. The structures of the marketplaces also seem to influence these processes. Surprisingly, the old marketplace offers more avenues to undo gender, whereas the new, government-initiated marketplace reinforces the doing of gender. We conclude that this commercialization trajectory, including associated interventions, exacerbates rather than reduces gender inequalities. Future agricultural interventions should therefore consider both technical and social aspects to yield desired outcomes

Smallholder farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding agricultural inputs with a focus on agricultural biologicals

There is a general drive to reduce pesticide use owing to the potential negative effects of pesticides on the environment and human health. The EU Commission, for example, through its “Farm to Fork Strategy,” has proposed to decrease the use of hazardous chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030. In addition, smallholder farmers in low-income countries do not always follow pesticide safety precautions. This necessitates the introduction of low-risk crop protection strategies also suited for these farmers. Agricultural biologicals can substitute for, or at least partially replace hazardous chemical pesticides. While the market for and use of biologicals is growing quickly in industrialized countries, this practice remains limited in sub-Saharan Africa. To understand the reason behind the low adoption of biologicals, this study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward biologicals among 150 smallholder farmers in the Chole district in Ethiopia. All farmers used chemical pesticides and/or inorganic fertilizers to protect crops, improve yields, and comply with government regulations. The use of biologicals was, however, restricted to one group of biologicals, bio-fertilizers, which approximately 60% of farmers used, and no use of biologicals for plant protection was reported. Even though the understanding of the concept of biologicals was deemed high among respondents, the majority (90%) did not identify biologicals as safer alternatives to conventional agricultural inputs. More than half of the respondents (54%) did not recommend biologicals as safer alternatives to their colleagues. Nevertheless, even if the responding farmers did not perceive biologicals as risk-free, they had a positive attitude towards biologicals when it came to producing healthy food and increasing crop yields and incomes. In comparison to the positive attitude, farmers’ knowledge and practice of biologicals were generally low; thus, efforts are needed to create awareness among farmers