Towards Embedding Gender Dimension in Philippine Agricultural Value Chains: A Critical Review

How does a gendered approach in value chains (VC) help ensure that critical concerns among women and children in relation to food security and prevailing poverty will be addressed? Globalized commodity chains have changed the landscape of production of goods and services, with emphasis on production segmentation and distribution. This paves the way for an increasing reliance on developing countries as sources of raw materials and labor. This holds true for Mindanao as producer of top agricultural products. In Mindanao, several programs towards pro-poor inclusive agricultural VC have been launched with the goal of promoting a more equitable sharing of economic and social benefits among players. However, the gender dimension is lacking in the VC literature, particularly in the Philippine setting, despite efforts toward inclusiveness. Integrating a localized gender dimension in agricultural VC studies offer a wealth of opportunities to fill in the literature gap and sustain gender discourse in agriculture. Theoretical perspectives, as well as empirical and case studies, will be examined, with the goal of developing a localized gendered agricultural value chain approach. It will explore future directions of gender studies in Philippine agricultural value chains and other related country experiences across commodities and cultural differences

Implications of Gender Attribution for the Cacao Value Chain of Davao City, Southern Philippines

Known as the chocolate capital in of the Philippine, Davao City account for 80%–90% of the country’s total volume of dried cocoa beans. Production targets were set at 100 MT of dried cocoa beans by 2022. This is anticipated to alleviate poverty through livelihood and job creation. However, there are scant studies on whether women receive equitable benefits across the cacao agricultural value chain in Davao City. A gendered approach across the different nodes of the cacao value chain may provide rich insights that can help address issues of equity in the cacao chain. Based on a 2018 survey conducted for this study, smallholder cacao farmers devote an average of 3.72 h per day in cacao production: 55% of the work required is done by males and 45% done by females. Male household heads generally make decisions regarding market channels for the beans and are mostly responsible for bringing them to market. The distribution of the sale of cacao beans remains a gray area, and it is unknown whether this is shared equitably to women in the household according to their production contribution. Children’s involvement in cacao production is considered family labor, and women are still expected to run the household. But women’s contributions are oftentimes viewed as an extension to household chores. Hence, a more detailed gender attribution in other nodes of the cocoa value chain (e.g., processing and trading) may provide a more realistic picture of work requirements, equitable benefit distribution among actors, and address sustainability issues in cacao commodity value chain in the region