Gender Roles in Ensuring Food Security
Dagmar Kunze and Ivy Drafor
FAO Regional Office for Africa, Accra, Ghana and University of Cape Coast,
Ghana.
Abstract
Maize is a major staple food crop in many parts of Ghana and necessary for
ensuring food security in most rural households, especially in the southern part.
Women contribute largely to household food security in Ghana and produce about
80 percent of the food consumed. This study examines gender roles in ensuring
household food security with field sites in 3 districts of the Central Region of
Ghana. Women farmers are found to allocate a greater proportion of their farm
produce to household consumption than male farmers. The survey results were
used to construct a linear programming model to determine the optimal farm plan,
the relative profitability of maize and farmer behaviour when given the option to
produce or purchase food for household consumption. The LP results show that
maize production is second highest in revenue generation after vegetables. A
simulation analysis including changes in land allocation and credit availability
shows that consumption of staple crops is taken from own production. One way
of increasing household food security is to take measures to intensify women’s
maize production.
Introduction
Africa is the only developing region where crop output and yield growth is
lagging seriously behind population growth (Savadogo, Reardon and Pietola,
1994). Nevertheless, agriculture is the most important source of income in many
African countries. In Ghana, agriculture accounts for 56 percent of the total
income, and 59 percent of the labour force have their main occupation in
agriculture (Asenso-Okyere, Asante and Gyekye, 1993). Yet, the agricultural
sector is often neglected in many African countries, despite the major contribution
of the sector towards their economic development. A weak agricultural sector
can, on the other hand, not support a growing industry, and many governments
need to reassess the role of agriculture within their national development strategy
(Tsakok, 1990).
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In Ghana, agriculture contributes largely to GDP and more than 90 % of this
production occurs in the traditional sector where the average holding is less than
1.6 hectares (Dowswell, Paliwal, and Cantrell, 1996). The FAO records that
women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most Sub-Saharan
African countries and are responsible for half of the world's food production
(FAO, 1998). Women produce and process food and use diverse coping strategies
for ensuring food security for their households. Bortei-Doku (1990) observed that
women are responsible for about 80 percent of the food production in Ghana.
Food Security at Farm Household Level
Food security is only one element of livelihood security and the indicators of food
security should not be interpreted independently of a good understanding of
livelihood security (Maxwell and Smith, 1992). Food security encompasses
access to and availability of food, as well as the distribution of resources to
produce food, and the purchasing power to buy the food where it is not produced.
Food security is as well an income issue and not only a production issue; it is
primarily an issue of poverty (Schuh, 1997).
Looking at the different actors within the farmhousehold, it has been recognized
that additional income in the hands of women increases the budget share spent on
basic household needs (Duncan, 1997, Hoddinott and Haddad, 1995). On the
other side, women have more difficulties than men in gaining access to resources
such as land, credit and productivity-enhancing inputs and services. Haddad,
Kennedy and Sullivan (1994) identified indicators that can be used as predictors
for food insecurity at the household level, including asset ownership, household
size and dependency ratio. Though agricultural production is a factor of
household food insecurity, it is not the only cause.
In southern Ghana, maize is found to be a major food crop, which is used to
determine household food security in the frame of the present study. This paper
examines the role of male and female household members in ensuring food
security at the household level. In addition, food security includes the ability to
purchase food by earning income from cash production or off-farm activities.
Therefore, the study further examines male and female farmers’ behaviour when
given the option of producing or purchasing food for household consumption in
the frame of an LP model.
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Data and Sources
A field survey was conducted in 1998 in the Central Region of Ghana and the
survey results were introduced into a linear programming model. Field sites were
chosen in the Agona, Mfantsiman and Assin Districts, which are high maize
producing areas within the region.
Respondents in the survey included farmers who grow maize as an individual
crop or as an intercrop. Farmers were selected on the basis of their maize
production, gender and farm size. At least 3 out of 7 respondents were women
and 16 of the female respondents are from female-headed households. A total of
105 farmers were interviewed. The farmers fall within three size categories
namely: large, medium and small scale (i.e. > 5 acres, 2.5 to 5 acres and < 2.5
acres, respectively), and farmers were randomly selected from all categories. The
data was supplemented by production, price and yield information from the
Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Survey Results
The farming system that characterizes the Central Region can be termed as maizebased, with cassava, plantain and cocoyam being important crops. In two villages
in the Mfantsiman District, garden-eggs (or egg plant) is the most important crop,
with maize, cassava, and other vegetables being part of the cropping system.
Other food crops in the region include yam, pepper and tomatoes. The farmers
also engage in the production of tree crops and other perennial crops such as
pineapples, cocoa, coffee, citrus, and oil palm.
Maize is the most important cereal crop; the major staple food and traditional crop
in the region and the farmers always grow some amount of it no matter what
crops they want to focus on. Maize can be stored for a long time and sold when a
financial need arises and the income from maize was said to be quick and regular.
Most of the farmers interviewed indicated that buying maize is not their
preference and they produce maize for home consumption even when the yield is
low. Coping strategies included a reduction in consumption levels and a switch to
the consumption of other farm produce when their stock runs out.
Women and men farmers were found to be different in certain characteristics such
as size of total land holding, land under cultivation, input use levels (including
fertilizer), level of education, and whether or not they received agricultural
assistance of any kind. Women showed a lower resource endowment and lower
level of education. 46% of the women never had any formal education, compared
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to only 5 % of men. There is strong evidence against the hypothesis that there is
no association between gender and farm size (with a Pearson Chi-Square value of
9.00, which is significant at 5 percent confidence level). The bulk of the female
managed farms are less than 2.5 acres while male managed farms are between 2.5
and 5 acres.
To assess the gender differentiated contribution to food security at the household
level, men’s and women’s share of maize production to the household’s
consumption was used. The data show that men contribute about 5 mini bags
while women contribute about 4.2 mini bags of maize to household consumption.
It is somewhat surprising that women contribute about an equal amount of maize
as men to the household in real terms although they have smaller farms and lower
yields (Table 1). These are men and women in a male-headed household; analysis
does not include women in female-headed households. Looking at the share of
their individual production, women contribute more than twice as much to the
household than men. 34 % of their maize harvest against 16 % of male farmers’
share is designated to the household consumption. As women have other
financial obligations to ensure household food needs, this outcome illustrates
women’s burden in assuring household food security. In addition, Table 1 points
out that men’s cash income derived from maize selling is approximately three
times higher than women’s cash income.
Table 1 Characteristics of Farmers By Gender
Gender of Respondent
MALE
FEMALE
All Farmers
22
12.7
18.8
9.3
6
8.1
3.6
2.2
3.1
30.3
12.5
24.2
4.9
4.2
4.7
¢439,600
¢186,600
¢352,300
Total land available to farmer
Maize yield (mini bags*/ acre)**
Acreage of maize
Maize harvest in mini bags
Maize for household consumption in mini bags
Money available for farming last year
*A mini bag of maize is equivalent to 50 kg.
** In general, data refers to major farming season and there are two seasons in a year
The Linear Programming Model
The linear programming model (LP) maximizes total gross margins of the various
enterprises for women and men farmers at their current resource endowment. The
sum of the gross margins is maximized to assess the income level when
combining all activities. Furthermore, the combination of crop production and
other activities is of interest to determine the optimum farm plan which will result
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in the maximum income level or maximum value of the objective function. The
general model consists of an objective function, a set of constraints and nonnegativity restrictions as follows:
m
MaximizeZ   C j X j
(Objective Function)
(1)
(Resource constraint)
(2)
(Food consumption constraint)
(3)
(Non-negativity constraint)
(4)
j 1
Subject to the following constraints:
m
A
j 1
ij
Q
X ij  b j
jk
X jk  d k
x j, ≥ 0
(i = 1, 2, ...m; j = 1, 2, ...n)
where Z = the sum of gross margins of the various activities in the year, Cj = the
gross margin per acre of the jth activity in the year, and Xj = the level or acreage
of the jth activity in the year. Aij = the requirement of the ith resource by an acre of
the jth activity, bi = the level of the ith resource available for the year, Qjk = the
yield per acre of crop k in the jth activity, Xjk = the acreage of the activity in which
crop k appears in the year, n = the total number of activities in which crop k
appears (n=m if all the activities contain crop k), and dk = the minimum quantity
of crop k required by a household for consumption.
The model consists of 15 crop enterprises in addition to labour hiring, capital
borrowing, fertilizer purchase, land rental, selling of produce, storage activities,
consumption of output, and purchasing of food for household consumption.
Maize can be consumed, sold immediately after harvest, or stored to sell later and
for consumption in the lean season. Storage capacity is made available by the
farmers constructing some form of crib (local or improved) to store their maize.
Cassava, cocoyam and plantain are not usually stored and can therefore be
consumed or sold for cash. Vegetables are neither stored nor consumed in large
quantities but are sold at harvest. The objective of the LP analysis is to determine
the optimal farm plan and the options for ensuring food security. The LP matrices
were built for a period of one year, with two cropping seasons and a separate
matrix was developed for male and female farmers.
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LP Results
The LP results show that maize is the second cash income-generating crop after
vegetables for both male and female farmers (it should have been the first but it is
not sold). To ensure food security at the household level, a consumption
constraint was included in the model to guarantee that the farmer had sufficient
food to meet the food needs of all members of the household all year round.
Since food security does not mean that the farmer produces all that the household
consumes but includes the ability to purchase food for consumption, food
purchasing activities were included whereby farmers have the option of
purchasing or producing the staple crops they eat.
When given the option of producing or purchasing food for home consumption,
the LP results show that farmers prefer to consume from their own production
(see Table 2). Both male and female farmers face the same prices for selling and
purchasing farm produce. The result did not change when the price for selling the
produce and the price for purchasing for consumption were kept at the same level,
portraying a typical characteristic of subsistence farmers, which was also found
from the survey results. The values in the last column of Table 2 show the
amount by which the objective function value or farm income will decrease if a
unit of the product is purchased (i.e. the cost for purchasing the different farm
products for consumption). The model allows the farmer to choose between
producing and purchasing what they consume.
Table 2 Sources of Food and Consumption Patterns
Produce
Household
Requirement
Source of Produce
Production
Purchased
Cost to Farmer
for Purchasing
(cedis)
Male Farmers
6 Mini-bags
All
6.5 Mini-bags
All
0
0
171,930
204,570
Cassava / annum
10 Mini-bags
All
0
51,096
Plantain / annum
140 bunches
All
0
6,160
Maize
Maize
Female Farmers
6 Mini-bags
All
6.5 Mini-bags
All
0
0
196,670
233,330
Cassava / annum
10 Mini-bags
All
0
58,000
Plantain / annum
140 bunches
All
0
5,525
Maize
Maize
- Major Season
- Minor Season
- Major Season
- Minor Season
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A number of parameters were varied in a simulation analysis to observe whether
the farmers will purchase what they consume, including an increase in the amount
of land, hired labour and the amount of credit available to the farmer. The results
did not change with the different simulation scenarios, except that a small amount
of plantain was purchased for household consumption when the amount of credit
was increased, but no maize was purchased.
Conclusion
The study revealed that women farmers’ share of their maize production for
consumption purposes is twice as high than that of male farmers. Promoting
intensified maize production for female farmers as well as promoting other female
farm enterprises may improve the food security of rural households in southern
Ghana. Due to limited access to resources, farmers, especially women farmers,
would need to allocate their resources more efficiently and combine farm
enterprises in a way that will result in increasing their income.
It has also been proven that the share of total household income controlled by
women has a positive and significant influence on the calorie consumption of the
household (Ellis, 2000). Consequently, measures need to be taken to intensify
women’s agricultural production by improving women’s access to resources such
as land and labour, women’s access to inputs such as improved seeds and
fertilizer and their access to services such as credit, extension and education. This
is especially important in regions with large and increasing migration of men
towards urban centers such as the south of Ghana.
Despite the fact that farmers in Ghana’s Central Region produce cash crops, they
always assure the production of maize as the major staple crop for household
consumption. This underpins a risk averse behaviour, which is true for the major
part of Africa’s smallholders. Results of a sensitivity analysis in the frame of LP
modeling show that both male and female farmers of the study sample will not
buy maize in any of the scenarios.
References
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Dowswell, Christopher, R., R.L. Paliwal, and Ronald P. Cantrell (1996). Maize in the
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Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Mimeo.
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in Burkina Faso: Effects of Animal Traction and Nonfarm Income" American Journal of
Agricultural Economics. 76(3):608-612.
Schuh, Edward G. (1997). “Why Does Gender Matter?” Women, Agricultural
Intensification, and Household Food Security. Proceedings of the workshop held at the
Sasakawa Centre, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, June 25-28, 1996.
Tsakok, Isabelle (1990). Agricultural Price Policy: A Practitioner's Guide to PartialEquilibrium Analysis. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London
Corresponding Author
Ivy Drafor, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. Phone: 233-20-814
0275 Fax: 322-42-32446 <drafori@ucc.edu.gh> Copy to
<ivydrafor@yahoo.com> ORAL PRESEMTATION. Theme Category: Small
Farm Diversification and Competitiveness - Options for increasing small farm
income.
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