Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture

An estimated 224 million people 15 years old and above are directly engaged in agriculture in Africa, corresponding to nearly half of the total employed population in the continent. Women play a crucial role in African agriculture, representing 45% of total agricultural employment. However, their ro...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nico, Gianluigi, Azzarri, Carlo
Formato: Ponencia
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137009
_version_ 1855513387545395200
author Nico, Gianluigi
Azzarri, Carlo
author_browse Azzarri, Carlo
Nico, Gianluigi
author_facet Nico, Gianluigi
Azzarri, Carlo
author_sort Nico, Gianluigi
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description An estimated 224 million people 15 years old and above are directly engaged in agriculture in Africa, corresponding to nearly half of the total employed population in the continent. Women play a crucial role in African agriculture, representing 45% of total agricultural employment. However, their role still appears to be limited to subsistence production, and their work intensity in productive agricultural activities is much lower compared to men, leading to the risk of cementing, or even increasing, preexisting gender inequalities. Understanding gender inequality in intensity of participation in agricultural employment and, in turn, in agricultural livelihoods, remains largely an empirical question. Using a multivariate econometric framework, the objective of this paper is to identify and quantify sex-specific drivers of gender inequality in agricultural employment. We use a novel individuallevel dataset—mostly drawn on LFS—comprising 31 countries, representing 80% of all African population, fitting a double-hurdle model to jointly estimate labor participation and time intensity in agriculture, to quantify sex-specific factors that prevent women from engaging in agriculture or reduce their work intensity due to gendered time-competing demands. We find strong evidence of a sex-specific effect in case of caretaking responsibilities: overall, for one additional nonworking dependent within the household, the intensity of work in agricultural employment increases by almost one hour per week, although it decreases by more than seven hours for women compared to men. Implications of our results call for policy action to render caretaking services more affordable to increase work participation and intensity especially among female farmers.
format Ponencia
id CGSpace137009
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher International Food Policy Research Institute
publisherStr International Food Policy Research Institute
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1370092025-03-13T19:11:39Z Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture Nico, Gianluigi Azzarri, Carlo gender agriculture research gender relations An estimated 224 million people 15 years old and above are directly engaged in agriculture in Africa, corresponding to nearly half of the total employed population in the continent. Women play a crucial role in African agriculture, representing 45% of total agricultural employment. However, their role still appears to be limited to subsistence production, and their work intensity in productive agricultural activities is much lower compared to men, leading to the risk of cementing, or even increasing, preexisting gender inequalities. Understanding gender inequality in intensity of participation in agricultural employment and, in turn, in agricultural livelihoods, remains largely an empirical question. Using a multivariate econometric framework, the objective of this paper is to identify and quantify sex-specific drivers of gender inequality in agricultural employment. We use a novel individuallevel dataset—mostly drawn on LFS—comprising 31 countries, representing 80% of all African population, fitting a double-hurdle model to jointly estimate labor participation and time intensity in agriculture, to quantify sex-specific factors that prevent women from engaging in agriculture or reduce their work intensity due to gendered time-competing demands. We find strong evidence of a sex-specific effect in case of caretaking responsibilities: overall, for one additional nonworking dependent within the household, the intensity of work in agricultural employment increases by almost one hour per week, although it decreases by more than seven hours for women compared to men. Implications of our results call for policy action to render caretaking services more affordable to increase work participation and intensity especially among female farmers. 2023-10-12 2024-01-04T12:46:47Z 2024-01-04T12:46:47Z Presentation https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137009 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Nico, Gianluigi; Azzarri, Carlo. 2023. Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture. Presentation. Presented at the CGIAR GENDER Conference 'From Research to Impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems', New Delhi, India, 9-12 October 2023. International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137009
spellingShingle gender
agriculture
research
gender relations
Nico, Gianluigi
Azzarri, Carlo
Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title_full Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title_fullStr Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title_full_unstemmed Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title_short Sex-specific employment participation and intensity in African agriculture
title_sort sex specific employment participation and intensity in african agriculture
topic gender
agriculture
research
gender relations
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137009
work_keys_str_mv AT nicogianluigi sexspecificemploymentparticipationandintensityinafricanagriculture
AT azzarricarlo sexspecificemploymentparticipationandintensityinafricanagriculture