Integrating gender considerations in rice research for development in Africa

Abstract

Women’s participation in rice production, postharvest and trading operations is well recognized in Africa (Dey, 1984; Nyanteng, 1985; Akande et al., 2007; WARDA et al., 2008; Bunch, 2011). In West Africa, for example, labour supplied by women for rice cultivation varies from 3% for floating rice in Mali, to 80-100% in mangrove-swamp rice in The Gambia and Liberia, where women participate in most of the activities and undertake postharvest processing of the crop (Huvio, 1998). Also a clear gender division of labour exists among crops. In The Gambia, swampland farming is solely women’s duty; men cultivate cash crops and their fields are usually larger. In Mali, rice was traditionally grown only by women near rivers and wetlands (Synnevag, 1997, cited by FAO, 2004b). In many African countries, women are responsible for producing subsistence food crops for house hold consumption on their own plots or in communal household fields. In Côte d’Iviore, husband and wife farm separate plots and there is some specialization by gender in the crops. Rice is considered a man’s crop in some communities, and a woman’s crop in others, while in many places, the gender pattern for rice cultivation is complex.