Women in Rice Farming

Abstract

Foreword

Women play a major role in rice cultivation, post-harvest processing and marketing throughout the world. Rural women work long hours in domestic and agricultural production because they frequently have primary responsibility for both household subsistence and child welfare. Any technology that can increase rural women’s productivity, allowing them to work less and earn more, will be beneficial to the welfare of rural households.

IRRI convened the Women in Rice Farming Systems Conference in
September 1983 in order to understand better a) women’s role in rice farming, b) whether women have benefited from past introduction of new rice technologies and c) how they could benefit from emerging technologies. The conference was attended by 78 participants from 27 countries. The papers in this volume reflect the variety of women’s experience in Asian and African rice farming.

IRRI is grateful to several donors for supporting the conference.
Generous assistance was provided by the Ford Foundation, New York, USA, and its Regional Offices; the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the German Agency for Technical Cooperation; and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Kingdom.
Thanks are due also to the Organizing Committee members  Marietta Adriano, National Economic Development Authority, Philippines; Prof. Gelia Castillo, University of the Philippines at Los Baños; H. Velarde, Bureau of Agricultural Extension, Philippines; and IRRI representatives: Laurian J. Unnevehr (convenor), Ruby Castro, Glenn Denning, Alice Flinn, Leo A. Gonzales, Richard A. Morris, Victoria M. Segovia and Lois Stanford.

This book provides new information about rural women but is by no means complete, and we hope it will stimulate further research.
M. S. Swaminathan
Director General