New Agriculture, New Knowledge and New Gender Roles: Sharing the Experience of an Indigenous Community (original) (raw)
Related papers
Gender Dynamics is Agrobioiversity Conseration in Nagaland and Sikkim
The paper focuses on the tribal communities of Sikkim and Nagaland, where men have come to be seen as ‘providers’, superior to women ‘caretakers’. As agrarian- forest dwellers, both the Lepcha women of Sikkim and Naga women play a key role in agro-biodiversity management and conservation. Their authority over three levels of agriculture — the ecosystem, species and gene — is based on their knowledge (particularly of seeds and plant breeding) and their labour. But, women’s work and knowledge are now being undermined by a market economy that undervalues all non-market transactions. The women’s adaptive livelihood practices are threatened by both global and regional market economies, land tenure issues, and a rapidly increasing population. In a ‘surcharged clash of identities’, women are being sidelined and ‘it is difficult to predict how gender relations, land-related stewardship and sustainable agro-biodiversity conservation will play out’.
2018
Shifting cultivation is prevalent in the uplands of eastern Bangladesh and Northeast India. Poverty and technical knowledge limitations favour its continued practice. This study assessed socioeconomic characteristics of 300 Chakma respondents' participation in shifting cultivation and the relationship of their socioeconomic characteristics with their decision making and implementation. The majority of respondents were middle aged, illiterate, medium-sized families with small farms and an annual income below their expenditure. Major patterns of participation were singles and couples. Males dominated in decision making in both countries but in implementation females dominated in India. In Bangladesh, earning family members had a significant, negative relationship with decision making, while training experience had a significant positive relationship with decision making. Education, family size and training experience had significant, negative relationships with implementation of d...
Women and Forest: Changing Gender Relations Among the Kondhs in Odisha
Social Science Spectrum, 2018
The identity, knowledge systems, production practices and consumption pattern of Kondhs link them with their ecological realities. Their economy is underpinned with the ethos of communitarianism and reciprocity. However, this community is experiencing changes in its way of life due to different external interventions such as market-based 'mainstream development', stringent forest policies and unsecured land rights. These changes have particularly affected the rights and status of Kondh women, considering their high dependence on forest for food, fodder, and livelihood. This study not only focuses on the changes but also emphasizes the strategies utilized by Kondh women to deal with the changing consequences. It tries to understand if the state forest policies, as claimed, have been able to secure access and rights of the forest to the Adivasi women. It is qualitative in nature and uses an interview method to grasp the experiences of Kondh women in Rayagada district of Odisha. It concludes that forest policies often neglected women's worldviews, excluding them from making decisions regarding forest management and governance. It highlights the fact that securing community land rights to women is the most sustainable way to safeguard forest biodiversity.
Agroforestry Practices in Midhills of Nepal from Gender Perspective
Agroforestry practice is becoming compassionate option for rural communities to fulfil basic needs and generate income for households' wellbeing. Gender consideration seems worthful to obtain optimum benefits from agroforestry practices in the scarcity of male labour in the locality. This paper has attempted to analyse tendency of gendered participation in agroforestry practice and their existence in gaining benefits. We selected three mid-hills districts of Nepal where people are adopting both traditional (fulfilling subsistence needs) and improved (commercial purpose along with fulfilling subsistence needs) practices. We organized focused group discussions (n = 9), randomly sampled (n = 420) households for interview from each practice (n = 210) to analyse gendered wise participation in farm establishment, management intervention, capacity building and access to information, known as major agroforestry promoting activities. Key informant interview (n = 18), focused group discussions (n = 9), randomly sampled (n = 420) households for interview from each practice (n = 210) was organized to analyse gendered wise participation in farm establishment, management intervention, capacity building and access to information, known as major agroforestry promoting activities. Women participation seemed to be higher in establishment activities than male in traditional practices whereas males were front in applying chemical fertilizer and pesticides and irrigation in improved practices. While changing in practices from traditional to improved, male participation during land tillage found to be significant. Male domination was observed in making decisions regarding species selection in traditional practices whereas women domination was observed in improved practices. Men's involvement in species selection and plantation was found significant with changing in practices from traditional to improved. Men were ahead in capacity building and skill How to cite this paper: Paudel324
Gender Issues in Rural Eastern India Revealed by Field Interviews: Tribal and Non-Tribal Responses
2009
Reports responses to interviews conducted in three rural villages in Eastern India in January 2000 as well as replies to questions asked at a forest meeting in West Bengal of groups/persons interested in rural women and development. The questions were designed to provide information on gender-bias and possible reasons for it, especially any economic reasons. These interviews supplemented detailed questionnaires directed to wives in these villages. Interviews were conducted with Kondhs in a village (Badala) west of Dashapalla in Orissa, with Santals in an all Santal village, (Bandhgora) in the Midnapore region of West Bengal and with Santals and scheduled caste Hindus in a mixed village, (Sadanandapur) in the same region. The results highlight significant differences between tribal people and scheduled caste Hindus in the status accorded to females. Differences in the entitlements of males and females emerge. While the two tribal groups interviewed both display male dominance, it is ...
2006
This paper presents the findings of a study on the impact of cash crop cultivation on the gender relations in Khasi community, a matrilineal tribe of Meghalaya, India.. The study was conducted in the three contiguous villages viz., Nongryngkoh, Nohron and Wahlakhait using standard social science research methods. The study revealed that in shifting cultivation men and women are equally and actively involved in the on-farm activity while the responsibility of men in onfarm activity increases with the shift to cash crop cultivation. Unlike patriarchal societies the income from the cash crop goes to the women who are also responsible for shopping and management of house, a tradition of matrilineal society. Fuel wood collection, mainly the responsibility of women among the shifting cultivators, has reduced with the introduction of cash crops as the same is generally purchased from the market. With the introduction of cash crops, children's responsibilities of sibling care have decreased and the same has been taken over by the mothers. There is a significant drop in on-farm labour requirement with the shift in cultivation system which has led to reduction in overall workload of women particularly the on-farm productive work but there is considerable increase in their household responsibilities i.e. reproductive works. The tradition of community festivities and communal sharing of labour associated with shifting cultivation has steadily faded away as cash crop cultivation is a family based activity. In conclusion, it can be said that the economic and social condition of Khasi women has improved with the introduction of cash crops.
SAGE Open
There have been very few studies in the process of feminization of agriculture in Nepal. The overall purpose of this study was to analyze the changing role of women in high-value agriculture in the postconflict context of Nepal. In this study, we applied qualitative research tools: focus group discussion, key informant interview, on-site observation, and descriptive and interpretative analysis. The study found that after the peace agreement of 2006, the engagement of women in high-value agriculture such as large cardamom and ginger increased rapidly and contributed to the empowerment of women. The study reveals that rural women’s engagement in “women cooperatives” provided them social, economic, and political recognition and decision-making space. However, they are facing additional challenges and risks related to marketing, crop protection, and export to international markets. Though recent policy changes are favorable to address risks and challenges, their effective implementation...
Exploring the struggles of unrecognized female farmers: a gender analysis at Kaunia upazila, Rangpur
Research in Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries
This research focuses on the gender differences in agriculture in the village of Baje Mazkur in Kaunia Upazila. It demonstrates gender disparities in agriculture and elucidates the factors which prevent female farmers from receiving adequate recognition in a variety of ways in the study region. The study used a qualitative method to collect data and data has been analyzed from gender perspectives. To understand the work nature of female farmers, their struggles, and the reason for unrecognition the Agrarian Ideology and The Longwe Framework have been used. It shows that female farmers in the study area engage themselves in a variety of farming activities but their contribution to agriculture is viewed solely as family responsibilities where women are not recognized for their contribution. Female farmers are often unable to utilize their full potential because they are denied various extension services or support from government and non-government organizations. The findings also sho...
Women Farmers in Kudumbashree Program: Gendered Ownership and Control over Productive Resources
2020
Women in India play a crucial role in agriculture, and their work ranging from crop production to post-harvesting. They work as cultivators, paid agricultural labourers or sometimes work in their family land as unpaid workers. Even if women contribute to farming, literature shows that they lack resources, including access, control and ownership of the productive resources for doing farming. The Kudumbashree collective farming programme through long-term leasing of land is an initiative through which it is premised that women's collective bargaining increases and improves their control over productive resources. Using Naila Kabeer's framework of Social Relations, this article examines how the Kudumbashree programmes impact women farmers' access, control and ownership of productive resources. It analyses the programme's potential for women farmers' empowerment and the transformation of gender relations using Kabeer's framework.
Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019
Debates on gender and the commodification of land highlight the loss of land rights, intensification of demands on women's labour, and decline in their decision-making control. Supported by 'extra-economic forces' of religious nationalism (Hindutva), such neoliberal interventions are producing new gender ideologies involving a subtle shift from relations of reciprocity to those of subordination. Using data from fine-grained fieldwork in Koraput district, Odisha, we analyse the tensions and transformations created jointly by corporate interventions (contract farming of eucalyptus by the paper industry) and religious nationalism in the local landscape. We examine how these phenomena are reshaping relations of asymmetric mutuality between nature and society, and between men and women.