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Hey, they finally noticed us!
Over the past two decades, women have gained recognition
in governmental and non-governmental arenas, at least in the space they
take up in documents approved at countless conferences on development
issues. While women were still winning their place on development agendas,
the environment also became a major issue. At first, relations between
women and the environment were rather low-key, but since the UNCED Earth
Summit in 1992, the recognition of the relationship has gained momentum,
and the two issues have become inseparable. One indicator of this trend
is the number of references to the role of women in preparatory documents
and in the treaties and commitments signed during UNCED. Agenda 21, for
example, signed by governments in Rio as a commitment to globalisation
for sustainable development, dedicated an entire chapter to women, setting
amongst its main objectives "the participation of women in the
management of national ecosystems and in controlling environmental degradation."
Also the Chapter on biodiversity in Agenda 21 highlights as an objective
for governments: The recognition and promotion of traditional methods
and knowledge of local populations, emphasising the particular role of
women as relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and to the
sustainable use of biological resources."
There are many more such quotes available than there
is space for in this article. What matters is that the strong association
established between women and the environment does not necessarily mean
a solid recognition of their role in sustainable development. Most often,
the first question asked is what women can do to "save" natural
resources, rather than what might be done to improve their own living
conditions.
In practice, the space won by women in discussions and
on paper has not been expressed in national policy making. One criticism
of farm policy makers is that they usually set women's issues apart in
isolated chapters of their reports or direct them to ministries responsible
for social matters. Women are left out of both the technical chapters
and the concerns of the ministries of agriculture. In this way, the role
of women as agents of production is ignored.
Such problems are not the monopoly of governments. Development
and/or environmental NGOs and people's movements have been at pains to
keep up with pressure from funding agencies which request greater emphasis
on work with women. While funders push for NGOs to take up the issue,
their quantitative and beaurocratic criteria do not really help promote
any greater understanding. Very often, also in the more progressive groups,
women continue to be dealt with in "separate chapters."
The fact of the matter is that we all have a lot to learn,
to put this new gender language into practice. We have to learn how to
incorporate a genuine gender perspective into our overall strategies,
before setting out to work with farm women. Getting to know the farm woman's
workplace involves the diversity within these production systems, as well
as the farm families' own basic food security.
Reproduction and production
Small family farming is a very complex system and the
subject of endless discussion amongst the proponents of various lines
of thought -- who may never agree on its true nature. Perhaps the only
point where different analysts agree is that the role of women in the
family production system has been virtually ignored. Official statistics
and censuses have been a very weak starting point for most studies, since
they count women only as "housewives." In Brazil, the 1989 National
Households Sample Survey asserts that, out of 15 million people working
in agriculture, only 33% are female. Anybody who has had even minimal
contact with the countryside knows that such figures are totally wrong.
Official statistics not only suffer from methodological problems in the
data gathering, but especially from a misconception about the nature of
productive labour.
Farm women have both productive and reproductive roles.
The gender division in labour must be understood in planning any actions
aimed at promoting women's participation. When we study the different
ways in which men and women allocate their time, we see there are tasks
that both carry out, other tasks that are done exclusively by women, and
other tasks exclusively carried out by men. Also the physical spaces on
the farm are often divided along gender lines.
At workshops with farm women in southern Brazil, we did
an exercise called "The Farmwork Lottery". We asked the women
to make a list of all the tasks to be done on a farm. We then asked them
to indicate which tasks were for women, which for men and which for both.
We hightlight the results in the accompanying table. One feature which
is common to all the exercises carried out is that the only activity in
which women never partake is marketing. On the other hand, ploughing was
most often identified as a man's activity, although many farm women say
they also plough and actually prefer ploughing to weeding and hoeing.
This example cannot be generalised, since it depends
on the production system, on the family make-up and age spread, on social,
economic and environmental circumstances, and on cultural factors. In
Brazil, for example, there is considerable variation in the degree of
farm women's involvement in the most important money-making activities:
cash crop production. Differences are not only regional, but also occur
within a single community.
We can generalise, however, on the high degree of women's
involvement in productive activities for on-farm, family consumption.
Since their activities are generally not considered as part of production
because they do not generate cash, many initiatives aimed at promoting
women's work emphasise their participation in market-oriented activities
which are normally controlled by men. In this way they continue to ignore
the subsistence production sector. Such projects may lead to a substantial
increase in the woman's work load, and actually exacerbate previous gender
imbalances. The point, therefore, is not just promotion of women per se,
but also the recognition of the real importance of production for on-farm
consumption.
The importance of "homegardens"
In the highly simplified production systems such as the
soybean monocultures in southern Brazil, any diversity that still exists
will be found around the house or in the small plots where "odds-and-ends"
such as herbs and flowers are planted. This is easily observed when we
take a closer look at a rural landscape. Around the house we normally
have the orchard, the garden, medicinal plants, trees, flowers, chickens
and the stable. This is the space where women spend much of their time
doing productive work for on-farm consumption, as well as generating marketable
surpluses. Some products from the farm-yard homegarden, as well as cheese
prepared from the cows' milk, can bring in enough cash to cover some of
the family's day-to-day expenses.
Despite its importance, little study has been done in
this area, and its contribution to income generation is generally underestimated.
Much economic analysis of small family farms ignores this sector altogether
-- the same analysis which fails to explain how this kind of farming still
survives at all, despite its many problems. In a two-year survey carried
out by Assessoar and AS-PTA in 1985 with five families on small farms
in south-eastern Parana in southern Brazil, the value of on-farm production
was calculated on the basis of local retail market prices. Among the five
families, the value of production for on-farm consumption varied from
33% to 89% of total income. This is money which they actually would have
to spend if they chose to buy that food from local merchants (see Table
2). It is significant that these families' diets were reasonably rich,
including high-value products such as meat, cheese, milk, fruit, a variety
of vegetables, home-made bread, honey and other food.
In addition to supplementing income, diversified subsistence
production can guarantee a family's food security. Another survey, carried
out the same time as the one just mentioned, reveals the risks for families
living in monoculture production systems with much less diversified subsistence
production. In a year when things go well, much of the once-a-year harvest
income goes to paying off debts to local merchants for groceries. Less
subsistence production also means a poorer diet, for those who cannot
afford the high cost of more nutritious food. In addition, major weather
problems can compromise the main harvest and the family's financial situation
as well.
Another major factor, which reveals the relation between
women and biodiversity management, is the broad diversity of inter- and
intra-species variability in the women's working area. This fact has caught
the attention of researchers looking at genetic resources in all parts
of the world. Studies done in Cuban homegardens, known locally as 'conucos',
describe them in term of complex structures and veritable repositories
of genetic diversity. Such studies defend the importance of homegardens
in the process of species evolution, as well as their potential roll-on
strategies for in situ conservation.
These homegardens are buttresses against genetic erosion,
since they often contain local varieties which have been displaced by
commercial varieties in the farm's cash crops. This is not just a hypothesis,
but a reality routinely observed in the field. In AS-PTAs work collecting
varieties of corn and beans with small farming communities, we very often
find in homegardens and in the women's work areas varieties that are not
used for cash crops but which are still planted because they taste or
cook better or even because they are aesthetically attractive.
Another interesting phenomenon observed in homegardens
is the inbreeding or migration of genes amongst the varieties of a given
species caused by naturally occurring cross-pollination. This process
serves to enhance variability. Another important factor is the adaptation
of species to extreme or specific ecological conditions in the homegardens.
We have often witnessed this process in the case of medicinal plants.
Frosts are quite common during the winters in southern Brazil. Many farm
women will reserve small plots near their houses that are protected from
frost and, before the onset of winter, transplant seedlings of medicinal
plants that might die if left in more open areas. In this way, they are
not only guaranteeing a supply of herbs for their own use during the winter
but also maintaining a reserve to plant in larger areas when spring comes
to replace those lost during the winter.
All this experience has put homegardens on many researchers'
agendas as living gene banks. They emphasise the importance of preserving
homegardens as key elements in the conservation and generation of diversity
in agricultural species.
Integrating work with women and diversity
Anyone who hopes to do work with women on Brazil's family
farms must include biodiversity which means direct involvement with homegardens,
livestock and "odds-and-ends." By the same token, work with
the components or totality of agricultural biodiversity will never get
past the good-intention stage unless it encompasses an active role for
women. Planning and management activities aimed at sustainable production
systems and at the well-being of rural families can only succeed if they
incorporate notions of both diversity and gender. Food security, the conservation
of diversity and the participation of women are thus the three legs of
a tripod that make such activities viable. Once these concepts are accepted,
the next step is to overcome the limitations that have kept this integration
from taking place in practice. In this context two concepts are crucial.
One is the understanding the role of women in the agricultural
production process. Because many mistakes are rooted in misinformation,
a number of NGOs have carried out diagnoses of concrete situations in
order to orient their future work. We should not repeat the same mistakes
that appear in the official statistics and keep women out of the production
process. Our methodologies for diagnoses must include techniques that
allow for the expression of gender perspectives in all aspects of production.
Just to mention a few such variables: it is important to gather information
to explain the gender division of labour, farm administration and natural-resource
management; the real allocation of each family member's time in all areas
of activity; and where and when women participate in decision-making.
The second concept relates to awareness and promotion
of production for on-farm consumption. In our planning and action, we
must look beyond those few products that generate most of a family's cash
income and open our eyes to the diversity of "odds-and-ends."
Planning must be aimed not only at maximising monetary income but also
at optimising well-being. In a country like Brazil, where 32 million people
go hungry -- half of them in rural areas -- improving food supplies with
a diversified and balanced diet is an immediate priority for all those
working in the field of rural development.
In the field of agro-ecology, we must learn much more
to be able to identify the maximum functional diversity for homegardens,
both ecologically and in terms of the family's particular needs. Spatial
and structural orientations must be developed to take the greatest possible
advantage of potential for promoting species evolution and conservation
of the biological diversity in each location.
With a better knowledge of the "invisible field,"
it will be easier to decide where to start. We should not forget that
decreasing farm women's work load and increasing their participation in
the economic management of their production are basic steps towards minimising
and eventually overcoming gender imbalances. Therefore, the availability
and distribution of labour are extremely important variables on which
to base planning decisions. There may well be cases where an increase
in the diversity of a production system for on-farm consumption will entail
an impossible demand on the woman's labour, if she has her time taken
up by cultivating cash crops. In this case, a starting point might be
the introduction of technologies that relieve the women's work load or
remove them from this activity so that they can work on production for
on-farm consumption. Even in the area of housework, labour-saving instruments
may open the way for women to spend more time working in the homegarden
and with livestock. Projects aimed at adding value to surplus production
in this latter area, such as small local agro-industrial undertakings,
can also increase women's incomes.
Possibilities for "stimulating diversity" are
as diverse as family farms. Of course it is not enough just to discover
the right starting point. Making changes will often demand financial investment
that small farmers simply cannot afford, much less their women partners.
In any case, when policy makers are looking at possible funding and credit
lines for development projects, it is important to see and hear this invisible
world. Projects aimed at conserving genetic resources must be seen in
very practical terms not only as ways of encouraging women to be "curators"
for in situ conservation, but also -- and above all -- as an activity
that can improve their overall conditions.
Translated by David Hathaway, of AS-PTA, Brazil. Angela
Cordeiro may be reached at: R. Baräo do Cerro Azul, 246; UNIÄO DA VITÓRIA,
PR ; BRAZIL; Phone: (55-42) 522 68 20, Fax: (55-42) 522 68 20, E-mail:
asptapr@ns.net-uniao.com.br
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