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Abstract
Substantial gains have been made over the past 30 years in enhancing agricultural
productivity in developing countries. In the 1980s alone, food production
increased by 39 per cent. The record is not, however, as impressive in terms of
food production per capita, which increased by only 13 per cent in the same
decade, and declined in 75 developing countries, representing three quarters of
those in Africa, two-thirds of those in Latin America, and half the countries of
Asia (Pinstrup-Andersen, 1994). There is a continuing need to raise agricultural
output and productivity in developing countries, both to ensure food
availability and to raise the incomes of the large number of rural people who
are poor and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, so that they have
better access to food and other necessities which they currently lack.
Women represent a large and significant group of farmers who, so far, have
been relatively neglected in attempts to raise farmer productivity. This is
because development planners and policy makers, as well as agricultural research
scientists and programme implementors, are mostly unaware of the
roles women play in agriculture, the contributions they make and their potential
for raising farm production. This paper attempts to draw attention to
women's roles in agriculture and to improve understanding of their capabilities
and constraints so that policies and programmes can be better designed to
assist them.