How pervasive is gender inequality in agriculture?
Women are the major players in the sector, producing as much as 80 percent of most crops in low income developing countries; however, they have less access than men to productive resources and lack political voice. Some examples help illustrate the extent of the inequalities. · Men’s landholdings average almost three times the size of women’s landholdings.· Fertilizer is more intensively applied on men’s plots and is often sold in quantities too large for poor women to buy. · An analysis of credit schemes in five African countries found that women received less than one-tenth of the credit that was received by men smallholders.· In most developing countries, rural women’s triple responsibilities—farm work, household chores, and earning cash—often add up to a 16 hour work day, much higher than their men counterparts. However, women continue to lack access to important infrastructure services and appropriate technologies to ease their work loads.· Women-owned businesses face many more co
