Global forum on food security and nutrition

Nitya Rao, facilitator of the discussion, School of International Development and LANSA, India

Look forward to the report Mar and to learn from the successful examples you mention. Recognising and addressing unpaid care work is clearly central to addressing the issue of malnutrition in South Asia, as despite new technologies as well as a host of nutrition interventions including take home rations, unless women have the time to cook and regularly feed the young child, the problem is unlikely to disappear. We often tend to look for technical solutions, rather than addressing the social issues including norms that tend to reproduce existing inequalities.

Nitya Rao, facilitator of the discussion, School of International Development and LANSA, India

Thanks Ramani for raising the very important point around seasonal variations. In some senses, given the seasonality of agriculture, this should be obvious, but it is quite often overlooked. In some new LANSA research in India we are finding similar results. During peak agricultural seasons, the time available for cooking and caring declines substantially, creating energy deficits in both adults and children. Thanks for the reference to your paper.

Akmal Nazir, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

I have different opinion regarding the topic under discussion. It is totally wrong if we only talk about women empowerment of families linked with agriculture, a totally bogus idea. It is the whole family that is neglected and must get care. Here the education can play an integral role, because what we can see that the situation is entirely different for well-educated group of people and the women are automatically empowered and well respected in society. This is the responsibility of the government to launch a sound program for education, prosperity and well-being of families linked with agriculture. They should be given different incentives/subsidies to make their lives comfortable. There many more to write about different policies for uplifting the whole families… but the point is we must first decide that whether we’re interested in just women empowerment or rather in uplifting the whole family.

Mohammad Jafar Emal, IFAD/RMLSP/MAIL, Afghanistan

Dear FSN-Moderator,

Please find attached herewith an Article "Study on Creation of Other Income Sources from Backyard Poultry Production in Afghanistan.

This project has reached the poor rural women, the main target, who benefited in terms of income, food security, social and economic empowerment. The additional income generated through the sale of eggs, pullets and old stock had immediate positive impacts for the rural women beneficiaries that are practicing the improved backyard poultry management. With the help of Women Poultry Associations beneficiaries are able to sell their products and generate extra income that is used for domestic needs and creation of other income sources.

Best regards

Jafar Emal, National Poultry Advisor,

IFAD/RMLSP/MAIL, Kabul, Afghanistan,

Attached document “Backyard Poultry Development in Balkh and Jauzjan: Study on Creation of Other Income Sources from Backyard Poultry Productions” in Annexe 1

Amna Akhtar, Collective for Social Science Research, Pakistan

Women's unique role as mothers and care-givers, coupled with their marginalization in South Asian societies makes for a compelling case for empowering women to improve the nutrition and well-being of entire households. Evidence shows that women earners are likely to make more pro-nutrition consumption choices for the households. However, usually women have limited agency and decision making authority in the household where a woman's income may be entitled to the household. For women’s income to be a factor in influencing consumption choices and nutrition outcomes, there needs to be acknowledgement within the family that a particular income stream does belong to a woman. Therefore it is important to recognize and acknowledge the contribution of women's paid work in the household which in turn may also have empowerment effects for the woman.

Paul Rigterink, Potomac Technical Advisors, United States of America (third contribution)

In 2003 I worked with the Afghan Project personnel in Freemont California to develop ways on increasing thw income of women in Afghanistan. Our discussions centered around my paper on poultry production. See "Doubling the Income of Africa's Poorest Farmers" at my website at https://sites.google.com/site/PaulRigterink / We also discussed the use of home canning. See "A Plan for Improving Food Security in Afghanistan" at my website

Subsequent to our discussions the Afghan Project personnel were able to help convince the FAO Poultry Development Service, USAID, the World Bank etc to start a major number of backyard poultry projects (0-50 chickens) in Afghanistan. Unfortunetly, they were not able to convince these agencies to develop followup plans so that the women could fully take advantage of modern poultry technology. Followup plans would include descriptions of how to raise 50-500 chickens (family farm size) and how to raise 500-10,000 chickens (commercial farm size) (the technology is slightly different as described in my poultry paper above. Policy personnel need to establish a policy that Afghan women raising poultry should be introduced to the technologies for raising 200 and 1000 chickens. The differences in the stages of establishing a commercial poultry farm need to be fully explained to Afghan women. Afghan women raising 1000 chickens will have a lot more control of their lives because they will have much more control of the purse strings of their family.

Attached document “Doubling the Income of Africa’s Poorest Farmers” in Annex 2

Nitya Rao, facilitator of the discussion, School for International Development and LANSA, India

Poultry has the potential for both enhancing women's incomes and improving nutritional outcomes. Thank you very much for the information around poultry, especially the Women's Poultry Associations, in Afghanistan. The Associations have an added advantage potentially of giving both visibility and legitimacy to women's income contributions. How far they retain control over these incomes needs however to be examined.  

It is true that in poor, rural households, whole families are nutritionally disadvantaged and not just women. The objective therefore is indeed to improve the wellbeing of the entire household and not just women within it. How can this be done? I think several strategies have been suggested in the discussions on this forum so far. An important one is to recognise and acknowledge women's contributions to agriculture and the generation of household incomes. Such recognition could be used to strengthen their legal entitlements to inputs and services, and also enhance their agency and say in household decision-making. Second, in most of South Asia, culturally and socially women are responsible for domestic and care work, including cooking and feeding the family. A second strategy is therefore to ensure that they have sufficient time for these tasks, without stretching their working day too much. This could involve the provision of fuel and energy, drudgery-reduction technologies, access to clean drinking water, sanitation and health services etc.  It could also involve a more equitable sharing of tasks between men and women in households. Thirdly, we need to make sure that women too receive fair returns for their work contributions. Gender wage gaps in agriculture often disadvantage women workers, and this needs to be corrected.