Women in agriculture

National-level information on labour force participation is available from the Labour Force Survey conducted occasionally by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The latest survey conducted in 2006 recorded a civilian labour force of 49.5 million, 25 per cent of whom are women. The female participation in labour force has, however, been increasing rapidly from a low base. During 1999-2006 period, female workers increased by 42 per cent compared to 16 per cent increase in the number of male workers. The data on gender structure of agricultural workers has been obtained from the Labour Force Survey. The trend towards feminisation of agriculture is clearly evident from the data.  In 1999-2000 period, 19 per cent of the agricultural workers were women. In 2005-06, the women's share of the agricultural labour force increased to 34 per cent.  

In-depth information of nature and extent of women's participation in agriculture is not, however, available from the Labour Force Survey. There have also been changes in the definition of women workers over time. For deeper analysis, we use in this section unpublished data from a longitudinal rural household survey for 1988-2008. The benchmark survey was conducted in 1987-88 for assessing the impact of green revolution on income distribution and poverty. 

We define economic activities as those that generate income for households or saves household expenditures. These include employment in agricultural and non-agricultural labour markets and also unpaid work for household in crop production activities, homestead gardening, livestock and poultry rearing, fishing, cottage industry (handicraft production),  house repairing and construction work, transport operation, business, trade and shopkeeping, and personal services. There are many other activities done by women which are quasi-economic in nature, These include food processing and preparation of meals for family members, child care, care of old and sick members, and tutoring of children. If the household hires workers for doing these jobs, it would involve some expenditure. We have not included such activities, following the practice in national income accounting.

The findings of the surveys on percentage of workers engaged in different economic activities can be noted. The time allocation on these activities can also be guessed. It may be noted that women are heavily involved in poultry raising, animal husbandry, home gardening and crop cultivation such as post-harvest operations, drying and seed selection. Since these are mostly homestead-based activities, it is convenient to carry them out in between conducting domestic duties. Activities in which women are involved relatively full-time are non-farm services. In contrast, major economic activities for men are crop farming, non-farm services, business and shopkeeping, and transport operation.

The importance of cultivation in generating employment is on downward trend because of continuous reduction in farm size under population pressure. The opportunity of job creation in the rural non-farm sector is on the rise due to expansion of rural roads and generation of marketed surplus from agriculture (transport and trade services), expansion of supply of micro-credit (generating self- employment in trade and business) and expansion of education and health services in rural areas. Labour has also moved out of cottage industries with the expansion of rural roads and electrification. In recent years, farming is attracting more labour due to increased farm profitability due to upward trend in agricultural prices.

 Over the last two decades, women's involvement in crop cultivation has sharply declined. This is mainly because of the fact that involvement of women in post-harvest operations, particularly for rice processing (i.e. winnowing, drying, parboiling, husking /milling, etc.) have been mechanised. At present, women are involved mostly in livestock and poultry production activities rather than crop production activities. Participation of adult women in livestock and poultry production activities increased from 43 per cent in 1988 to 69 per cent in recent years. Involvement of women in homestead gardening has also increased in recent years. Credit support from NGOs (non-governmental organisations) has largely facilitated involvement of women in livestock and poultry rearing as well as in homestead gardening in the rural areas. Participation of women in fisheries activities was found to be negligible. 

Very few women participate in agricultural labour market. In 1980s, only 2-3 per cent of women workers sold labour in the agricultural labour market compared to 25 per cent among male workers. Women's participation in agricultural labour market has further declined in recent years. Indeed, participation of women in the agricultural labour market is poverty-induced. Since poverty has improved substantially over the last two decades, women's participation in agricultural labour market has also declined. 

The other notable finding from these surveys is the continuing gender disparity in the wage rate. The wage rate in the agricultural labour market has increased substantially particularly during the last decade. 

In order to understand the drivers of women's participation in agricultural activities, we ran a logit   regression model (qualitative dependent variable). The dependent variable was measured by a dummy variable with value 'one' for households where women allocated more than one hour a day for agricultural activities and zero otherwise. The explanatory variables included the wage rate for agricultural labour and for non-agricultural labour at the village level, land owned by the household (ha), cultivated land with access to irrigation (ha), number of years of schooling of women worker, whether the worker is a member of a microfinance organisation, the age of the worker and the age square (to capture the non-linear effect of age), the distance of the village from the nearest bus stop, and whether the village has access to electricity. 

 The results indicate that agricultural wage rate has a positive effect on participation in agriculture, while non-agricultural wage rate has a negative effect. Women's participation might increase if tightening of labour market increased agricultural wage rate.  Developed infrastructure facilities (electricity connection and closer to transport facilities) will induce women to participate more in agriculture. Higher education has negative effect on their participation. Similarly, access to credit through NGOs contributes to greater participation in agricultural activities. The size of land ownership has a neutral effect, but irrigated land increases participation through rise in agricultural production that requires women to engage in post-harvest operation. Older women participate more in agricultural activities than younger ones, but the positive effect gets slowed down as women become older. A major policy implication of the findings is that supply of credit will encourage more women to engage in agriculture. Also investment for infrastructure development may promote participation in agriculture by facilitating linkage with markets.

The writer is Professor of Economics at

 Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]