Beyond Economic Growth: An Evaluation of Contract Farming from a Gender Perspective
Contract farming is a mode of agricultural production based on an agreement between buyers and producers that has become increasingly popular across countries, because it has been proven to be rather effective in promoting farmers’ productivity and in accurately orienting agricultural products to a target market. As a wealth of empirical studies have shown, contract farming schemes can indeed raise the income and thus general well-being of participating farmers. The study by Laura Raynolds, however, takes a different perspective when evaluating the case of small-scale contract farming in Dominican Republic: in addition to its role in facilitating economic growth, …show more content…
The inputs are subject to redistribution before being invested into the agricultural activities. Using the traditional unitary household model, the redistribution of these resources is largely neglected, while from a gender perspective, it is significant to the success of the overall project. As remarked by Raynolds, according to the traditional gender role in rural areas of Dominican Republic, “Gender inequalities in farm households have been reinforced by agrarian policies which grant credit, land, and other resources to men who are seen as ‘heads of household’” (Raynolds 786). The control over economic capitals has an indisputable impact on the subsequent distribution of income and thus perpetuates the skewed power dynamics within households. In addition to those external resources, in some cases where men and women have separate land ownership, contract farming can even erode women’s access to their own land and result in permanent appropriation of women’s rights (Raynolds 788). It is thus evident that a gender-blind assessment on the inputs of contract farming lacks integral elements that result in unforeseen conflicts at later stages; it is the inequality from the very beginning that leads to the challenges throughout the agricultural …show more content…
When collecting information about average hours of labor that men and women devoted to the tasks, Raynolds contrasts the result acquired from personal interviews with 48 male tomato contract growers to women’s assessment of their own labor. According to women themselves, they worked in the field for twice as much time as their husbands and made a large contribution as important labor rather than acting as mere helpers as indicated by the labor use estimates recalled by their husbands. Furthermore, a large part of women’s work is cooking for all the workers, including a large number of hired workers. According to the contract, the cooking of the mid-day meal is paid for as part of the wage. Nevertheless, this intensive labor that is customarily delegated to women is often deemed irrelevant to actual tomato cultivation, and thus, despite its necessity and difficulty, often goes unnoticed like many other women’s contributions. Clearly, men have a tendency to underestimate women’s importance while women themselves also accept the gender norm to admit their secondary status in production, which is nevertheless counterfactual (Raynolds
Contract farming is a mode of agricultural production based on an agreement between buyers and producers that has become increasingly popular across countries, because it has been proven to be rather effective in promoting farmers’ productivity and in accurately orienting agricultural products to a target market. As a wealth of empirical studies have shown, contract farming schemes can indeed raise the income and thus general well-being of participating farmers. The study by Laura Raynolds, however, takes a different perspective when evaluating the case of small-scale contract farming in Dominican Republic: in addition to its role in facilitating economic growth, …show more content…
The inputs are subject to redistribution before being invested into the agricultural activities. Using the traditional unitary household model, the redistribution of these resources is largely neglected, while from a gender perspective, it is significant to the success of the overall project. As remarked by Raynolds, according to the traditional gender role in rural areas of Dominican Republic, “Gender inequalities in farm households have been reinforced by agrarian policies which grant credit, land, and other resources to men who are seen as ‘heads of household’” (Raynolds 786). The control over economic capitals has an indisputable impact on the subsequent distribution of income and thus perpetuates the skewed power dynamics within households. In addition to those external resources, in some cases where men and women have separate land ownership, contract farming can even erode women’s access to their own land and result in permanent appropriation of women’s rights (Raynolds 788). It is thus evident that a gender-blind assessment on the inputs of contract farming lacks integral elements that result in unforeseen conflicts at later stages; it is the inequality from the very beginning that leads to the challenges throughout the agricultural …show more content…
When collecting information about average hours of labor that men and women devoted to the tasks, Raynolds contrasts the result acquired from personal interviews with 48 male tomato contract growers to women’s assessment of their own labor. According to women themselves, they worked in the field for twice as much time as their husbands and made a large contribution as important labor rather than acting as mere helpers as indicated by the labor use estimates recalled by their husbands. Furthermore, a large part of women’s work is cooking for all the workers, including a large number of hired workers. According to the contract, the cooking of the mid-day meal is paid for as part of the wage. Nevertheless, this intensive labor that is customarily delegated to women is often deemed irrelevant to actual tomato cultivation, and thus, despite its necessity and difficulty, often goes unnoticed like many other women’s contributions. Clearly, men have a tendency to underestimate women’s importance while women themselves also accept the gender norm to admit their secondary status in production, which is nevertheless counterfactual (Raynolds