The gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa: quantitative and qualitative determinants

HAROON AKRAM-LODHI (Trent University, Ontario)

Rural economies are strongly and pervasively gendered. Women and men farmers do not always face the same production conditions, nor do they always make the same production choices. They consequently do not always have similar levels of agricultural productivity. This paper is a mixed-methods exploration of the causes of gender gaps in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa. It demonstrates that the social norms and values that underpin and sustain gender relations are the principal cause of gender gaps in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa. In particular, women’s responsibility to provide unpaid care and domestic work, the economic consequences of gender-based violence, and women’s responsibility to provide unpaid farm labour on land that they do not operate for themselves cumulatively create time poverty, which drives gender gaps in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa.

Haroon Akram-Lodhi teaches agrarian political economy at Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics, and co-Editor of the forthcoming Edward Elgar Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies.

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