Book Description
The State of Food and Agriculture 2010–11 brought to global attention the problem of female farmers lagging in terms of agricultural productivity compared with male farmers. This study returns to the question of gender-based differences in farm productivity, decomposing differences in farm yields between males and females. We identify one part of the gap explained by differences in attributes and access to productive assets, and another part explained by differences in returns to assets and attributes (i.e. “unexplained” differences). This paper applies the Kitagawa-Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to gender-based productivity gaps using nationally representative household surveys from 11 developing countries in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. We estimate productivity models for each country utilizing a comparable set of explanatory assets and attributes. We also implement a comparable decomposition of observed productivity gaps. The cross-country analysis shows that observed total gaps in productivity by gender do not always favour male farmers; the decomposition of these gaps, however, reveals that female farmers face gender-specific constraints that manifest as lower returns to attributes and assets. This background paper was prepared to inform Chapter 2 of FAO’s report on The status of women in agrifood systems.
