TRENDS IN WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY:

Lessons from Africa
By RUTH K. ONIANG'O, PhD
Nairobi, Kenya

Assisted by
Dr. Agnes Kimokoti
Nairobi, Kenya

Paper Presented at the Conference on the Roles, Constraints and Potentials of Women in Agricultural Development,Held at the Centre for Social Development, Bonn, Germany,

August 26 and 27, 1999

Abstract

Although some efforts have been made in the past decade or so to improve the situation of women in most aspects, a lot more remains to be tackled. In Africa, women continue to carry the brunt of an ever worsening food security situation, particularly at community and household levels. Efforts to emancipate women by increasing both their access to a variety of resources and their participation in decision making through awareness campaigns have hit a snag as new problems emerge. The new problems include: liberalised economies which have created many cracks through which mostly women fall; fast emerging technologies which women have no access to in the first place and, therefore, continue to be left behind; changing weather patterns which have most adverse effects on the agricultural sector where most women operate thus their vulnerability is increased; and the HIV/AIDS problem whose social impact is hitting women hardest.

African women have demonstrated their capabilities and need tangible support from all angles. Empowerment is the key word here while efforts should also go towards addressing food security issues in a very holistic way that involves not only women, but more so, men as well.

Introduction

Despite all the rhetoric on gender equity over the past two decades or so, women all over Africa continue to face economic, socio-cultural and legal barriers that constrain their capacity to participate in decisions that hinge on farming and natural resource management, a situation that affects their ability to generate enough incomes that would go towards improvement of standard of living of their households.

Truly, most African women are still cocooned in traditional systems where cultural practices and norms are dying hard, while many still are caught up in some complex cultural transition which they would like to break out. Positive progress for such women is difficult. More than 30 years ago, Boserup (1970) wrote that women in Africa contribute the major share to food production yet their contribution is hardly recognized; that concern continues to be raised today. Women continue to be primary custodians over food acquisition, food processing, food marketing and ultimately over household food security .This is not to mention the many other chores that face them. We like to say African women are very resilient, they are multiple-role players and task-performers per excellence, but at what cost? At what cost particularly to their own health?

African experiences on the implementation of the Dakar/NGOR Declaration and of the International Conference on Population and Development (ECA, 1999) show increased awareness in a wide range of aspects in many African countries. For example, there are attempts to mainstream issues across the board and bring clarity to the definition of the term "gender". In many cases now data are being disaggregated along gender lines, while sensitisation seminars and training on gender issues continue to be offered. One could, therefore, say that a lot has been achieved. However, many bottlenecks still remain, the most notable ones having to do with slow attitude change, despite policy and legal provisions. Unfortunately, capacity is still low for mass training and sensitization. A major recommendation now is to include men in all aspects of gender training, sensitization, and operationalization (ECA, 1999).

It is important, therefore, that gender issues even on the African continent stop being addressed in a simplistic way, as if it is just a question of men and women. It is much more than that and this needs to be reflected in policies and programmes.

According to Curry et al., (1996), a framework for addressing gender issues with regard to responsibilities must include questions such as:

• Who is responsible for what task
• What do they know about the task
• Who owns what
• Who controls income that emanates from these tasks
• Who is likely to benefit from training to improve performance of this task?

African Women's Organization and Legitimization

The donor community and development agencies decided some years back to take advantage of the very unique situation of the African woman - her resilience - and saw the best way to eradicate poverty, disease, hunger and malnutrition as involving channeling funds and various other forms of support to women. This decision was, clearly, made without a deep enough understanding of the cultural norms that govern decision making, roles distribution, and control of resources at the household level and in communities. Customs truly die hard. Most African households - over 80% in most countries - are in rural areas, where communities are patriarchal and, therefore, male controlled, and still very traditional. The donor driven approach which was also taken up by politicians and various government operatives has had mixed results. In one sense, awareness has been created and legislation revised to accommodate women's needs. In areas of agricultural productivity, however, which entail having to deal with land tenure issues, natural resources, and access to credit, all of which would enhance investment in agriculture to boost returns have met with little success. Control of natural resources has been masculinized for centuries and as land tenure started to be institutionalized, it automatically became a practice to register land ownership in men's names only. However, with land size diminishing and families becoming more nucleated, a number of scenarios have emerged.

Before demarcation and registration, land was commonly owned and utilized and the issue of who owned it or had rights to the outputs did not arise; in any case, whatever came out was mostly for home use. With registration, however, there is not just household but individual ownership. The proceeds are used to meet a variety of needs -food, medical, education and material requirements - for the family. Money is "sweet" and men want to control it. Also as a resource diminishes, the more control is imposed on it and the same applies to land. Meantime, women are left with little choice but to become dependent, and sometimes destitute. So as land has become masculinized agriculture continues to remain feminized (World Bank 1996; CGIAR n.d.).

To quote Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf:

Despite women's central role in Africa's food production, there has been persistent undernourishment in increasing their productivity. Women's contributions to agriculture remain under acknowledged. .......... The obsolete technology rural women still use makes their farm work labour extensive and time consuming (Sasakawa Africa Association, 1997).

So far the support given to women's role in Africa's agriculture remains at the lip service level, except for a few bilateral donors who take the courage to support women groups in a variety of ways.

Technologies: Which Way for African Women?

A few technologies have been transferred to farmers as they became available and efficacious. Many appropriate technologies still lie with the innovators. The main problem with technology transfer in agriculture has had to do with the fact that they get transferred to the men, who in Africa are not the primary food producers. Commercialization of agriculture involving new technologies has, therefore, marginalized women further. It denies them the most productive land for food production, and transfers modern or appropriate technologies to the men. This leaves women to continue with their old-fashioned drudgery on increasingly infertile and acreage-diminishing land.

Further, women's other chores continue to remain largely unaddressed. These include household level tasks which consume a lot of women's time, and those that involve travelling long distances such as fetching firewood, and water, and getting to healthcare facilities (ILO/UN, 1982). This 1982 reference is still as relevant today as it was 17 years ago! As if that is not enough, the now endemic AIDS problem takes up a lot of women's time as they (women) constitute the main care givers in illness, and death. Yes, African women are resilient but there must be a limit to this.

According to Schuh (Sasakawa Africa Association, 1997),easing women's roles at the household level by modernizing the technologies there and releasing more time for more effective farm work should also be supported parallel to supporting education. Market-oriented farm work needs modern tools and technologies.

Many technologies have proved to be socio-culturally unacceptable or have not reduced the time or saved energy over existing technologies or practices. Technology is considered appropriate if it makes optimum use of the available skills and resources of any given economic environment (Mitchel, 1980). In Kenya, the fuel saving stove, which uses no more than one fourth fuelwood as a normal stove, has been around for the past two decades. One would have expected mass adoption of this technology, given the low cost and the fact that fuelwood is not only becoming scarce but its acquisition takes up too much of women's time. Yet this has not been the case.

Similarly, some of the technologies have been beyond the financial capabilities or skill levels of women who have less access to the resources that are supposed to make things happen.

In essence, therefore, as African women, whether in urban or rural areas become more and more overburdened with chores, their men become more and more redundant. This trend is bound to continue unless agroindustry develops alongside commercialization of agriculture, and men are made to take up their responsibility and justify the title they always demand of "household head". Women's roles are becoming more and more complex as the world goes through various forms of technological advancement. The area of information technology is one which could empower rural women in a very meaningful way and already is being tried in many rural communities in the developing world. The challenge for any nation now is to produce food for not only the immediate community but also for a consumer population that is growing fast and is becoming more diversified in their food tastes.

Many advances have been made in Asia and more recently in South Africa to empower rural communities in information technology (IT) upgrading which in some countries in Africa has been quite slow. The rural communities where most women reside are much further behind. Commercialization of agriculture makes little sense if commodities cannot access markets promptly and efficiently and it is not possible to achieve this without a modernized communications system.

Margaret Grieco (Sasakawa Africa Association , 1997) has recommended the establishment of an African gender/agriculture home page as a way of minimizing the existing barriers to full incorporation of gender into agricultural project design.

According to Feldstein (KARI, 1998), in most parts of the world, technologies and innovations have tended to disadvantage women relative to men, although women farmers are as productive as male farmers when given access to similar resources.

Effect of Structural Adjustment

Industrial development in Africa has been adversely affected by structural adjustment programs (SAPs) in that almost everybody has become a small player in the so-called market economy. Women have been impoverished and pushed further away from the decision making level as they struggle to earn a living for their families - virtually hussling, moving from little job to little job, trading, and trying to make ends meet. SAPs, according to Nyamassyo (1998), have pushed women's wages to their lowest by: lowering prices for raw commodities from Africa, and promoting mostly exportable crops in which women are more involved at the processing rather than production level.

Women just cannot compete in the new fiscal and trade arena - they fear to borrow amounts of money which can make a difference, and with unfavourable borrowing interest rates and lack of preferential conditions for the agricultural sector, women are unable to borrow to invest in quick maturing intensive crops which are potentially fairly lucrative. For meaningful returns to be realised, however, heavy investment is required in terms of labour, technology and cash, all of which are very scarce commodities for women.

Improved agriculture, and diminishing population growth in North America and Europe means a shrinking local market in those countries which has resulted in dumping or influx of cheap goods (cheap because of more efficient production and processing) on African markets, to compete with more expensively produced local goods; clearly there is no guarantee that the more expensive products are of better quality.

Women's Contribution to National Development

Women have always contributed significantly to the economic life of their communities. Yet it is only recently that women's work had become a topic of discussion among scholars and national development planners. In Africa, much of the process to get women recognized has been driven mostly by the donor community and development experts. The contributions that women have made have been shaped not only by particular environmental conditions and the economic organization of various cultures, but also by widely varying conceptions of sex-roles and female status vis-à-vis male status. The work that women do has such a pervasive influence on the general quality of life that they are able to maintain the wellbeing of their families and communities, amidst all odds. Women have always been the cornerstone of African communities, both during peace and conflict times. However, their centrality in society's development has gone unnoticed, oftentimes ignored or taken for granted. Much of women's subjugation is attributable to this state of affairs. Now, and since the past decade or so in Africa, women want to be acknowledged for what they are -the very lifeline of mankind.

Women have been viewed as passive or neutral factors in the socio-economic and technological transformations being advanced by funding agencies, economists, planners and administrators. One of the results of this has been that women have not benefited much from education and training which have, in the past, empowered men with new skills.

The role of women in development is related to a complete range of socio-economic activities. Women are not only users of basic services, bearers and socialisers of children and helpers in the home, but also represent a productive potential which needs to be tapped. Women form half of the population and the development of a country cannot be realized if they continue to lag behind. Not only does failure to include women in the development process run counter to the true spirit of development, but it invariably hinders the process itself. Development programs in agriculture, health, education, and nutrition are most adversely affected when they ignore women in the planning process.

Both the World Development Report recently put out by the World Bank (World Bank, 1999) and the 1998 Human Development Report (UNDP,1998) show that nations which have taken deliberate steps to empower women, or at least allow them into mainstream development have faired better than the rest on the economic front.

Gender and Household Food Security

Women almost always will spend their income on nurturing activities. Recent studies have shown that women as compared to men are likely to spend more of their income on family food (Pinstrup-Anderson and Pardya-Lorch, 1998). Also, despite lower incomes and additional demands on their time as housewives and mothers, females heading households, petty traders and street food vendors have the largest percentage of food insecure households. Generally, women allocate household income differently than men and favour the provision of basic goods and services required to meet the needs of their family (Levin et. al., 1999). Even when women are farming they are thinking of food for their family.

In recent years, the gender debate has been raging and right now, it appears to have missed the target altogether in the area of agriculture and food security. Most research reports convey the fake impression that in Africa, men and women operate separately although they may be living under the same roof. The donor community has not helped. Most have not understood the subtle conditions that obtain at the African household level. African scholars have not been of much help. Donors have targeted their support to women, to the disgust of men and truly to the disadvantage of the African socio-cultural set-up. In other words, the traditional fabric has been rocked, leaving men more jealous and less supportive of women's efforts as their male egos feel threatened(Oniang'o,1997). An understanding of the gender dimensions and dynamics within households is critical.

In African indigenous societies, harmony was ensured through consensus mechanisms in which women were almost always mute participants. Although some changes are being realized, to a large extent, this aspect of tradition seems to persist to-date, even in communities where women have better educational opportunities than their male counterparts.

Women in Kenya

The Kenyan economy is largely dependent on agricultural and manufacturing activities. Between 1992 and 1996, the performance of the agricultural sector was mixed, with the export crops sector having gained the most from the liberalization measures while the crucial food crops sector declined. During the same period, income from key export crops of coffee, tea and horticulture improved with annual growth in output averaging 6 per cent. This was not matched by performance in the food crops sector, where maize production fell by an average 2 per cent per year over the same period. Growth in the output of the livestock sector was higher than population growth. Unfortunately, improved prices for farm products did not lead to improved agricultural terms of trade (GoK/UNICEF, 1998:14).

In Kenya, over 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and principally depends on agriculture, especially small holder agriculture (CBS, 1996). Agriculture employs more than two thirds of the labour force, and accounts for about 70 per cent of the export earnings. It generates almost all the country's food requirements and provides a significant proportion of raw materials for the agro-based industries. Overall, the small holder sub-sector contributes about 75 per cent of the country's total employment within the agricultural sector (GoK, 1998).

As is the case in most other parts of Africa, women in Kenya control the bulk of the agricultural sub-sector. Classifying the population according to their economic activities, the Economic Survey (GoK,1998), shows that 51.6 per cent of the total Kenyan population are subsistence farmers. Of this, gender disaggregation indicates that 68.8 per cent of the active subsistence farming population are females while males comprise 42.5 per cent.

Despite their contribution, women in Kenya face major constraints of access to, and control over land and agricultural technologies necessary to increase the efficiency of the agricultural operations. There is a systematic exclusion of women from extension education despite the fact that they are the backbone of the agricultural economy. This significantly reduces both the opportunities for accessing and adopting agricultural technologies. Therefore, targeting men for extension education is based on the erroneous premise that the men will share this information with all the others involved in agricultural work at the family level, including the women. On the ground, reality is very much contrary to expectation.

Therefore, for women to acquire skills that will improve their economic wellbeing and thereby influence development especially in rural areas, agricultural education is vital. Education generally is often seen as a panacea to social, economic and political problems. Since the role of women in agricultural production is quite significant, it is necessary to target them in agricultural development. This means enabling them to access quality and timely information in agriculture. Although agriculture continues to be quoted as the mainstay of Kenya's economy, it appears that not all is going well in this sector as far as sustainability of livelihoods is concerned. The Kenya government has accepted a World Bank supported survey that showed that over 46% of Kenyans live below the poverty line (GoK, 1998). The government has gone a step further and allocated Ksh 1.2 billion¹ towards poverty eradication, a sum which is said to be enough to address the problem, if used well, without any additional resources from the donor community.

At this juncture, we would like to turn to Kenya's agricultural research where a number of studies, since 1995, were conducted to try and mainstream gender concerns into agricultural research and extension. Relevant findings are pulled from a select number of theses studies. The case studies follow the research cycle from diagnostics to planning, experimentation, evaluation and dissemination. According to Kooijman and Mbabu (KARI, 1998), Gender Task Force was formed out of the recognition that KARI was lacking the mechanisms to include gender issues in a structural manner into its current research program.

Some Key Findings

• Dealing with researchers who are some of the most educated people in the country showed that there was a lot of ignorance about what "gender" means. Most participants came to the training sessions fearing that this was all about advocacy and activism for women's rights which, therefore, threatened to shake the status quo.
• Cultural norms in many communities still do not allow women to express themselves in front of men. Fortunately all this is changing, though slowly, and now in some communities younger women are able to express themselves in a mixed gathering of both men and women.

  It was clear from these analyses that women and men need to be addressed separately and that the assumption of a household as a homogeneous, cordial entity where everybody works for the common good is erroneous. Going into a community and hoping to shake the status quo might in fact make things worse for the women in the short-term. So, different tools, and approaches and indeed technologies are needed for each gender as deemed appropriate. Surprisingly, the researchers and extension workers were not even aware of the importance of packaging their approaches separately along gender lines until they went through gender analysis training.

• Women still have limited access to education, credit and extension services - so how are they expected to raise their productivity? [Studies by Salasya and Hassan (KARI, 1998)].
• Effect of gender on access to farm resources and agricultural services:

The gender effect was significant and confirmed earlier findings, of over a decade ago (Oruis, 1985; Mwangi, 1988; Ballow and Sorensen, 1990).

• In terms of practices, more women used animal manure and intercropped maize. Fewer women used improved seeds, less machinery and ended up having to weed more. There were more women and children working on men's farms than men ever worked on women controlled plots.

  Enough attention has not been paid to livestock. The fact is there is not as much sensitivity about women owning livestock as owning land and this can be seen as a first window of opportunity to increase women's ownership of viable assets.

• Ndubu's study (KARI, 1998) which made a deliberate attempt to include both women and men farmers in on-farm trials and as participants in farm evaluations revealed that:

  "Women contribute more than men in agricultural research activities".
  "Although men are enthusiastic in participating in agricultural research activities such as farmers' committee meetings and attending research site open days, this is not reflected in their actual farm activities" which are performed mostly by their wives.

• Kimenye (KARI, 1998) examined factors affecting farmers' utilization of improved technologies and reports on:
  
  

  - Lack of knowledge about the technology

  • 69% of ignorant farmers represented female-managed farms and 15% male-managed farms.
    

  - Lack of access to external inputs embedded in the technology

• Unavailability of technology i.e. improved seed or lack of cash to purchase
• Female managed farms accounted for 68% of all the farms that were not using pesticides. The non-adopters, who knew about the pesticides cited lack of cash and high cost of pesticides as the main reasons for non-use.

-Technology not fitting with existing cultural practices i.e. planting legumes in rows not easy to weed with their traditional implement.

- Poor quality, processing difficulties, and varied taste made majority of farmers keep away from improved seed and opt for indigenous seed instead. As extension methods, field days and demonstrations were not reaching most small-scale women farmers who find venue and timing inappropriate.

Impact of HIV/AIDS

AIDS will reduce life expectancy by 17 years in nine Sub-Saharan countries, the 1999 World Development Report says (World Bank, 1999). By 2010, for Kenya it will have dropped to 47 years from 64. Other countries are, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, for which AIDS has become a disease of the poor. As it so happens, women are carrying the brunt of it all as caregivers and also by constituting the main productive force upon whom an increasingly helpless mass depends.

Edward Schuh (Sasakawa Africa Association, 1997) argues that food security is primarily an issue of poverty, and one inclined to agree with him. He argues that famine sets in because when an economy collapses, income generating capacity collapses with it. In the Kenyan context one would like to add that agriculture (and a large chunk of it is food production) is synonymous with "economy". Productivity is affected by HIV/AIDS and it is not surprising that not only is absolute (hard) poverty a concern, but even much worse is food poverty. The situation being precipitated by HIV/AIDS has now reached a crisis level and must be addressed in a most forceful way by all sectors of the Kenyan society.

Targeting Women in Agricultural Development: Western Kenya

The most important cashcrop in Western Kenya is sugarcane. Sugarcane production has in itself affected women in their traditional role of food providers. Women usually undertake agriculture to address household food security. However, their main concern is availability of food because women are expected to put food on the table, or in front of the family. Traditionally, it was the prerogative of men to bring food to the house to be prepared by women. The food men used to bring home was hunted in the wild, but this is no longer feasible as hunting is no longer done, at least not on any reasonable scale.

Women now have resorted to cultivation which continues to be alien to men except where it is commercialized. When soil and rain were dependable, farming for women was a bit manageable. However with the weather pattern becoming increasingly unpredictable, women are finding it difficult to provide their families with food. Additionally, wild fruits and vegetables that were easily available and could be relied on as snack and during off season are now disappearing items. Land demarcation is a new phenomenon, and has blocked access of wild food and medicinal products by those who do not own land that possesses such products.

With demarcation of land and clearance of forests, land holdings are shrinking while productivity continues to drop. The external inputs required to make land more productive are expensive and way beyond the reach of most smallscale farmers. In the sugar belt, agriculture has been commercialized and monetarized. Men simply collect the money paid for the cash crop and women are denied access to it. What women receive from their husband is too little to satisfy family food needs.

The way sugarcane income is handled in this area is perfect example of woman and child abuse, where men sign contracts and collect the money for sugarcane which was worked on by their wives and children. The man of the house having collected the money is under no legal requirement to be accountable to his family. Usually, he squanders it elsewhere with impunity, leaving the family hungry, impoverished and with children staying away from school for lack of fees. When women question the behaviour, they get abused; and consequently, cases of domestic violence are very much on the rise now. Village courts which are dominated by men have been left to handle domestic disputes and it is not difficult to guess the common scenario and outcomes. Constraints women face must be understood in both cultural and economic contexts.

A recent study employing Rapid Rural Appraisal methodology on the food situation in the sugarcane growing area (Mutua, 1999) has shown that MOCO (Mumias Outgrowers Co-operative) gives out certain agricultural packages to enhance household food security. These come in form of improved dairy cattle, fertilizer and seed. Again, all these go to men. So the cow comes to the home as the man's cow, he controls it and also controls the income that comes through milk sales. The women and the children assist in the care of the animals, for example, collecting fodder and milking. It is also the women who collect the cow dung for various uses.

The tragedy of this area is the fact that there is abject poverty in the midst of so much richness and immense potential for not only food production but industrial growth. When there is widespread serious food deficit in the country, a large chunk of Western Province is not considered because it falls within the "bread basket" of the country. Yet poverty indicators show the Mumias sugar zone to contain some of the poorest households in the country.

Way back in 1987, a study (Oniang'o et al., 1987) showed sugarcane farmers' main expenditure items to be food which took up 50% of the income and school fees taking up 20.93%. At the time, there was virtual absence of sheep and goats, and grade cattle. There was also low use of fertilizer in food production. There have been some changes as has been seen in that: the company is assisting farmers to purchase grade cattle and even fertilizer for use on food crops. Without proper monitoring, this scheme to address household food deficit is clearly being abused.

The Mumias Project, an action research project based in one sublocation in the sugarcane zone of Western Kenya (previously Kakamega District) saw a drop in the number of households that were involved in agriculture as the primary economic activity from 40% to 27% in 4 years, between 1992 and 1996 (Owuor et al., 1997). A number of reasons could be attributed for this, one of which is that extension services by government technical workers have stalled badly. Overall, agricultural service support declined from 76 to 3 in the same period, for the same area, amongst the households which were interviewed.

Surprisingly though, kitchen garden ownership increased considerably from 60% to 97% in some villages. However, kitchen gardens in themselves cannot satisfy household food needs. Major disruptions in sugarcane(the main cashcrop and which occupies more than two thirds of land under cultivation) income flow have continued. Local attitudes and practices that influence household livelihoods have not changed and if anything, have been hardened.

Since 1974, sugarcane has been produced on one of Kenya's most productive soils and yet there is little the community has to show for it in terms of economic gains. There is not much evidence of improved housing or schools, or even health centres/hospitals, or roads, except those aspects which are handled directly by the Mumias Sugar Company. There are many interior areas which are not reached by company services because they are not within the outgrowers' scheme. There are primary schools, and dispensaries which are supported by the company but these are open to people from outside as well. While only roads used by the company are maintained by them, these are all earth roads which often become impassable during heavy torrential rains which this area is well known for.

Company policy continues as usual. Men sign up the land for sugarcane, and get embroiled in a contract which legally extends over a minimum of 6 years (3 cycles of two years each of sugarcane production). Men continue to take loans from the company and elsewhere on this sugarcane, men receive the cash whatever little there might be left while women and children toil on the sugarcane farms and also on food plots. The result is truly a cycle of poverty and apathy.

The company has allowed intercropping with legumes such as soybeans and ordinary beans. Traditionally, beans are a woman's crop and so when ordinary beans are planted, the women weed them as they weed the sugarcane and so can harvest them. When soybeans are planted, however, the harvest goes to the company and the income given to the men as in the case of sugarcane.

In Western Kenya, women have been targeted through groups to enhance and improve their role in agriculture. For whatever it is worth, women form groups, men do not. Rural Outreach Program (ROP), an NGO in Butere/Mumias District encourages and supports women in agriculture, in an attempt to improve household food security. For example, women are assisted to engage in organic farming because it is cost-effective. By using manure generated out of keeping animals, women are able to increase their food yields. Indigenous vegetables production is being promoted, and livestock rearing at the same time, for both food and manure generation. Chemical fertilizers are quite expensive but organic farming is affordable. Needless to say, these farmers are likely to benefit as the demand for organically grown products picks up among the elite.

Extension services are rather poor and need attention. For example, one can easily observe the farmers in this area and notice that their food crops are not doing as well as those of the at Bukura Institute of Agriculture next door. The World Bank which has always funded agricultural research and extension has, since about 3 years ago, stopped funding extension. Further, donors have shifted their support to NGOs, both local and international, and as a result there has been a mushrooming of NGOs, many of whom do not have the capacity to do even a fraction of what the government used to do in its better days. Some of these are referred to as briefcase NGOs. A partnership arrangement between government and NGOs has been forced onto the development arena, and indeed down the throat of government which very much resents this donor "arrogance". In this arrangement, the government provides technical expertise which assists in part, while the NGOs provide facilitation funds which have been granted them by donors.

The Indigenous Vegetable Project in Butere Division of Western Province, Kenya

There are seven well-known indigenous vegetables in this community, all of which are green leafy and, therefore, rich in beta-carotene. As Executive Director of the Rural Outreach Program (ROP), and a resident of this community, the author noticed that activities related to the whole movement cycle of these vegetables was somewhat haphazard, right from production, through marketing to consumption. At planting time, seeds were not readily available as the vegetables have not all been domesticated. Proper crop husbandry has not been practised. Women pack green vegetables in gunny bags to put on a 24 hour railroad journey to the capital city, Nairobi, where at least half of them are discarded having spoilt. Funding was sought from the JJ Trust in the United Kingdom to streamline operations in this activity.

Research support was sought from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Regional Centre in Kakamega, to work with farmers on their farms, together with a joint group of government extension officers and enthusiastic local mobilizers. The first field day on indigenous vegetables held in the division registered more than 300 individual farmers, about ten times as many as the Ministry of Agriculture are used to receiving when they organize their own field day.

What are the achievements so far?

1. Farmers and consumers in the area value these vegetables and are restoring them in their diets before they even begin to export them to outside markets.

2. Beta-carotene consumption is improving in the region, but more importantly, older consumers are happy for a return of these vegetables because of their perceived intrinsic or medicinal value.

3. Farmers are now able to plant these vegetables in rows and to apply local manure.

4. A seed bank in its very early stages has been started.

The idea of holding a field day at one of the mobilizers' home brought in many local farmers because they saw him as one of them - simple and ordinary. The field day was hosted by a women's group engaged in indigenous vegetables production. The participation of women in this field day was high. There clearly are lessons to be learnt from this approach.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

It appears that for sometime to come, many African countries will continue to rely on agriculture as their main source of livelihood. There is still immense potential in agriculture for development.

It also appears that the logical route towards industrialization for Africa is via agriculture but this will not be automatic. A move from rhetoric to action will do Africa a lot of good. Realizing who the real farmer is and extending appropriate support to them would be a step in the right direction. Clearly, existing systems and structures: credit schemes, co-operatives, technologies, and indeed policies have not served women well. A repackaging of these support systems and structures to suit women, and men as well, is important.

Parallel to these efforts, there should be a design of innovative ways to bring men into agriculture. It truly does not make sense to go on believing that Africa's food security situation will turn around without meaningful male involvement. Continuing to heap burdens on women is not the answer.

African women have more than proved their worth and this needs to be brought up-front. Women's roles continue to be documented and in a lot of circumstances policies have been formulated. However, the implementation side is still wanting while the area of attitudes and deep rooted cultural norms and practices still constitute real hindrance to the way forward.

Cases of violence, both physical and emotional, against women are on the increase. At the same time, the now endemic AIDS scourge is putting enormous stress on women. These additional burdens on women demand an easing of current loads on them by, amongst other things promoting time and energy saving technologies at the household level. Finally and most importantly, real commitment is required that brings women into the decision making ranks, thus enhancing their visibility and stature. Needless to say women themselves must make deliberate efforts to support each other.

The issue of land holding size certainly needs to be addressed. Ever since independence, Kenya has relied on subsistence farmers to sustain food security. It is clear now that that is no longer a viable strategy. Land pieces have become too small for economic viability and consolidation into bigger farms will soon be inevitable. Major land reform measures are in the offing and the document that contains relevant recommendations has been shelved for the time being because of the sensitivity of land ownership in Kenya. Big farms should be able to do well enough to attract hired labour while family labour is engaged elsewhere - but it is that "elsewhere" that is the problem. There is an urgent need to promote agro-industry to support increased agricultural productivity and certainly women would be key players in this sector. If land consolidation were taken up as a government policy, then the issue of selfish men selling family land, which may be the only viable family asset, without the consent of other family members would no longer be an issue.

In the current state of affairs, there are two main windows of opportunity for women in farming communities. One is the area of livestock rearing and the other tree and fodder planting. Where the donor community has supported women to acquire livestock such as dairy animals, this has on the whole boosted women's status. Men feel proud of this because of the visibility it gives their families, they contribute their labour towards it and they enjoy the milk. The mechanism used to introduce the animal sensitizes both the woman and her husband to receive it as a family project, and to emphasize care which the women alone cannot provide. This line is worth pursuing for all types of livestock although cattle have prime value. This is a project that not only improves family incomes but also empowers women.

The other area, one of tree planting, involves fast growing trees and fodder. As the demand for fodder increases because of increased livestock keeping, so does the opportunity to grow it for income generation even by households which do not have livestock. Tree planting was prohibited for women most likely because some trees outlive people thus implying permanence. However, there are many species of trees which grow fast now and within 3 to 4 years they are ready for use. These are the types of trees, in addition to fruit trees, which women can get involved with. Involving women in tree and fodder growing would keep them close to natural resources which they value so much.

Development workers should strive to look for these types of opportunities through which they can help effect change without "rocking the boat". Attempts should be made to pursue avenues which do not threaten men or the status quo as any provocative steps only make things worse for women.

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1 One US$ _ Kenya Shillings 70.