Gender in Agriculture : an Asian Perspective

Abstract

The increasing number of women who are joining the agricultural work force in Asia has underscored the urgency of making agricultural policy,research and extension more gender sensitive. This article attempts to present the realities of women's involvement in, and contribution to, the agricultural sector by an analysis of the gender roles in Asian agriculture and by building a profile of farming women by highlighting their agricultural workload, task range, wage disparity and role intricacies. Through a review of agricultural policies and programmes it attempts to bring out the inherent gender blindness and male orientation in policy development, research and extension undertakings, tracing the roots of such gender biases to attitudinal, conceptual, and methodological limitations. It is suggested that both macro and micro level information be synthesized into a database to sensitize policy makers and programmes to gender issues in agriculture.