Want Better Productivity? Empower Women, ICAC Says
May 1, 2013 Given the ever-increasing speed of modern business, it’s easy to think of cotton as an inanimate product. People grow it, gin it, buy it, sell it, ship it, and spin it, with each group focused carefully on their particular role in the value chain.
But the fiber is so much more than a simple commodity; it impacts hundreds of millions of people around the world – many of whom depend on the crop for their very lives. That is most often the case in developing countries, where family members must take on any role they can to help their families survive.
The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) will shine a light on those shifting roles during its 72nd Plenary Meeting, which will be held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4. With the theme, “Emergent Challenges Facing the Cotton Value Chain,” ICAC’s fourth open session will specifically address the role of women in the cotton value chain.
“While men are the heads of households in the majority of situations, women provide most of the manual labor used in smallholder cotton production, including planting, controlling weeds, and harvesting,” says Terry Townsend, ICAC executive director. “However, women often lack access to inputs, credit, extension services and markets. The Fourth Open Session will complement the session on young entrepreneurs and will provide an opportunity to discuss the role of women in cotton, how their welfare can be improved, and how cotton production could be increased if women are given greater resources with which to operate farms.”
Improving productivity, increasing efficiency and facilitating better welfare outcomes by reducing the gap in resource availability between men and women is a strong message of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s State of Food and Agriculture 2010–2011: Women in Agriculture—Closing the Gender Gap for Development (FAO 2011).
As Townsend points out, “Quisumbing et al. (2012) argue that closing the gender gap in assets — allowing women to own and control productive assets — both increases women’s productivity and increases their self-esteem.
“A woman who is empowered to make decisions regarding what to plant and what (and how many) inputs to apply on her plot will be more productive in agriculture. An empowered woman will also be better able to ensure her children’s health and nutrition because she is able to take care of her own physical and mental well-being (see Smith et al. [2003] and studies reviewed therein). Various studies have shown that reducing gender gaps is key to achieving many different development objectives,” he concludes.
For more information, and to register for ICAC’s 72nd Plenary Meeting, please visit the ICAC Web site.
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