World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 88

The Negative Side of the Agricultural–Nutrition Impact Pathways: A Literature Review

women in managing production factors
and incomes, or which free up some of
their time, help to improve the nutrition.
Conversely, a reduction in decisionmaking power or an increase in workload
carries risks for nutrition. Few references
enable us to gauge the size of those risks,
but the fact that they are reported many
times indicates that particular attention
needs to be paid to them.

rice production in northern Cameroon,
for example, obliged women to work in
plots managed by their husbands, but
they were able to negotiate an income at a
rate based on the opportunity cost of their
labor (Jones 1986).
• Increased workload for women

S

ome ADIs entail a much greater
workload for women, to the detriment
of the time devoted to child care, breast
feeding, and food preparation: faster
preparation methods, less nutritional
meals, or even fewer meals (Masset et
al. 2012; Jones et al. 2012). For example,
vegetable-based meals that can provide
vitamin A often take time to prepare.
For example, in Burkina Faso, in the
large hydro-agricultural schemes of the
Sourou region, female labor is one of the
factors that explains why wasting is more
frequent in households depending on
those schemes than in other households
(see also risk 5). In the Bagré region,
women practicing market gardening—
primarily a female activity—have one
hour and thirty minutes less to take care
of their children and two hours less to
rest than those not involved in market
gardening (Parent et al. 2002).

The workload of mothers is also
a risk for their own health and nutrition,
and those of their children, particularly
during pregnancy or breast feeding.
For example, Lima et al. (1999) showed
that an excessive agricultural workload
throughout pregnancy had a direct impact
on infant birth weights.
Mechanization
can
have
ambivalent effects on work sharing
within households and on nutrition: a
positive impact by lessening the workload

• Increased marginalization of women in
decision making

A

s certain commercial crops are
often in the hands of men, ADIs
that encourage them may lead to women
being marginalized in decisions relative
to production and income use, and
may therefore entail risks for nutrition.
Agricultural extension projects are often
targeted at men and tend to side-line
women, who are penalized due to a lack of
sufficient capacities (education, access to
credit, etc.). For example, the introduction
of irrigated rice production unbalanced
gender relations in favor of men in the
twentieth century in Senegambia (Carney
and Watts 1991). The exclusion of women
from management of the fields and crops
for which they were previously in charge
of, while remaining responsible for
children and food, carried risks for family
nutrition. In East Zambia, the adoption
of hybrid maize was accompanied by
a reduction in the power of women to
make production decisions, and by a
nutritional risk (Kumar and Siandwazi
1994). However, the fact that commercial
crops are mainly managed more by men
does not systematically mean that the
decision-making power of women is
reduced. The introduction of irrigated
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