Gender Differentials and Agricultural Productivity in Niger

Backiny-Yetna, Prospere ; McGee, Kevin

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO LAND;    ACCESS TO MARKETS;    ACCESS TO SERVICES;    ACCOUNTING;    CHILD CARE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7199
RP-ID  :  WPS7199

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Most of the poor in Sub-Saharan Africalive in rural areas where agriculture is the main incomesource. This agriculture is characterized by low performanceand its productivity growth has been identified as a keydriver of poverty reduction. In Niger, as in many otherAfrican countries, productivity is even lower among femalepeasants. To build policy interventions to improveagricultural productivity among women, it is important tomeasure the potential gap between men and women andunderstand the determinants that explain the gap. This paperuses the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methodology at theaggregate and detailed levels to identify the factors thatexplain the productivity gap. The analysis finds that inNiger on average plots managed by women produce 19 percentless per hectare than plots managed by men. It also findsthat the gender gap tends to be widest among Niger'smost productive farmers. The primary factors that contributeto the gender productivity gap in Niger are: (i) farm labor,with women facing significant challenges in accessing,using, and supervising male farm labor; (ii) the quantityand quality of fertilizer use, with men using more inorganicfertilizer per hectare than women; and (iii) land ownershipand characteristics, with men owning more land and enjoyinghigher returns to ownership than women.