Document Abstract
Published:
1 Nov 2010
Transforming gender in homestead food production
In Bangladesh, Helen Keller International (HKI) is known for its homestead food production (HFP) programme, which promotes small-scale agriculture among women, specifically to improve women's and children's nutrition outcomes. To achieve these aims, the programme focuses on women's empowerment. This article presents some of the challenges and opportunities involved in a programme in which gender equity is recognised as a social justice goal in itself, as well as a foundation for nutrition and food security gains.
Women’s limited control over economic resources, exclusion from household decisions and restricted mobility in some cases, are all factors which contribute to unequal allocation of food within households and women's poor nutritional status, especially during food shortages. HKI’s HFP programme was introduced to Bangladesh two decades ago, providing an integrated package of home gardening, small livestock production, and nutrition education, for women with limited land. However the programme did not challenge gender norms within farming and food production until recently. For example, the agricultural training component was delivered by all-male field staff, while nutrition education was delivered by all-female staff. Also the central coordinating role, Village-level Model Farmer (VMF), was usually given to a man, as the role required possession of a sizeable land plot. HKI has since worked to challenge unequal gender norms within agriculture programmes and transform understandings of women food producers’ capabilities, needs, and rights. These changes have supported women's empowerment, they include:
Women’s limited control over economic resources, exclusion from household decisions and restricted mobility in some cases, are all factors which contribute to unequal allocation of food within households and women's poor nutritional status, especially during food shortages. HKI’s HFP programme was introduced to Bangladesh two decades ago, providing an integrated package of home gardening, small livestock production, and nutrition education, for women with limited land. However the programme did not challenge gender norms within farming and food production until recently. For example, the agricultural training component was delivered by all-male field staff, while nutrition education was delivered by all-female staff. Also the central coordinating role, Village-level Model Farmer (VMF), was usually given to a man, as the role required possession of a sizeable land plot. HKI has since worked to challenge unequal gender norms within agriculture programmes and transform understandings of women food producers’ capabilities, needs, and rights. These changes have supported women's empowerment, they include:
- Eliminating land size as a requirement for the Village-level Model Farmer role enabling women to take on this important role, acting as a positive role model to other women. However there is a need to address the unequal division of labour burdening women with most domestic and care responsibilities, which limit women's full participant
- The introduction of 'group marketing' initiates where women every week women bring together whatever surplus they have and a vendor takes the bulk to larger markets has provided women with regular cash payments for the produce at an established price.
