Agri-Gender Statistics Toolkit

This free online database, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States (FAO), aims to support and encourage the use of sex-disaggregated agricultural data in development projects. It was developed as a direct response to the growing needs of development professionals for a tool to improve the production of reliable sex-specific agricultural data needed for targeted policy formulation and effective planning of agricultural and rural development. It presents examples of gender relevant questions, questionnaires and tables that can be adapted and implemented. Sex-disaggregated agricultural data can be used to highlight economic, social and political differences between male and female farmers and to assess the impact of these differences on production and productivity. This data can also be used to better understand and recognise men and women’s (changing) roles and responsibilities related to the agricultural sector, rural development and food security. 

The database is a compilation of gender-sensitive agricultural censuses conducted in the following countries: Benin (forthcoming), Botswana (1993), Burkina Faso (1993), Côte d’Ivoire (2000/2001), Ethiopia (2001/2002), The Gambia (2001), Guinea (2000/2001), Mali (1999/2000), Mauritania (2003/2004), Niger (2004 – 2006), Senegal (1998/1999), Tanzania (2002/2003), Togo (1996), Tunisia (1995) and Uganda (2003). It has been structured around nine data items considered essential for gender specific analysis of the agricultural sector:

• Agricultural population and households
• Access to productive resources
• Production and productivity
• Destination of agricultural produce
• Labour and time-use
• Income and expenditures
• Membership of agricultural/farmer organisations
• Food security
• Poverty indicators

Data items 1, 2, 3 and 5 represent minimum data requirements needed to adequately reflect the roles and responsibilities of men and women farmers in the agricultural sector. Collection of sex-disaggregated data on data items 4, 6, 7 and 8 are considered essential for planning efforts relating to food security and poverty reduction and for advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women. This data is crucial for measuring achievements made with regard to the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally set development targets.